Woodlands Academy hosts robotics workshop for girls

Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart hosted a robotics and engineering event for middle school girls as a way to encourage girls to tackle STEM courses in high school - and STEM careers later in life.

Nearly 50 girls in grades 6, 7 and 8 attended the Dec. 3 event at the all-girls college-preparatory day and boarding high school in Lake Forest and engaged in hands-on cooperative activities requiring the use of creative problem-solving skills.

The girls, from 13 area middle schools, broke into groups and then tackled three workshops, each modeling an aspect of the work that Woodlands Academy Robotics Club students face while building their robot. One workshop focused on building a simple car with a motor. Another involved designing and building a small catapult, and the third workshop focused on basic computer programming skills using Scratch.

"I was thinking about how fortunate I am to be surrounded by such brilliant young women on my robotics team, and I wanted other girls to have the opportunity to get excited about robotics," said Elizabeth Bartusiak of Lake Forest, a Woodlands Academy senior, who developed the idea for the inaugural. "Traditionally, girls are not encouraged to pursue the fields of science, technology, engineering and math, and I wanted to give young girls the resources they need to explore robotics and engineering in an environment that is positive and supportive."

While this was its first robotics/engineering event, Woodlands has hosted a popular Mathalon competition for middle school girls the past five years.

"We want to do this to get younger girls interested in STEM," said John Denman, Woodlands Academy physics teacher/Robotics Club moderator. "They will be the next generation of scientists and engineers responsible for expanding our knowledge of the universe or creating something that we don't even know we need yet."