Local girl scouts came on a Saturday morning to learn about the utility systems operated at Abbott Power Plant. Associate professor in Civil and Electrical Engineering (CEE) in the Grainger College of Engineering, Ashlynn Stillwell helped organize and manage the groups and distributed safety and personal protective equipment (PPE). Stillwell is also the former Central Illinois Girl Scout leader.
Kids toured the power plant with Mike Larson, Abbott utility operations. After that, Andrew Moore of the operator engineer shop talked about the importance of the machines he and his team use and each of the girls got the chance to, literally, sit in the driver’s seat.
Water and Energy Demonstrations
After the tour at Abbott, girl scouts took in a handful of demonstrations led by Grainger College of Engineering students and Graduate students.
One game let players toss coins representing water or energy into buckets of commonly used household items like showers or dishwashers; another used a sine wave signal generator to produce highly-precise vibrations to shape sand; another was a stationary bike used to power different types of light bulbs.
Interested in a tour?
To schedule a tour, fill out this form online: https://go.fs.illinois.edu/Abbott-Tours