Galloway, New Jersey — Before helping each group of students with their laser projects, Stockton University physics professor Joseph Trout asked the same question.
“Are there any future scientists here?”
Quite a few middle schoolers said yes, including Lilly Voss, an eighth-grader at Galloway Township Middle School. On Jan. 3, she was among about 150 girls from six South Jersey middle schools who participated in Tween Tech, an annual event aimed at engaging girls in science, technology, engineering and math. (STEM).
“I like how they teach us different things that we don’t really learn in school,” said Voss, who took Trout’s Lasers and Lissajous Figures workshop. She worked with a partner to build a device to display laser figures on a wall. “Like lasers, I didn’t do that in school.
“I also like the fact that it’s all women. It’s super cool to see all the girls here.
Each participant chose two of 11 different workshops, ranging from building a wind turbine to tapping sap in Stockton’s Maple Grove to investigating a crime scene and coding a spherical robot .
Claudine Keenan, special assistant to the dean at Stockton, has organized the event since its inception in 2017 with the Atlantic and Cape May branches of the American Association of University Women.
“I am grateful to work in Stockton, whose faculty, students and staff scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians give of their time each winter to inspire young women in STEM fields just as research suggests that they might otherwise turn away from these areas. home ranges,” she said.
Stockton physics teacher Joe Trout works with Lilly Voss, an eighth-grader at Galloway Township Middle School, to help him build a project to display laser figures on a wall. The workshop is one of 11 about 150 students were able to choose from as part of Tween Tech, an event aimed at encouraging women to explore the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM ).
Trout said he has been attending the workshops for the past two years and realized how important it is to expose girls to science.
“I grew up with seven sisters and most of them weren’t interested in it, but two of them were, and they were always jealous when I came back from Boy Scouts with things that I had built,” he said. “So it’s nice that young girls have the chance to do things like that.”
Stockton senior Breanna Hawkins had a similar experience as a child after a member of the Boy Scouts came to her school. When she expressed interest in doing fun outdoor activities, she was told she couldn’t participate because she wasn’t a boy.
“I love the outdoors, and it was really disappointing to be so interested in something like that and then be told, Well, you’re a girl,” said the environmental studies and studies major linguistic and cultural.
Hawkins, who is also president of the Stockton Birding Club, became the first Stockton student to host a Tween Tech workshop. She spoke to middle school students about using the Merlin Bird ID app to identify bird song.
After showing the class some audio samples of bird songs and how they correspond to visual ultrasounds, she took them outside to a bird feeder to show them how the app uses artificial intelligence to recognize birds simply by listening to them with your phone.
“We need to get young people involved in the outdoors because when people are interested, they have an interest in helping save the planet or contributing to conservation efforts,” said the Marshall, Michigan, native.
The workshop resonated with first-time Tween Tech attendee Amelia Isom, an eighth-grader from Galloway who spent a week in Stockton last summer as part of the STEM-focused Tech Trek program. She said she didn’t realize until the workshop that each species of bird has a different call.
Many former Tween Tech participants have become Stockton students currently pursuing degrees in biology, chemistry and environmental sciences.
Claudine Keenan, special assistant to the Stockton provost and Tween Tech organizer
“I didn’t realize they were so diverse. I’m really interested in environmental science and haven’t really learned about birds, so it’s really interesting to learn about that, as well as AI,” Isom said. “I like hiking and being outside, especially in the summer, so I think it would be very interesting to use the app. »
Isom was one of 30 Galloway Township Middle School students who attended Tween Tech this year, said Paula Junker, the school’s principal. That number is up from 20 last year, and Junker said she plans to continue taking advantage of this unique opportunity to bring her students to campus.
“In seventh and eighth grade, you don’t know what you want to be or what’s out there. A lot of times we just know what our parents know or what they did,” she said. “It gives girls the opportunity to see what options are out there and help them determine what might interest them.”
In addition to opening students’ eyes to STEM fields, Keenan hopes the experience will ultimately lead them to major in a science field in Stockton.
“Many former Tween Tech participants have become Stockton students who are currently pursuing degrees in biology, chemistry and environmental sciences,” said the former dean of Stockton’s School of Education. “Their practical experiences in Stockton took them beyond the abstract vision. They engage hands-on with inspiring faculty and state-of-the-art amenities that make Stockton the place they want to attend.
Other schools that participated in Tween Tech include Fernwood and Alder Middle Schools in Egg Harbor Township, William Davies Middle School in Hamilton Township, Weymouth Township School, South Manahawkin Regional College and Margaret Mace School in North Wildwood.
— Story by Mark Melhorn, photos by Susan Allen