Monday Motivation #99

Happy Monday!

My youngest kid came home Friday and announced that he wanted to participate in the science fair at his elementary school. He asked if I’d help him make a poster to submit, and commented that he was looking forward to the certificate and small prize all participants would get (plus the chance to enter a drawing for larger prize baskets). He said that everyone got a prize, even if their project wasn’t good — so maybe he didn’t need to try very hard. Of course, that attitude doesn’t get you very far when your parents have PhDs in STEM! I told my kiddo that I expected him to put forth his best effort, and that I’d help him figure out a project that could be completed quickly (because, of course, the posters were due to school this morning!).

We brainstormed ideas about things he was interested in knowing, and then narrowed down the list to projects that could be accomplished in an hour or two with materials that we already had at home. We settled on an experiment to see if rolling dice on different surfaces produces different results. Frankly, it’s been awhile since I had to set up a physical experiment, so it took some trial and error before we figured out how to create a reasonably consistent starting state so that the key variable would be the landing surface. We made observations, and recorded data, and created some tables, and determined that his hypothesis wasn’t supported by the facts: he thought that hard, smooth surfaces would produce “a lot of bouncing” and that would mean more variation in the numbers that were rolled; instead, we found that the soft surfaces (whether smooth or rough) created the most variation.

It turned out to be a fun way to spend a few hours with my kid (and a good way to learn that Instacart will bring tri-fold boards and poster letters right to your door!). His older siblings were inspired, so my high schooler helped my fourth grader construct a project comparing the speeds of different types of toy cars. They will get to explain their posters to their classmates this week, and we’ll all go to the family science night on Thursday to explore other projects and try some hands on activities together.

While science has its own rewards, the chance to earn prizes can be pretty motivating too — even for graduate students! Last week at the Symposium we handed out more than $25,000 in awards for research and poster presentations, and students were able to discuss their work with industry partners, researchers, and faculty from across campus. The Breslin Center was brimming with innovation, and the chance to connect in-person after so many months apart was a reward by itself. When you’re in the midst of a complicated project or trudging through the process of writing your dissertation, it can be hard to remember that what you’re working on has world-changing potential. Sometimes our individual contributions seem small, but together we are discovering and creating and advancing knowledge.

This week, I’m sharing some inspirational stories and resources to help remind us of the best parts of our profession.

Katy

Three Things to Try This Week

Connect — one of my favorite things about poster sessions is the opportunity to learn about a lot of different projects, and to see how the different work intersects and connects. This article suggests some ways to seek out new ideas and create connections across disciplines.

Celebrate — engineering is awesome! Check out some of the most notable innovations here.

Challenge — taking a break for a puzzle or game can be great for your physical and mental health, and can help foster more flexible and creative thinking. Have fun with these brain teasers for engineers.

More Resources

• Have a final defense planned this summer? EGR 993 is available in Summer 2022 for students with a **scheduled** final defense (as in, a specific date and time have been agreed upon by your committee). A tuition scholarship is available for this 1-credit class for students who do not have GA funding in the summer. Learn more and request enrollment here: https://sites.google.com/msu.edu/egr993/home
• Want to improve your technical writing skills? EGR 891 002 in Fall 2022 is a great option! Check your email for a message from Debjani Sarkar about this popular and helpful class.
• Enrollment for Fall 2021 is now open. Log in to the new student information system (student.msu.edu) to plan your schedule and register for classes.