St. Mary Hosts STEMsational Girls Event
On February 10, St. Mary Catholic Secondary School welcomed elementary school students from five of its feeder schools into the school library for its first STEMsational Girls event. The goal of the pilot project was to introduce STEM careers and pathways to girls.
“Ten professional women in STEM careers from our broader community came for the event to show girls that this pathway is open for them,” said Tracy Trofimencoff, Teacher-Librarian and Teacher-Mentor for FTC/FRC MakeShift Robotics.
According to Statistics Canada, “Women are currently underrepresented in STEM occupations: they make up less than 30% of people currently employed in a professional STEM field while men make up over 70%.”
“We welcomed two nurses, an occupational therapist, and a speech and language pathologist to represent our science strand,” added Trofimencoff.
“Our trades were represented by three women from Alectra Utilities, along with a civil and mechanical engineers and a computer scientist. Many of our guests are graduates from our Catholic system.”
The day gave these girls an opportunity to meet with each of the professional women and participate in a question-and-answer session along with some hands-on practical experience. Each group was led by volunteers from the St. Mary school robotics team, MakeShift Robotics.
One elementary student, Barbara Mae L., shared she is “considering trying a profession in STEM specifically the medical side” after her interaction with the nurses.
Several other students shared the same sentiment.
Powerline Maintainers Michelle Hume and Veronica Nichol with Alectra Utilities were also on-site to show that girls can get into non-traditional fields. Powerline Maintainers install, repair, and maintain overhead and underground high-voltage power lines and distribution systems. Hume, who is 33 weeks pregnant, noted that even though getting a maternity uniform can be a challenge, she knows that she is making a difference in the work that she does every day.
“Students also participated in an FTC robot demo at one station along with a tour of the MakeShift Robotics portable where they saw where the magic of robot building happens,” said Trofimencoff.
“The robotics portable houses the team’s wood room with large cutting equipment, another room with past FRC robots, and a space for tools, electronics and a CNC machine.”
Feedback from student participants included:
“I was very interested in the robots and found them cool.” - Zosia L.
“I learned that robotics team had gone to International events for 14 years in a row!” - Valentina N.
“Something I enjoyed learning about today was robotics. I think it was cool to see the workshop, and I enjoyed hearing about programming robots as well as what made other people look more into this.” - Evelyn M.
“I would look into integrating more of STEM into the whole event. Many of the speakers and presentations were engineers and trades- maybe more mathematicians or scientists. Creating a more hands-on environment would make people more interested.” - Amelia M.
“Something I learned today was that women can do anything that men can do!” - Maya R.
Organizer Teachers and MakeShift Robotics Mentors Tracy Trofimencoff and Michelle Kiely look forward to an opportunity to continue with their advocacy efforts to engage more women and girls in STEM.
“As a Teacher-Mentor with MakeShift Robotics, I have learned very quickly how underrepresented women and girls are in the STEM fields,” said Trofimencoff.
“Offering this event is one step forward in encouraging girls to see themselves in these spaces. We are incredibly fortunate to have had so many accomplished professional women attend today’s event.”
