Two of the Three Little Pigs Really Needed These Children
BY-THE-BOOK POTENTIAL ENGINEERS BrainSTEM Alliance founder D’Andre Wilson-Ihejirika, P.Eng., (centre), Wood Buffalo Regional Library staff, and a whole bunch of READesign individuality and potential share their joy with the camera in Fort McKay. READesign lets kids design solutions to the challenges faced by storybook characters.
With support from the APEGA Foundation, a program called READesign taps into the power of a good story — while introducing children to solutions-based engineering
If her life so far were a storybook, becoming a Professional Engineer would be quite a stretch. After all, as a girl growing up in Nassau, Bahamas, D’Andre Wilson-Ihejirika, P.Eng., had limited exposure to career possibilities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Take, for example, READesign, an initiative she started in Alberta. READesign captures the imaginations of young girls and boys by combining storytelling, literature, and hands-on experiences in engineering. But in the Bahamas, none of that was going on. “There were zero opportunities like this
when I was growing up,” Ms. Wilson-Ihejirika says. With support from the APEGA Foundation (formerly the APEGA Education Foundation), she has helped make READesign programs possible in Fort McMurray, Fort McKay, and High River. More are planned for Alberta, and other organizations from across the country are looking at replicating READesign or doing something similar. An article about a program called Novel Engineering inspired Ms. Wilson-Iherjirika to create READesign. The program, at Tufts University Center for Engineering Education and Outreach in Medford, Massachusetts,
40 | PEG WINTER 2017
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