1. Page 1 FEMMES Newsletter
FEMMES at the Univ. of Michigan, 3909 Michigan Union 530 S. State St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
http://femmes.studentorgs.umich.edu/
umich.femmes@gmail.com
FEMMES NEWSLETTER
To our FEMMES parents, principals, teachers,
volunteers, sponsors, and supporters,
Welcome to the first FEMMES at the University of
Michigan newsletter. This newsletter will be
published periodically so that all interested in
FEMMES can be informed about our recent events
as well as what is planned for the near future.
Because of the costs of printing and mailing, this
newsletter will only be electronic and will be
dispersed via email as well as online on our website
(http://femmes.studentorgs.umich.edu/) and Facebook
(https://www.facebook.com/femmesatuofmichigan).
Through photos and articles, our hope is that this
newsletter will highlight all the great events
FEMMES is able to put on in the community thanks
to the volunteers and the financial support from
grants and our incredible sponsors. In addition, we
hope this newsletter inspires more people to
become involved with FEMMES as participants,
volunteers, or sponsors in the future.
Welcome to FEMMES Newsletters
Fall Capstone Event
On Saturday, November 8th, FEMMES put on their
free, bi-annual capstone event. Capstones are a
special event for FEMMES. They bring in girls in
grades 3-8 from all over southeast Michigan to
the University of Michigan campus for a full day of
hands-on CS/STEM activities led by female faculty,
graduate students, and various student groups on
campus. The day kicks off with a keynote speaker
where the girls get to hear from a woman who
works in a CS/STEM field. They hear about the
exciting work the speaker does in their daily life,
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Welcome 1
FEMMES Fall Capstone 1
FEMMES History 2
After School Nights 2
Famous FEMMES 3
Take Home Activity 3
Sponsors and Announcements 5
the challenges and successes of the route that led
them to where they are, followed by some advice
to all the young girls in attendance. The girls then
leave for morning and afternoon sessions of
hands-on activities in small groups, with lunch
provided to all participants and volunteers in
between.
At this year’s fall capstone, we had nearly 160 girls
from at least 29 different schools and 15 different
hands-on activities. Each girl rotated through a
total of four different activities. While this means
Winter 2015
Volume 1, Issue 1
Please see Capstone on page 4
Our Mission
FEMMES (Females Excelling More in Math,
Engineering, and Science) is dedicated to closing
gender and racial divides in CS/STEM (Computer
Science/Science Technology Engineering and Math)
through hands-on activities led by female faculty,
graduate students, and undergraduate students.
Working specifically in diverse, under-served
communities, FEMMES creates a collaborative
environment that helps young girls build knowledge
and self-confidence in CS/STEM and exposes them
to great role models so that they may pursue their
dreams without hesitation.
Editor: Carrie Johnson

2. Page 2 FEMMES Newsletter
The FEMMES organization as a whole was founded in
2006 at Duke University by Vicki Weston with
additional chapters now found at the University of
North Carolina and Roanoke College. As a medical
student at the University of Michigan, Vicki Weston
started a FEMMES chapter here in 2011. Since then
we have grown in both volunteers and participants.
FEMMES has reached over 850 girls from over 40
schools and had hundreds of volunteers along the
way. Starting with only our Saturday day-long
capstones, FEMMES has grown to include after-
school STEM nights and community events at local
public libraries. We are looking to add some outdoor
summer events in the future! With all the success
FEMMES History
Beginning in the fall of 2013, FEMMES began
organizing after-school activity nights at schools
targeted for serving students from more diverse and
underrepresented backgrounds. This past fall,
FEMMES visited Estabrook Elementary, Erickson
Elementary, and Adams STEM academy.
The after-school activities included:
pH tie dye: Red cabbage juice is known as a great
kid-friendly pH indicator. Using paper towels
soaked in the cabbage juice and dried, the girls
“decorated” their paper towels with eye droppers full
of different household acids and bases such as
lemon juice and detergent.
Edible DNA: The structure and functional importance
of DNA was taught and then girls assembled their
After-School Nights
5th grade girl when asked, what
do you think of STEM?
“I imagine so much cool stuff, it
almost makes my head hurt.”
FEMMES has had, we have been endorsed by
state representative Adam Zemke, state senator
Rebekah Warren, and Gov. Rick Snyder, had
articles written in The Michigan Daily and MLive,
and have been featured on Stateside on
Michigan Public Radio.
own DNA out of licorice, and colored
marshmallows.
Magnetism and motors: Girls construct a small
electromagnet out of a nail, wire, and a battery
and learn about magnetism.
Molecular Relay: In teams of 3 girls, girls are
assigned with roles as DNA, RNA, or protein and
must relay the description of a picture seen by
girl “DNA” to girl “RNA” to girl “protein” to
replicate the image without seeing it. The girls
are then taught about the parallels to
transcription, translation and the central dogma.
By Kate Weskamp

3. Page 3FEMMES Newsletter
www.linkedin.com
Famous FEMMES: Kyla McMullen
Growing up in Maryland, Dr. Kyla McMullen’s path
towards computer science started with a love of
gadgets. After attending the University of Maryland,
Baltimore Country (UMBC) for undergrad, Dr.
McMullen came to the University of Michigan for
graduate school in Computer Science and
Engineering. In 2012, she became the first African
American woman at the U of M to graduate with a
Ph.D. in computer science.
According to a 2012 interview with the Computer
Science and Electrical Engineering Department at
UMBC, in addition to her interests in computer
science and spatial audio in virtual environments, Dr.
McMullen is also passionate about promoting the
sciences for minorities. Through her work leading
minority engineering groups and her openness to
serve as a resource to young girls, she is highly
aware of the importance of early role models,
mentors, and exposure to science in getting young
girls to pursue these fields. She credits a high school
Take FEMMES Home: Bringing STEM to the living room
Balloon Lungs
Supplies:
-2 balloons
-A clear plastic water bottle
-Scissors
-A thumbtack or something to poke a hole
Every time you breathe, you have physics to thank
for filling your lungs with air. With this activity you
and your child can watch Boyle’s Law (P1V1 = P2V2)
in action.
Getting Started:
1. Using the thumbtack, poke a hole in the
bottom of the water bottle. The hole only
computer science teacher for being an important
and relatable role model during those
impressionable high school years. Today, Dr.
McMullen works as an assistant professor at the
University of Florida Department of Computer and
Information Science and Engineering (UF CISE).
There, she is interested in developing projects to
apply virtual spatial audio to various areas such as:
virtual environments, assistive technology, data
sonification, and education.
needs to be about 0.5 centimeters wide.
2. Take one of the balloons and cut off the entire
neck of the balloon so that it resembles a tiny
swim cap.
3. Place the cut balloon on the bottom of the
water bottle to cover up the hole from step 1.
4. Take the other balloon (this one should not be
cut) and at the normal opening of the water
bottle, place the balloon inside the water bottle
while folding the neck of the balloon over the
opening.
5. See the diagram on page 4 to make sure you
bottle looks how it’s supposed to.
6. Pull on the balloon at the bottom of the water
Please see Balloon Lung on page 4
Continue hands-on STEM activities with your kids in your own home

4. Page 4 FEMMES Newsletter
that they don’t see all of them, it just provides
another reason to come back for another
capstone! The activities included:
- Alive with Heat: Shrinking Polymers
- The Magic of Assistive Technology: Speak with
Your Eyes and Type with Your Head
- States of Matter: Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream
- Physics and Astronomy
- Electronic Prosthetics and Brain Control
- How Does the Zebrafish Get its Stripes?
- What’s in a Lake? The Fascinating Critters
Hiding Beneath the Surface of our Lakes
- Candy Acid-Base Chemistry
- Exploring Light and Sound
- Light Chemistry
bottle and watch the balloon at the top.
7. Let go of the balloon and again watch the
balloon at the top of the water bottle.
What did you see happen to the top balloon?
Air is made up of a bunch of tiny particles called
molecules that constantly bump into each other
and into the walls of their containers. The
bumping of the molecules on the walls of the
water bottle creates a pressure on the inside of
the water bottle. The air molecules will take up
as much space as you give them. When you
pulled on the bottom balloon, you made more
space for the air molecules trapped inside the
water bottle to move around. This increase in
“space” is called an increase in “volume” in
physics. The increase in volume causes the air
molecules to bump into the walls of the water
bottle less, causing a decrease in the air pressure
inside the water bottle. Nature likes to make
sure everything is balanced, so in order to make
sure the pressure inside the bottle returns back
to how it was before, the volume inside the water
bottle needs to shrink again. To do this, the top
“I liked that I got to
work with materials
not usually used in
normal 6th grade
science, like dry ice,
and there were no
boys.”
- Radical Reptiles
- Lego Programming
- Rock ID
- Elephant Toothpaste
- Fun with Fluids
These activities covered the spectrum of STEM fields
and provided the girls with an interactive experience in
the same classrooms and labs that college STEM
students learn in. We could not put on so many
impressive activity rotations were it not for the many
amazing faculty and their students who come up with
the activities and run them. A big THANK YOU to all
those who donated their time and expertise!
balloon inflates and takes up
more space so that the volume
inside the bottle returns back
to how it was at the beginning.
This is similar to how our lungs
work.
In this experiment, the top
balloon is like one of your
lungs and bottom balloon is
like your diaphragm. Your
diaphragm is a muscle below
your lungs and above your
stomach. When you breathe in,
your diaphragm contracts,
causing the volume in your
chest cavity to increase. This
Capstone from page 1
Balloon Lung from page 3
decreases the pressure inside your chest cavity, so in
order to balance out the pressure, your lungs fill up
with air and allowing you to breathe. When you
exhale, your diaphragm relaxes and the volume of
your chest cavity decreases and increases the
pressure. To balance out the pressure, air is pushed
out of your lungs so that the volume inside your
chest cavity is small again.

5. Page 5FEMMES Newsletter
We could not do what we do without all of our financial sponsors! They help keep our events free and help us
continue to grow in the number of events we run and the number of young girls we reach. If you are a
sponsor of FEMMES as we do not have your logo, please email us and we will be sure to include that in future
newsletters. If you would like to become a sponsor of FEMMES either as an individual or as an organization or
company, please see how to donate on our website, http://femmes.studentorgs.umich.edu/. We owe it to all
of you who help make FEMMES possible and want to make STEM education for women a priority.
FEMMES Sponsors:
Announcements
Fundraisers:
 On Wednesday, Nov. 12th, FEMMES teamed up
with Pizza House of Ann Arbor to help raise
money for our FEMMES capstones and after
school activities. The event was a great
success, as we raised $188.42, and helps in
keeping all our events free. A big thank you
goes to Annie Minns on our executive board
for organizing the fundraiser.
 Check out our Facebook page for
announcements of future fundraisers
Partnerships:
 We are excited to announce our newest
partnership with the Inspire Her initiative as a
part of Gamestart. Gamestart is a local start-
up that introduces students to computer
programming using Minecraft.
Outreach Events:
 Our FEMMES Spring Capstone will occur on Saturday,
March 28th at the chemistry building at the University
of Michigan. Find the registration form on our
website or Facebook to print and mail in. Spots fill up
faster every year, so get your registration form in
quickly.
 The FEMMES team recently put on a community event
at the Ann Arbor District Library – Mallett’s Creek
branch. On a Saturday in late January, around 30 kids
showed up and kept busy with the activities of Edible
DNA, Squishy Circuits, Magnets, and States of Matter.
Thanks to Kelsey Cauley for helping facilitate this
event.
 Look on our website and Facebook page for
announcements for future FEMMES events as they are
scheduled.

6. Page 6 FEMMES Newsletter
Photo Collage: Photos from the Fall Capstone