The 9th Annual Hampton Roads Conference for Girls and Young Women: Girls Rule the World was held on Saturday, May 20 in the Webb University Center at Old Dominion University. During the conference, which aims to inform and empower girls and young women to become productive citizens and leaders, Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast held a STEM (science, technology, mathematics, and engineering) workshop, Girls Go Techbridge: Power it Up!.
During the Girl Scout workshop, Thalessa Billups, a community outreach coordinator with Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast, led the girls in an activity with snap circuits to help them learn about electronics and circuitry. Working in pairs, girls chose circuit board projects out of an instruction book and snapped together plastic modules to create a flow of electricity. One pair of girls created a flow of electricity to power a radio.
"One of the most beneficial things about STEM activities is that they allow girls to work together to accomplish the same goal while having fun," Billups said.
According to
How Girl Scout STEM Programs Benefit Girls, a report by the Girl Scout Research Institute, 77 percent of girls said that after participating in STEM activities with Girl Scouts, they want to know more about careers in science, math and the arts. Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast is committed to providing opportunities for girls to engage in hands-on STEM and scientific reasoning activities, allowing them to apply concepts learned in school in new ways. Check
www.gsccc.org for information about an annual STEM event, Science Alive, scheduled for September at Norfolk State University.
girl scouts of the colonial coast
