SWE Overseas tackles Outreach Day 1

Hello Everyone!

Sorry for the delay in updating my blog, but this is what occurred on Monday (our first day in Walchandnagar doing outreach for students at Bharat Children's Academy and Junior College, Walchandnagar). Today was the day that we have all been waiting for- a chance to meet and engage with the students and teachers of the school in India. At this summer camp that SWE at the University of Michigan conducts, there are ~80 students (male and female), from middle and high school. Upon our arrival we were warmly greeted with individual red flowers with golden glitter, as we walked in single-file through the students on either side of us clapping a welcoming beat. Naturally a photo session ensued, but following this we were briefly introduced to all the teachers and then went into the main room where we gave an introduction to engineering and began every college student's favorite thing is...ICEBREAKERS! (sarcasm if it was hard to read) We did a few activities that broke students into small groups between 5-8 students so we could become familiar to the hobbies and attributes students in India have, in addition to learning student names. Many hobbies that students had were quite similar to those of US students, but a few were unique:

• Sports: soccer (football), basketball, tennis, and cricket were all sports mentioned by male students; volleyball and badminton were female sports  
• Artistic hobbies: photography and painting
• Other hobbies: exploring nature, riding bikes, watching TV

Lastly we did the Human Knot exercise where essentially hands and arms get crossed within the group and form a giant knot and without disconnecting hands, the group has to work together to untangle (by lifting arms over head, jumping over hands, twisting around, etc.). Everyone did very well with these exercises and it was really interesting to see how similar our societies really are.

The first engineering activity of the day was called "Rubber Meets the Road" where students learned about hydroplaning and how to design tire tread to prevent this. In this activity, students were given clay and had to divert as much water from the center of the tire so tire tread could remain in contact with the road. The students were very eager to learn and complete this challenge. Some of the interesting differences between students here in India vs the US were:

• Individual designing was difficult- students really wanted to discuss how to come up with a design together vs starting individually and then coming together to discuss all the ideas developed
• "Failure" or non-perfection was difficult to convince students it is okay and the purpose of engineering is to re-design, so each iteration the goal is to do better and being perfect the 1st time isn't the goal

Then we did an "Effective Communication" activity where students worked in pairs and either described a drawing they made or tried to draw what was described to them. This activity was really cool to see how different people describe their drawings and how shared experiences can really effect the ability for people to effectively communicate a message to one another.

After lunch, SWE went back to the school and met with the teachers (students went home for the day) and we learned about the many religions in India. Our discussion spanned from Indian religions to US religions to the connection between religion and politics in India. Naturally this conversation somehow spiraled into a conversation about US Politics, Election 2016, and Trump... It took so long for Trump to come up...not! :)

Following our day of outreach we went home to the guest house. Within an hour, a huge rainstorm hit the town and knocked out the power for a few hours. It actually was quite fun because while the AC and wi-fi wasn't working anymore, a group of us decided to run out onto the patio and sing and dance in the rain/downpour! We had our own little dance-party; after all, when it pours in India, dance like nobody is watching/ you don't care when the neighbors walk out and are TOTALLY watching us dance...lols this actually totally happened.