At Tech Trek, girls are immersed in a world that empowers and encourages them to think about themselves as future scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and computer specialists.

Tech Trek is a one-week STEM camp for rising eighth-grade girls which got its start 15 years ago in California when a member was awarded a grant to open a science camp for girls on the Stanford University campus.  Over the next decade, the program expanded to 10 California camps.

Seeing how effective the program is — alumnae are more likely than their peers to take advanced science and math classes and eventually to go to college — AAUW decided to take the program nationwide in 2013.  Tech Trek expanded to four more states, including Washington

Campers in Washington took part in activities like building and launching model hot air balloons, building and programming model robots, fingerprinting, DNA extraction, blood patterns (CSI investigations),  the chemistry of soap making, coding computer applications, and marine biology (including dissecting squid).  They also learned how to do some computer coding, make a vacuum robot, extract DNA, make ice cream using dry ice, simulate meiosis with genetic trait models, how sonar affects us, optics, exercise physiology, medical skills (taking blood pressure, injecting an orange), and much more! Tech Trek has been shown to significantly increase girls’ self-confidence and their interest in and excitement about the STEM fields.

AAUW sent five girls from Goodman Middle School to that first camp in 2014. The following year, we were able to send 9 girls, with at least one representative from each of the middle schools in the Peninsula School District.  In 2015, our Tech Trek participants were:

Goodman Middle School – Hanna Davis, Kate Gardner, Allison Hagen, Elisabeth Johnson, Olivia Schwab

Harbor Ridge Middle School – Hope Flannigan, Ailsa Gilbert, Katherine Milner

Key Peninsula Middle School – Erin Pierson, Emma Swainston

If you’d like to learn more about Tech Trek, check out the website for AAUW National:  https://www.aauw.org/files/2015/11/Tech-Trek-Brochure-nsa.pdf

Or read about TT at:  https://www.aauw.org/what-we-do/stem-education/tech-trek/