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School of Mines hosts engineering workshop for girls
STEPS camp gives hands-on opportunity to see what engineers do
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FarkDani Peterson, 13, was given a chance to design her own jewelry -- beads and all -- and the box to put them in. While other girls tend to prefer hearts and butterflies to go on a necklace, her choice does not beat nor flutter.
"I made a chicken," she said with a laugh. "It's my favorite animal."
Her choice may be uncommon, but so are young women who choose engineering as a career, and this is why the Science and Technology Engineering Preview Summer Camp, or STEPS, exists.
The jewelry design work is part of the camp.
Peterson is one of 22 girls in grades six through nine on the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology campus this week participating in the program, half of whom are from South Dakota; the others come from Wyoming, Nebraska and Minnesota.
Participants in the STEPS camp get the opportunity to take a glimpse into the lives of college students and to participate in hands-on activities that provide them with an understanding of what engineers do.
"It sounded like a good opportunity to learn about engineering," Adelyn Crabtree, 14, of Pierre, said. "I've always thought about engineering as a future career choice."
Of the jewelry she designed, Crabtree made mostly red- and gold-colored beads since she's a big Harry Potter fan, and those are the colors of the boy wizard's house team, Gryffindor, at Hogwart's.
The students used computer-aided drafting to design their jewelry boxes and a computer-numerated control drill to carve the box's shape and designs.
"Everybody's design is a little different," Kelli Kammerer, information specialist at Tech, said.
The program allows the students to apply their personal interests toward the field, and a low student-to-teacher ratio is set up for greater individual attention. In the drafting class in which they made the jewelry boxes, teamwork was essential, and each of the six students had a specific job.
"If they don't do it as a team, nothing gets done," Dean Jensen, the Tech professor teaching the class, said. "These guys learn fast."
The STEPS camp offers classroom and work experience to help students make decisions about what classes to take in high school that prepare them for science-based careers, according to a brochure.
The camps originated at the University of Wisconsin-Stout in 1997 to raise the interest of youths, particularly women, in manufacturing and engineering, according to the Society of Manufacturing Engineers' Web site.
Two boys camps were held on campus within the past two weeks and marked the first year the program here was opened to boys. There will be another STEPS camp for girls next week, with about 27 students, Kammerer said.
Other academic activities include a laser-shop tour, blacksmithing and a GeoCache scavenger hunt, which uses a global positioning system to get from one location to the next. The campers will also have a pizza party, swim and go on other field trips.
"It's not all just work. They get a little bit of play, too," Jensen said.
Melanie Jeppeseen of Pleasantdale, Neb., uses a vacuum Tuesday afternoon to suck wood shavings from the working surface as a computer-numerated control drill carves away at the surface of a block of wood at the annual Science and Technology Engineering Preview Summer camp at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. (Seth A. McConnell, Journal staff)
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