Stone Middle School and Florida Tech Partner With GE Girls to Provide Girls STEM Camp

By  //  July 31, 2016

Emphasis on software TECH and transportation

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Last week 20 middle school girls from Stone Middle participated is a GE educational outreach initiative in partnership with universities across the U.S., designed to influence middle school girls at a critical age and interest them in math/science and science-based careers

BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA –Twenty Stone Magnet Middle female students participated in the hands-on, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math)  focused GE Girls summer camp program from July 17 – 22 last week.

GE Girls is an educational outreach initiative in partnership with universities across the U.S., designed to influence middle school girls at a critical age and interest them in math/science and science-based careers.

The curriculum includes focus areas such as construction, programming, electronics, and chemistry.  Beginning in 2011 with the first GE Girls program at MIT, the company has seen an increase in programs across the nation.  In 2015, nine GE Girls programs took place and approximately 450 girls have participated in the program to date.

Last week, GE Melbourne teamed up with the Florida Institute of Technology and Brevard Public Schools to sponsor this unique, free program for a select group of rising eighth grade girls at Stone Magnet Middle.

Under the supervision of Stone Magnet Middle’s STEAM coordinating teacher, Shannon Lynch, the girls engaged in activities focusing on software technologies for energy and transportation control systems through labs and various field trip activities.

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Under the supervision of Stone Magnet Middle’s STEAM coordinating teacher, Shannon Lynch, the girls engaged in activities focusing on software technologies for energy and transportation control systems through labs and various field trip activities.

Some highlights of the camp include: completing Florida Tech’s Challenge Course, sea turtle mapping and coral farming at the Vero Beach Marine Lab, conducting experiments in the fields of nanotechnology and sensory biology, launching paper rockets and operating flight simulators at Orlando-Melbourne International Airport in Melbourne.

The week culminated with an event at the GE Melbourne offices, where the girls had the opportunity to interact with GE engineers, business leaders, and other professionals.  Through rotating sessions, the girls learned about how software is developed to control and monitor the world’s power grids and railroad transportation systems.

The camp ended with a celebration lunch where the girls, their families, GE leaders and mentors reflected on the week’s events and each program participant met with an accomplished female mentor from the GE Women’s Network, primarily with engineering or technology backgrounds, to discuss the importance of STEM.

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“The GE Girls summer camp has been a truly enriching experience for these 20 girls,” said Lynch.

“Not only did they get to engage in interactive activities, but to be able to see the female role models actually doing he job in and out every day, not just to hear the word engineer but to see what an engineer does, was inspiring for these young students.”

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