09 May 2019 Girls share their STEM passion with younger counterparts
A Closer Look: Blue Valley Femineers
Blue Valley was the first school district in the state of Kansas to offer the Femineer program, which uses curriculum created by Cal Poly Pomona College of Engineering to inspire and empower female students to pursue STEM in their education and future careers.
Participants commit to three years in the program, with each year offering a different curriculum, and meet multiple times per month. During the May 4 showcase, the Blue Valley Femineers shared their projects alongside younger Femineers from St. Agnes Catholic School in Roeland Park, Kansas.
Their projects were amazing!
A Closer Look: Lee’s Summit Girls Who Code
Shelby Soukup, who started Girls Who Code in Lee’s Summit, says she started the club to get more girls involved in technology and quickly discovered an interested audience. More than 20 high school girls from all three Lee’s Summit R-7 high schools and Summit Technology Academy have stepped up to mentor their younger counterparts and share some of their tech solutions during other outreach events.
The club started with pop up events at several elementary schools to generate interest and quickly had more than 80 girls register for the first event. The high school mentors also shared their work at DigiGirlz, a Microsoft-sponsored event for girls in eighth to 12th grade on April 11 at Johnson County Community College.
Six students from Lee’s Summit R-7 teacher Deanna Soukup’s Project Lead The Way computer science course presented at the event. They included Zoey Sears, Lauren Bryant, Makayla Clark and Martie Schreckengaust, all from Lee’s Summit High School, and Megan Demo and Lauren Smith, from Lee’s Summit West High School.
Their projects included:
- an app that senses an individual’s heart rate to alert a service dog of panic attacks
- a bathroom mirror designed to include important daily information (calendar, weather, news)
- a hamster cage featuring sensors that dictate the hamster’s Twitter account posts and the activities of an LED animated hamster.
