On Saturday, a STEM camp for middle school girls will be held at Shepherd University.
The camp is called, Seeding Your Future, and the organizers hope that the middle school-age girls who attend will be inspired to consider careers in science, technology, engineering, and math; better known as STEM.
Seeding Your Future will offer hands-on workshops that will teach scientific, technological, or mathematical lessons. The whole idea is to help the girls get energized about science and math.
“Research has traditionally shown that in middle school is where the sort of interest in math, science, technology, engineering, those sort of fields, tends to flag a little bit, and so this is an effort to help increase the interest, keep that going, so that maybe they want to go into a science or math, or STEM career,” said Dr. Jordan Mader, assistant professor of Chemistry at Shepherd.
Mader says there’s a growing need for more professionals in STEM fields, and now is a great opportunity for more young women to consider getting involved. She also says girls are often being discouraged when it comes to STEM careers.
She and fourteen other Shepherd faculty members, running the camp on Saturday, hope it helps change those girls’ perspectives.