For the 3rd year running, The Hamlin School celebrated STEMming the Gender Gap Day on Friday, December 1. The day was an opportunity to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education/careers for our students, while connecting with female tech leaders in the Bay Area. Hamlin girls had the chance to observe, interact, and learn, as they prepare to be tomorrow’s tech innovators and help #StemGenderGap!
This year Hamlin partnered with a variety of fantastic Bay Area tech companies; we are incredibly thankful for our partnership with these organizations.
We had experiences at:
The Lawrence Hall of Science, The Bay Area Discovery Museum, The Exploratorium, Quizlet, Salesforce, POPSUGAR, Eventbrite, HoneyBook, Smitten, The Tech Museum of Innovation, UCSF, Spring Studio, RobotLAB, Matter of Trust, USS Hornet, SF Cable Car Museum & StoryCorps, and SFMOMA.
The following are some examples of what Hamlin girls engaged in:
-Students learned about reproductive endocrinology and infertility; fertility preservation and ovarian stimulation (among other things at UCSF).
-Students participated in an activity with autonomous car robots calculating the speed of the car based on the powers provided to the motors (at RobotLAB).
-Students participated in an interactive workshop with product managers from HoneyBook. As part of this workshop students learned how to market a product, including creating a name, logo, tagline, user interface, and conducting surveys to get feedback.
-Students enjoyed a Women in STEM Panel and Small Group Discussion at Eventbrite.
-Students gave user feedback for Quizlet’s new app. One student suggested that Quizlet add colors to the app and insert music into “Quizlet Live.”
-Students built catapults on USS Hornet and learned how similar science was used to help launch planes off aircraft carriers during World War II. Students also learned about cipher coding.
-Students at the Bay Area Discovery Museum participated in a hands-on museum “STEM Workshop” entitled Fairy Tale Engineering. Students were introduced to what engineers do and worked together to understand problems encountered by fairy tale characters. They engaged in the design thinking process as they came up with ideas, and built and tested their designs.
-Students at The Tech Museum of Innovation experienced both earthquake and jetpack simulators, and programmed social robots to find sunken treasures.
-Students visiting Salesforce gained a deeper understanding of the tech workplace from a female perspective. They also created an app that they plan to use for future bake sales to support nonprofit fundraising.