Staff
Writer Dave Komer of The News-Herald Newspapers recently covered more than 100
seventh and eighth-grade girls from 14 school districts – including Taylor – as
they descended on Wayne County Community College’s Downriver Campus recently
for a day of workshops and empowerment.
“STEM
Savvy” provided a day of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics
interactive workshops, the event featured professional women in scientific career
fields, set up by the American Association of University Women
Wyandotte-Downriver May 7.
In
one workshop students made models of early hominid brains, while in another
they learned to build their own windmills.
Deb
Kennedy, president of AAUW Wyandotte-Downriver, said that STEM day is a pilot
program that best compares to a one-day science camp.
“The
number of women in the STEM fields is very few,” Kennedy said. “It’s been
discovered through research that AAUW and college studies that the career (path)
decision is made in the middle school years whether to go into the sciences or
not - generally to not go into them. This is why we are targeting this age
group.”
Casey
Papp, 14 and Clarissa Hoye, 13, of Woodhaven both enjoyed their day, picking
different sessions as their favorites.
“I
liked the technology because I am very into photography and I liked learning
about the colors and the animation,” Papp said.
“I
liked the chemistry because I liked the hands-on experiments,” Hoye said. “I
think this was nice because then you have an idea of what you want to do when
you get older and what jobs you might like.”
For the complete NH presentation including video, click here.
