The Kansas City Section of the Society of Women Engineers Raceways Project


Construction started on Saturday, Feb. 6, 1999 and continued every Saturday and a few evenings into May. The exhibit was constructed in a corner of the Wonderscope gymnasium. Since the museum is open during those hours the construction site was a living exhibit during the course of the project. The successful Grand Opening occurred on schedule June 11-12, 1999.

Raceways II is coming in 2000. The volunteers who worked on this project\par had so much fun that they are planning on building two more stations next winter. The local ASME and SWE Kansas City Sections will raise money in partnership with the Wonderscope Museum to pay for materials.

NEW PHOTOS!

 

The Kansas City Section of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) was awarded a grant from the SWE national organization through a program funded by the Exxon Education Foundation. The grant will fund building an exhibit for the Wonderscope Children’s Museum of Shawnee Kansas with the Kansas City Section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME.) The target audience of Wonderscope is children ages 3 to 12.

The Wonderscope exhibit is a hands-on interactive exhibit called Raceways. The Raceways exhibit will be a series of tracks where children roll golf balls through different configurations called the Spiral, the Ski Jump, and the Roller Coaster. The basis of the exhibit is gravitational physics which demonstrates the concepts of objects in motion including gravity, friction, and acceleration. Plans have been purchased from the Boston Children’s Museum.

The ASME Kansas City Section built a pulley exhibit for the Wonderscope Museum in 1992. The pulley exhibit is still in use at the museum and regarded as one of their three most memorable exhibits. That project was completely funded and built by ASME volunteers.

The announcement was made at the Membership Brunch at the SWE National Convention on June 20, 1998. The Exxon Education Foundation has given SWE $200,000.00 for three years for a total of $600,000.00. More than half of the contribution is given in support of the SWE Program Development Resource Fund The remainder of the grant is earmarked for SWE national purposes including new publications and web site/electronic media. The SWE Development Resource is available to all legitimate organizations of the Society of Women Engineers for projects or programs that support the goals of the Society and meet the necessary requirements. Money will be available to SWE Sections to carry on local Career Guidance, Continuing Development, Diversity, and other programs deemed appropriate.

Photos from 6 February 1999
Photos from construction during March 1999

Below are some photographs taken on Sept. 17, 1998 at the Wonderscope Children’s Museum where SWE-KC members reviewed the Raceways blue prints and other materials.

 

Caption: Jay Snyder, Director Jane Wilson, and Karen Gilbertson at Wonderscope Children’s Museum on Sept. 17, 1998. (Left to Right)


Caption: Sharon Lappin, Paralee Coleman, Shelley Wolff, Barbara Gray, and Elissa Bosley at Wonderscope Children’s Museum reviewing Raceways prints on Sept. 17, 1998. (Left to Right)