Integrating Engineering into a General STEM Program for Middle School Girls

Abstract

Faculty members of the School of Engineering have joined with faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences at Florida Gulf Coast University in an effort to increase interest and excitement in young women with regards to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) topics. The program, called Girls in Engineering, Math, and Science (or GEMS), invites middle school girls from a multicounty area to spend their mornings, either for just a Saturday or an entire week in the summer, learning more about various STEM topics from female university instructors and professors. At the conclusion of summer, fall, and spring activities the participants were asked to rate each of the activities in which they participated, as well as how the program affected their overall interest in math, science, and engineering. The pairing of the science and engineering activities in these day and weeklong events allows for the unique opportunity to illustrate to the participants the inter-relationship between the STEM disciplines and involving a large group of girls in each session allows for a wide range of participant diversity. After participating in GEMS, 81% of the girls stated they were more excited about science, math, and engineering than before. Overview of the GEMS Program GEMS provides interactive, hands-on experiences in the sciences, math and engineering for middle-school girls in Southwest Florida and to date has served more than 1200 students. These activities are guided by faculty and professionals and assisted by undergraduate and graduate students at FGCU and cover such topics as bio-, civil and environmental engineering, environmental sciences, biology, biotechnology, chemistry, forensics, astronomy and math. Drs. Jo Ann Wilson and Terry Dubetz developed GEMS to provide both weeklong day camps during the summer months and single-day workshops during the school year. This “girls-only” environment helps to ignite the girls’ interests in engineering, science and math and encourages them into these fields in higher education. GEMS has been funded both 3257 GeoFlorida 2010: Advances in Analysis, Modeling & Design (GSP 199) © 2010 ASCE