STEM conference pushes ‘girl power’
Students attend workshops to encourage scientific futures
Dissecting cow eyeballs may seem disgusting, but for the girls who attended the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Girls’ Leadership Conference, it was a tool to push them to gain more confidence and to show them they can do anything.
The event, hosted by the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, was originally a minority-based idea, but grew to
include any female students in grades 9-12.
According to the Arkansas Stem Coalition website, “the workshops...promote interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and ultimately reduce the stereotype that these fields are mainly for males.
This program hopes to encourage young females to pursue collegiate careers in STEM related occupations.” The different schools there included El Dorado, Rison, Pine Bluff, Dollarway, Whitehall, and Watson Chapel. EHS Biology Teacher Jamie Lowe said, “A lot more girls were interested in STEM than I thought.” There aren't many females in these fields.
The whole purpose of the trip was to get girls involved in STEM. Students were divided into six individual groups, which rotated through workshops like “Wasted Time,” dissecting cow eyeballs, an escape room, 3-D robotics and others.
In the Wasted Time room the girls all shared what they wanted to be when they grow up.
They also learned that they couldn’t sit quiet like they did in high school because on that day they were college students and had to interact with others.
While in the cow eyeballs dissection workshop, the girls learned the different parts of a cow's eye.
To some girls it was disgusting, but to others they loved it.
The program set out to prove girls can do anything, and with workshops like these, they achieved it. To find out more information about STEM, go to http://arkansasstemcoalition.com.