by, for, and about women in science, technology, engineering, & math

The STEM for Girls event we hosted on our UCD campus today was a success! 52 5th and 6th grade girls from marginalized/unrepresented communities were able to explore and learn about STEM fields with UCD student mentors and faculty. The girls played with snap circuits, a child’s version of basic circuit, to create a ton of different projects, from flying saucers to music boxes and car alarms. They had a lot of fun with them. I wish we could have given them even more time! In the middle of playing we had our very own chancellor come share some words with them. We invited the chancellor as inspiration for the girls as she too is a woman in electrical engineering. She even taught the girls a little bit about how cell phones work. She even called one of the girls to show her how the signals travel! AMAZING!!!!!!!! The girls even asked her some questions about other technology topics like how movies are made and asked if she made radars (what her work was in before coming to UCD) better or just copied other ones. These girls are so smart!

The girls were also able to explore some real research labs on our campus. We had several of our WISE faculty open up their labs to give a special tour for them. Some even had some hands-on projects or demonstrations. The girls were so curious! They had so many questions about everything! Our event shows that girls are interested in the fields of study and work. They do like science and engineering, they just need to be exposed to it and made aware about it. They know they like these things like making music boxes or car alarms, but they just don’t know the name for it.

Several months and hours on top of hours were put into planning this event. All worth it to see how excited these girls were when they left. A true success. :)