Grant to benefit STEM club program

$21,500 GRANT FROM ARCONIC FOUNDATION TO HELP INCREASE PROGRAM

More upper elementary and junior high students will have the opportunity to explore their interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) thanks to a grant from the Arconic Foundation.

The University of Lethbridge’s Destination Exploration, in partnership with the Holy Spirit Catholic School Division, will be offering STEM clubs to students in grades 6 to 9 throughout the division.

The $21,500 in funding will allow Destination Exploration to offer a STEM club with eight sessions in the fall and another eight during the winter.

“This is such a great opportunity for our students and I’m hopeful that by providing a focus on STEM at this age, we will entice more girls into this area of study,” said Chris Smeaton, Holy Spirit superintendent, in a press release.

Statistics show that females are underrepresented in STEM fields and Destination Exploration hopes to change that through a number of ways.

“One of the biggest things we need to be working and focusing on is not only teaching our girls they can do STEM, but showing our boys that girls can do STEM,” said Valerie Archibald, director of youth outreach for the U of L Faculty of Arts and Science.

“We need to have gender parity within our programming,” she said.

“Then we need to teach the boys to support the girls and teach the girls that they can also be involved in STEM. That’s one of the things we’re hoping to achieve with this grant.”

The first session will be held at St. Francis Junior High School and interested participants are encouraged to contact Archibald at valerie.archibald@uleth.ca or Laura Keffer-Wilkes, Destination Exploration program co-ordinator, at kefferwilkesl@uleth.ca.