2023 Writing Contest: Better Great Achievements

The 2023 EngineerGirl Writing Contest invited students to write a piece that shows how female and/or non-white engineers have contributed to or can enhance engineering’s great achievements.

Read the Winning Essays!

Grade Level Specifications   |   Deadline   |   Judging & Prizes

For most of the 20th century, popular culture discouraged most women and minorities from participating in science and engineering careers. Those that defied tradition made valuable – sometimes historic – contributions to projects that shaped our world today.

The 20th century was a time of staggering technological change.

In just 100 years humanity not only achieved powered flight for the first time, but also travelled to the moon. Not only was the first trans-Atlantic signal between radio towers received, but so was the first electronic mail message sent between computers. We designed ways to mass-produce cars and trucks, and built a vast system of highways, bridges and tunnels on which to drive them.

The list of 20th century engineering achievements is long and impressive. Unfortunately, not everyone benefited from them, and some of their long term-impacts have led to new problems.

Climate change and other 21st century challenges will demand new and innovative approaches. To find the best solutions, engineering will need the unique experiences and diverse perspectives that women and minorities can provide.

To Enter the Contest

Choose one of the 20 Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century as a topic. Explore the technologies that were developed in the last century and the new ones being developed today. Make sure to follow the specific guidelines for your grade level.

Elementary School (grades 3-5)

Write a short story which celebrates the contribution(s) of a woman and/or non-white engineer. You may choose one of three options to center your story:

1. Tell the story of a historical engineer who contributed to one of the 20 Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century (may be realistic fiction, but should describe the actual contribution accurately).
2. Imagine how technology might be different had women and non-white individuals been given the opportunity to work as engineers, and create a fictional story that celebrates the contribution(s) a woman and/or non-white engineer could have made (realistic fiction).
3. Imagine a modern engineer working to improve on the technology of the past to make the world a better place, and create a realistic fiction story about her life and contribution. Highlight the way her unique perspective helps her to see things differently (realistic fiction).

Elementary school student stories must be no more than 650 words.

Middle School (grades 6-8)

Write a short essay in which you recognize the contribution(s) of a woman and/or non-white engineer. In your essay you should:

1. Recognize the contribution(s) of a woman and/or non-white engineer to one of the 20 Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century, or to more recent improvements to one of those achievements.
2. Imagine how new innovations in the field will be different as more women and non-white engineers are involved in designing solutions.
3. Use a specific example from your own experience or community to express the importance of different perspectives, and explain how diverse engineers can lead to better solutions.

Middle school student essays must be no more than 700 words. You may also include a reference list of up to 5 resources, but this is not required. Each resource should be listed using the APA citation style. The reference list does not count toward your essay's word count.

High School (grades 9-12)

Write a short essay in which you:

1. Imagine how new innovations related to one of the 20 Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century will be different as more women and non-white engineers are involved in designing solutions.
2. Use a specific example from your own experience or community to express the importance of different perspectives, and explain how diverse engineers can lead to better solutions.
3. Identify how a technology related to the selected achievement may have affected one group of people differently than another, and speculate about how an engineer from this group might approach the problem differently than has been done in the past.
4. Provide an example of how diverse engineering teams in the 21st century have created, or are working to create, better solutions to the same problems engineers “solved” in the last century.

High school student essays must be no more than 750 words. You must also include a reference list of 3-10 resources. Each resource should be listed using the APA citation style. The reference list does not count toward your essay's word count.

More tips on how to write a winning entry can be found in the complete rules & regulations.

Entries can be submitted via the
Online Submission Form*

by February 1, 2023 at 11:59pm EST.

 

* Those with unreliable or slow internet connections may request a fill-in PDF Form that can be completed offline and submitted via email.  These forms must also be received via email prior to the deadline above.