Girls’ Geek Day Inspires Kids to Pursue STEM

On Oct. 12, the joyous giggles of young girls filled the cafeteria of Crozet Elementary School as they picked what activities they would do that morning. About 100 parents, kids, and volunteers spent their Saturday making music with code. They built towering structures, played with robots, launched rockets with the Piedmont Student Launch Team (PSLT), and other fun and educational activities.

“Girls’ Geek Days are all about sparking elementary school-aged girl’s interest in technology and computing by providing a fun, collaborative, hands-on environment to learn new tech skills and helping them connect to other STEM programs in the community,” according to the Tech-Girls website. Girls’ Geek Days are organized by Tech-Girls and hosted at a different school each month. The next session will be Nov. 9, at Cale Elementary School, near the PVCC main campus. Registration is required beforehand, but is free, and opens to the host school a week before the general public. 

Girls’ Geek Days are open to any elementary school-aged girls. If you have an interest in the event but do not have a kid to bring, they are always looking for volunteers. “No previous experience is required – you can learn right along with the girls,” says the website, www.tech-girls.org/girls-geek-day.html, where visitors can sign up to volunteer at the events. 

The future dates and locations are:

Nov. 9 – Cale Elementary School

Dec. 14 – Broadus Wood Elementary School

Jan. 11 – Meriwether Lewis Elementary School

Feb. 15 – St. Anne’s-Belfield School

March 14 – Stone Robinson Elementary School

April 18 – Greer Elementary School

The writer of this article was previously the team lead of PSLT.