Girls go behind the scenes at STEM
A week-long camp will take girls behind the scenes at STEM institutions later this year.
In July the Innovative Young Minds programme (IYM) will host a week-long camp, the first of its kind in the Hutt Valley, for Year 11 and 12 girls.
Each day the girls will visit a variety of tech businesses, crown research institutes and tertiary education providers around Wellington for a behind-thescenes look at the science, technolody, engineering and mathematics (STEM) industry.
The programme was officially launched earlier this week.
‘‘Girls are under represented in the STEM sector,’’ IYM chairperson Allan Brown said. The programme aimed to combat that by connecting students with people working and studying in the field during the camp.
The students will keep a blog and make a presentation about how they spent their time when they return to their schools.
In previous years Brown said funding had been provided for students to travel to Auckland for a similar camp. ‘‘Now, this is local.’’ Around 20 secondary schools in the Wellington region will be invited to take part in the programme, with each sending two students to the camp hosted at Silverstream Retreat. The camp begins July 9.
Rotary clubs in the area had been asked to provide sponsorship for the girls.
‘‘This is a terrific piece of collaboration between Hutt City Council and Rotary clubs,’’ Brown said, ‘‘The support from the community and organisations has been incredible.
‘‘It can be hard to get people to work on committees but this one has been absolutely amazing. People have been volunteering and I think we’ve hit the right note.’’
Run in partnership by Hutt City Council and Rotary Hutt City, the IYM programme was launched on February 28.
Brown said it was incredible to see so many people turn out in support of the programme.
Around 100 people gathered in the council building for the evening.