Minuteman High School held Girls in STEM exploratory camp for middle-school girls in August

PHOTO CAPTION:

Minuteman High School alumnus Rachel Toups of Boxborough, standing, (Class of 2016) instructs middle-school students in making light-up greeting cards during the Girls in STEM exploratory camp held in August at Minuteman, in Lexington. The students are using conductive metal tape and surface mount LEDs to make functional circuits on flat surfaces.

Photo by Allison Salisbury

By Judy Bass

The Girls in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Club at Minuteman High School in Lexington recently held its fourth exploratory camp for local middle-school girls. For five consecutive days in early August, the younger girls were mentored by female Minuteman students enrolled in the school’s STEM programs, conducted STEM-related experiments, met female STEM professionals who discussed their triumphs and travails in traditionally male-dominated fields, and learned that they are part of a community of girls and women who can compete successfully in STEM.

Launched in 2015, Minuteman’s Girls in STEM outreach to seventh- and eighth-grade girls has earned state and national recognition. The program received a Grand Prize for outstanding student-to-student mentoring two years in a row from SkillsUSA, a national organization that runs trade and leadership competitions for students in career and technical schools. It also received an award for excellence from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. Girls in STEM at Minuteman has been selected, through a competitive process, to be among the exhibitors at the Mass. STEM Summit in Worcester in November.

Three Minuteman staff members who have played key roles in the success of the Girls in STEM initiative are Director of Career and Technical Education Michelle Roche, and co-advisors Sarah Ard, a horticulture and landscape technology instructor, and Becky Quay, an engineering instructor.

Extensive preparation takes place behind the scenes long before the camp even starts. “The Minuteman girls start planning their activities many weeks before camp,” said Ms. Ard. “They use ideas from their
career and technical education (CTE) experiences and modify them into projects that can be understood by younger students.”

Some of the activities for this session included app design, building mousetrap cars, making a greeting card or picture with a functioning light bulb in it, exploring a vernal pool, Cartesian divers, math through tie dye and measuring lung volume.

The younger girls and the Minuteman students talked about their STEM experiences during their visit to the Museum of Science in Boston. They discussed what they heard from the women who spoke to them about their careers, how they achieved success and the struggles they faced along the way. “Those speakers were very inspiring,” said Ms. Ard, “and mirrored how some of the girls see themselves in the future.”

The middle-school girls also benefited from hearing about the Minuteman girls’ backgrounds. Ms. Ard said, “The campers were very intrigued by what the Minuteman counselors shared with them about their CTE majors, the real-world projects they have done and how those experiences were paving a path for them in a career area they know they like. Many campers said they would participate again at a future camp.”

Minuteman is an award-winning regional high school that integrates robust academic and career & technical learning to deliver a revolutionary competitive advantage. The school serves a diverse student body with multiple learning styles, expanding opportunities for college and career success. As an accredited member of the New England Association of Schools & Colleges (NEASC), Minuteman challenges all students to aspire to their full potential, accelerate their learning, and achieve success in the 21st-century global economy.