Here at KID — an organization founded and run by women — Women’s History Month is a big deal. Join us to honor and celebrate the achievements of women in the STEM and Maker communities who are shaping the future through innovation and creativity!
WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH 2026
Featured Activities
The Data Detective
with Chandra Donelson
March 15 | Central Makerspace
The Data Detective
How do we keep track of the world around us? By collecting data, of course!
Join author of The Data Detective Chandra Donelson and her crew of Datavestigators for a hands-on exploration of data collection, analysis, and application. The Data Detective Festival is an interactive STEM experience designed to build data and AI literacy in young learners.
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Build a Cloud with QTS
Where is data stored? In a data center!
A data center is a building full of computers. Thousands of servers stacked in rows, running 24/7. When someone says, “it’s in the cloud”, they mean it’s in one of these buildings. The cloud isn’t floating, it’s plugged in. The cloud lives in data centers. Data centers provide space, power, cooling, connectivity, and security…data centers are the critical infrastructure powering the AI boom!
Decision Detectives with Archetypal AI
Team up with Archetypal AI’s Digital Twin to identify clues in a digital mystery!
The world is full of information — but how do detectives know which bits of data are clues, and which bits are just “noise”? Practice identifying important information, asking good questions, and explaining your decision-making process with the help of an AI tool. Archetypal’s Digital Twin can even help check your work!
KIDgineers with NXgineering
Are you ready to be a KIDgineer? Use tech to explore a sandbox for moon rocks with NXgineering!
Book Donations with AI Digitales
How can AI help sort book donations? Join AI Digitales to find out how new tech can help us engage with old tech… and yes, a book is a form of technology!
Super-Organizing with InterImage
Dive into a superhero-themed dataset to find out how computers make sense of messy, unstructured information — and how AI models can help humans make decisions!
AI Expressions with Avenir Technology
Help Avenir Technology train an AI on recognizing facial expressions! Learn how Machine Learning Models classify different facial expressions and why “training data” matters.
THREE More Activities TBD!
We’ll also have visitors from the Ft. Belvoir chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, Capitol City Robotics, and Cribl!
Data Detectives!
Team up with the OG Data Detectives to find out how you can use data in real life!
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Typography Advocacy
All Month Long! | Materials Bar
Make Your Voice Heard
Explore a crafty method for change: advocacy signs! Advocacy signs — also called “protest,” “demonstration,” or “picket” signs — can be powerful tools for social change, helping us express what matters most and inspire others to take action. Sylvia Rivera and other fearless women showed us that when we use our voices, creativity, and courage, we can help build a more just and loving world.
Advocates-in-training can experiment with buttons, pipe cleaners, adhesives, and other materials as they answer the question:
What will you advocate for to make the world a better place?
Chibitronics
10 AM - 4 PM | Maker Playground
Get Creative with Code
Discover the intersection of art and engineering through the work of inventor Jie Qi and Chibitronics. Start exploring circuitry as a creative tool by designing illuminated rice paper artwork with Chibitronics LEDs and coding pre-made LED circuits using ChibiChips and Make Code. This hands-on experience will empower makers of all backgrounds to create expressive and personally meaningful technology.
FEATURING:
Circuit Station: build a take-home LED circuit!
Coding Station: use ChibiChips and Clips with a MakeCode Microbot to code pre-made circuits!
Meet a KID Maker: Kat!
March 1 | 1:30 - 3:30 PM | Central Makerspace
Biotinkering with Kat and Sick Sam
Meet one of our Senior Maker Educators, Kathleen Chung!
The immune system is the body’s way of protecting us from outside invaders like germs and toxins. Our body uses white blood cells to combat unwanted intruders… But what if you used a robot? Here at KID, we use our 2-dimensional friend “Sick Sam” to explore developments in robotic medicine. Join biologist and Maker Educator Kathleen for a life-size science experiment!
Meet Makers:
Build Girls!
March 22 | Central Makerspace
Build Your World!
Meet the Build Girls founders – awesome young women shaking up the world of Architecture, Construction, and Engineering! Get ready to have fun with hands-on engineering challenges and see how they’re empowering high school girls for gender equity to explore careers in these fields!
Build Girls founders will engage with visitors with a bridge-building challenge using straws and tape.
Meet a KID Maker: Jessica!
March 29 | 1:30 - 3:30 PM | Central Makerspace
Drapery Discovery with Jessica
Meet one of our Maker Educators, Jessica McElravy!
Jessica works with kids of all ages to spark creativity through the maker mindset. Outside of KID, she’s an incredible designer, seamstress, and all-around maker herself! Learn the basics of designing and making your own clothes by draping fabric over full-size dress forms.
Celebrating Women Making History
One morning in 1999, actress Wendy Bohon woke up to her roommates shouting, "earthquake!" After the dust settled, she began volunteering at the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program – knowing that her double major in theater and geology could be the perfect fit for this important work. Wendy saw first-hand how crucial science communication can be for public safety. Since that earthquake, Wendy has earned a masters and Ph.D. in earthquake geology, and is now the Science Communication Specialist for the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology.
Wendy Bohon
Geologist & Science Communication Specialist
On June 4, 2022, Katya (Kat) Echazarreta became the first Mexican-born woman in space. By that time, Kat had already worked as an electrical engineer on five other NASA missions, including Perseverance and the Europa Clipper. But her real mission is here on Earth. Since leaving NASA, Kat has committed herself to being a resource and a mentor for girls and women in STEM. She hopes that by being honest about her experiences in the field – including the bad experiences, like discrimination – she can create a more accessible path forward for others. Kat lectures and hosts her own TV segment, Electric Kat, on the CBS Children's show Mission Impossible. She also consults with Space for Humanity, the organization that sent her to space.
Katya Echazarreta
Chemical Engineer & Citizen Astronaut
What does it mean to be beautiful? For Xyla Foxlin, a mechatronics engineer and YouTuber, #BrilliantIsBeautiful. On her channel Beauty and the Bolt, Xyla tackles all kinds of engineering challenges, building everything from cedar canoes to fiberglass rockets. She's even built her own travel camper! Xyla also founded a nonprofit of the same name. So far, her #PrincessesWithPowerTools program has taught nearly 6,000 children how to use their first power tools.
Xyla Foxlin
Mechatronics Engineer, Entrepreneur, & Nonprofit Director
While studying engineering at MIT, Limor “ladyada” Fried decided that she would use her skills to create better educational tools for teaching electronic engineering. She founded the electronics company Adafruit in her dorm room in 2005, and in the last 10 years, Adafruit has grown to over 100+ employees in the heart of NYC with a 50,000+ sq ft. factory. Adafruit has expanded its offerings to include tools, equipment, and electronics designed for makers of all ages and skill levels. Limor’s moniker, Ladyada, is an homage to Lady Ada Lovelace, a mathematician who recognized the potential of computers.
Limor “ladyada” Fried
Electrical Engineer & Creator of Adafruit
LaKisha Greenwade believes that innovation comes from overcoming your fears and challenges by developing solutions. She is an award-winning innovator and the founder of Wearable Tech Ventures, a company that supports underrepresented entrepreneurs in creating exciting and purpose focused wearable tech solutions. For many years, LaKisha led innovation efforts for corporations and the Federal Government. She earned a B.S. from Ohio State University, an MBA from the University of Maryland College Park, and a Design Thinking certification at MIT. She has inspired and empowered people from four continents to activate their ingenious nature to improve the world around them.
Culture Queen has been a featured speaker on TedXRVA, and her TED-ED video entitled "Mansa Musa: One of the Wealthiest People Who Ever Lived" has received over 6 million views. She's also an award-winning playwright whose children's musical, Bone Soup: A Kwanzaa Story, is published by Pioneer Drama Service and produced nationwide. The "Kwanzaa Slide" line dance she co-created has gone viral and reached the top of Sirius XM's Kids Place Live charts.
Culture Queen has been a featured speaker on TedXRVA, and her TED-ED video entitled "Mansa Musa: One of the Wealthiest People Who Ever Lived" has received over 6 million views. She's also an award-winning playwright whose children's musical, Bone Soup: A Kwanzaa Story, is published by Pioneer Drama Service and produced nationwide. The "Kwanzaa Slide" line dance she co-created has gone viral and reached the top of Sirius XM's Kids Place Live charts.
As the Chief Arts Officer of Arts For Learning Maryland - a nonprofit working to transform learning through the arts for more than 250,000 Maryland students annually, Culture Queen founded and produced "Blacktastic: A Virtual Children's Festival," which was attended by over 59,000 students across the State of Maryland. Jessica holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Education from Virginia Commonwealth University and is pursuing a master's at Morgan State University. Jessica received the PGCPS's 2015 Alumnus of the Year Award and was voted Top 40 Under 40 by the Prince George's Social Innovation Fund in 2011. She's the proud cat mom of two Black Baltimore City kitties, Nubia and Onyx, and enjoys playing Uno, eating cupcakes, and dancing to Stevie Wonder tunes.
LaKisha Greenwade
Inventor, Author, & Founder of Wearable Tech
"If you show girls the power of technology, they can invent the future." Dr. Cori Lathan is a neuroscientist, biomedical engineer, and tech entrepreneur who uses technology to help people do things better. She co-founded AnthroTronix, a tech innovation firm which made a robot to help kids with disabilities, a sensor glove to train surgeons, a virtual reality system to study astronauts in space, and a computer game to track your brain health. She also serves on KID Museum’s Board of Directors.
Cori Lathan
Inventor & Entrepreneur
Aisha Lawrey always thought she would grow up to be a lawyer; however, due to her math and science prowess, her math teacher introduced her to the idea of becoming an engineer. At first, Aisha didn't know what an engineer was, but soon found out that it meant being a professional problem-solver. Driven by the challenge of increasing diversity in a field lacking women, especially women of color, she passionately pursued engineering as a career. Today, she focuses on increasing the number of women and minorities in engineering. She currently works as the Training and Certification Global Education Ambassador, AMERICAS for Education Programs at Amazon Web Services (AWS). Aisha's motto is, "If you educate a girl, you educate the world!"
Aisha Lawrey
STEM Educator & Electrical Engineer
Jie Qi is an artist, inventor, and entrepreneur. Her mission is to combine art with engineering to create experiences of wonder, and empower creators of all backgrounds to make their own expressive and personally meaningful technologies. She is co-founder and CEO of Chibitronics, a company that produces creative learning toolkits for paper circuits. As a 2017 fellow of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at the Harvard University Law school, Jie created PatentPandas.org, a resource to teach patent law through friendly panda comics, share real life inventors’ stories, and connect independent creators to free legal counsel. Jie holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Columbia University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in media arts and sciences from the MIT Media Lab. Her work has been exhibited at the Exploratorium Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Jie Qi
Founder of Chibitronics
From 2014 to 2016, Stephanie Santoso served as the first Senior Advisor of Making at the White House, helping President Obama’s Nation of Makers initiative broaden access to the Maker Movement. Now, Stephanie Santoso helps communities build stronger pathways for underserved students into making-related careers and entrepreneurship through talent and capacity as Co-Founder and President of MakerUSA. She holds a Ph.D. in Information Science from Cornell University, where her research focused primarily on the social impact of democratizing 3D printing. Stephanie previously ran an all-natural, gluten-free baked goods company with her mother and enjoys sewing, experimenting with 3D printing, and making homemade toys for her son.
Stephanie Santoso
Co-Founder & President of MakerUSA
When she was five years old, Arlyne Simon decided she would be an inventor. She had never seen an inventor who looked like her, but was determined to pursue her dream regardless. Arlyne grew up to invent a blood test that can detect when cancer patients reject their bone marrow transplants, designed medical imaging equipment, and even taught Kenyan lab workers how to build supercomputers. Alongside her biomedical engineering career, Arlyne is a children’s book author. With her “Abby Invents” series, she is inspiring the next generation of engineers.
Dr. Arlyne Simon
Biomecial Engineer & Children’s Book Author
When Dr. Ciara Sivels was 16, she wanted to be a pastry chef. That was before she learned about atoms. She was fascinated by the idea that such tiny things could create so much energy. With the encouragement of her chemistry teacher, Ciara began studying engineering. She eventually became the first Black woman to obtain a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of Michigan – but she's determined not to be the last. As she puts it, "I was a 'first,' but I hope you join me in the field of engineering."
Dr. Ciara Sivels
Nuclear Engineer
Access for Every Maker
KID Museum is dedicated to expanding access to STEM and maker learning opportunities for all by providing free and reduced-cost opportunities to participate in our programming.
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