Colorado State University Engineering Undergraduates Show Girl Scouts Science is Fun March 9 in Denver

Colorado State University engineering undergraduate students will host a program on light and optics for the Girl Scouts of Colorado in Denver on Saturday, March 9, through a program collaboration with the Optics Society of America.

Through fun, hands-on activities, such as making their own telescope, girls learn about the exciting world of optics and its importance in everyday life. The program also shows career profiles highlighting some of the many job opportunities in the field.

The event, for 4th-8th graders, will be from 9 a.m. to noon at the Girl Scouts office in Denver, 400 S. Broadway. Cost is $7 per student, with financial assistance available. The program is open to non-Girl Scouts as well. Walk up reservations are welcome.

“Providing an opportunity for these girls to explore STEM ideas and careers is fantastic! The Girl Scouts certainly helped me when I was younger, but there were less opportunities in general for women to explore science,” said Kaarin Goncz, education director for the NSF-funded Extreme Ultraviolet Engineering Research Center (EUV ERC) based at CSU.

Goncz is leading a year-long program with the undergraduate students, many of them young women, who are helping teach Girl Scouts that science can be fun.

More women than ever before are enrolling in Colorado State’s College of Engineering, which last year was honored with the Women in Engineering Initiative Award from the Women in Engineering ProActive Network. The award recognizes an outstanding project or initiative that serves as a model for other organizations.

Twice every year, the College of Engineering hosts about 800 high school students, their parents and community members who learn about engineering majors and careers at Colorado State ’s Engineering Exploration Day.

The mission of the Girl Scouts is to build girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place. STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) programming is one of the organization’s areas of emphasis, showing girls they can help fuel the pipeline of women leaders needed in STEM fields. More than 30,000 girls statewide are members of Girl Scouts of Colorado.

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