Middle School girls ‘Get WISE’

HOUGHTON — Careers in engineering may currently be male dominated, but that is changing.

Middle school girls were shown how they can pursue an education in the STEM fields on the campus of Michigan Tech. 260 7th and 8th graders from 14 schools came out for Get WISE-Women in Science and
Engineering.

MTU Center for Pre-College Outreach Coordinator Lauren Kirwin said, “I think this is a really good opportunity for young girls to kind of get a feel of science and engineering, and we really want them to come out here, have some fun with some science and engineering activities.”

The students learned about pathogens, wood anatomy and mechanical engineering. The activities, like building a pinball machine from common materials, show these girls how rewarding science and engineering can be.

Baraga Middle School 7th grader Alexia Barton said, “For me, it’d be really fun to build stuff out of just random materials that we had and it kind of helps me understand different things.”

Get WISE is put on by Michigan Tech’s Center for Pre-College Outreach along with the College of Engineering, the College of Sciences and Arts, and the Western Upper Peninsula Center for Sciences, Mathematics and Environmental Education.