BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — When an Illinois Wesleyan University student asked 6-year-old Henry Larson how he would define science, he said, “Science is an explosion, like a volcano.”
While there were no volcanoes in the IDEA Center at IWU’s Memorial Center on April 12, Henry and his first grade peers from Corpus Christi Catholic School learned how to create 3D printed objects during the University’s MakerGirl Academy workshops.
MakerGirl is a national nonprofit dedicated to educating children in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) through workshops and training in 3D printing and other technologies. Each workshop is led by IWU student volunteers trained by MakerGirl to become ChangeMakers. Academy workshops have been offered to multiple groups of students from local elementary schools, providing a chance to visit campus and engage in hands-on learning facilitated by Titan ChangeMakers.
Neuroscience major Mansi Shah ‘25 is co-leader of the IWU MakerGirl Academy, which was established in 2022. Since its launch, Shah said the program has provided a dynamic STEM education to more than 260 Bloomington-Normal students on IWU’s campus. During the Corpus Christi visit, Shah was joined by fellow ChangeMakers Juanise Foster ‘25 and Narda Preciado ‘27 who led the first graders in an interactive STEM lesson before guiding them through the process of using 3D printing software TinkerCad to design a miniature plastic sculpture.
“I enjoy seeing the spark and creativity that young kids possess when it comes to creating their own 3D design. Being a guide to these students can help encourage and motivate their minds to dream big and bold. It's really amazing to see how they use their critical thinking to make their ideas come to life,” said Shah.
Seated at group tables in the IDEA Center, each first grader sketched out their ideas for 3D printed items — such as a mermaid, a goldfish and the Batmobile. Then they opened the provided laptops and began designing the items digitally in TinkerCad, with help from the ChangeMakers.
Foster joked with the young students, welcoming every creative idea and question.
"It brings me happiness knowing that we, as Changemakers, are instilling confidence in these young individuals that they will always remember. It is just very touching to see the smiles on these students' faces and engagement they exhibit while being in the sessions,” said Foster, a biology major.
Preciado, who is studying entrepreneurship, noted that for many of the young students, this might have been their first visit to a college campus.
“I had never been to a campus up until the summer before I started college,” she said. “As a kid, college seemed like such a far off idea. In reality, it wasn’t, and I hope they realize that, too.”
After the 3D items are printed, the ChangeMakers personally deliver the custom creations to each school.
“I hope these students know that we Changemakers are not that different from them when it comes to the excitement and happiness that it brings us to do these sessions,” said Preciado. “We do it for the students, and I hope they realize that none of this would be possible without their amazing creativity.”
The IWU MakerGirl Academy is the first of its kind at a liberal arts university. Academies have been established in the past at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University and The University of Texas at Austin.