Whew! We made it through an exciting GE Girls Summer STEM Camp Day One with the girls from Claremont Middle School at our GE Digital campus.
This year, the GE Women’s Network in San Ramon has partnered with Mills College to create a great week long experience for middle school girls to spark their curiosity in STEM, and help develop mentorship programs that will continue to encourage them to pursue careers in science, technology, math and engineering.
The GE Girls STEM summer camp targets students at a critical age with a curriculum that is a great mix of design thinking, foundational leadership principles, experiential learning, collaborative creation, and fun!
We started the day with tour of our spaces: Interactive Lab, Design Center and—what the girls really liked—our arcade on the fourth floor. We’ll have to find our way back there later this week!
Following our tours, the girls broke into teams to tackle an icebreaker challenge: build the tallest, freestanding balloon tower with only balloons and tape. We lost a few balloons in the process, but the winning team’s structure stood 41” tall!
The afternoon was spent getting an overview and brainstorming for our City of Lights project. Our next generation will face epic challenges when it comes to urban design, intelligent use of resources, and building of resilient, sustainable, smart ecosystems. Tied to GE’s Intelligent Cities initiatives, this project will take the participants through learning about smart city technologies, understanding STEM careers that will have an impact in the future, and using Circuitscribe conductive ink kits to prototype how they would address key social, transportation or public health challenges.
Tomorrow, the girls are off to Mills College for more fun and engaging activities, including a campus tour, participating in a scavenger hunt and making lip balm to learn the science behind cosmetics.
Thanks to our partners—Claremont Middle School and Mills College—and all GE volunteers for helping us provide inspiring and engaging learning activities!
More to follow!