Girls on the Rise event aims to spark interest in STEM for young girls

DENVER (KDVR) — The Society of Women Engineers held an event at Colorado School of Mines over the weekend where middle school girls were able to learn about several STEM fields through hands-on experiments.

The "Girls on the Rise" event aims to spark an interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) for the young women who participated and ultimately help inspire them to consider STEM.

According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, women only make up 28% of the STEM workforce as of 2023, and only 24% of the STEM workforce in the US.

The event was held on Saturday and had seven interactive activities for participants.

One of the activities was soldering, which is used in electrical engineering. Silje Ostrem, an electrical engineering student at CSM, was part of the demonstration and said it is important to show young people the fun parts of the field.

"Showing these young girls all the fun parts of electrical engineering ... is really important if we want to raise up another generation of amazing female electrical engineers," she said.

The director of the event, MaKenna Straka, said her own love of engineering was inspired at a similar event at Colorado State University when she was in middle school.

"That really sparked my love for engineering and science and things," she said. "So to be able to put this on and outreach to middle schoolers in the area has been really fulfilling."

Other activities included creating binary code name necklaces, modeling DNA base pairs with gummy bears and designing and creating a propeller car.