Free STEM camp for girls starts Monday in Elgin

Incoming fourth- and fifth-grade girls this fall can participate in a free, space-themed STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) summer camp next week in Elgin.

Girlstart, a national nonprofit working to expand STEM education for girls, is launching its Girlstart Galaxy camp Monday through Thursday at the Boys & Girls Club of Elgin, 355 Dundee Ave.

Camps are run by female volunteers who have been through Girlstart programs.

Participants will be led through a variety of dynamic, hands-on activities in various STEM disciplines. Topics include: Intro to NASA Technologies (research engineering), Satellite Launcher and Gravity Planes (aerospace engineering), Communicating in Space (design engineering); Space Salad (botany, microgravity); Moon Landing (materials engineering); Down to the Core (astronautical engineering); Inspector Detector (flight systems engineering), and Designing Satellites (robotics). Students will learn to use technology to design rovers, and augmented reality and virtual reality apps.

The goal of the summer camps is to inspire girls to pursue majors in college leading to STEM careers, said Phil West, a Girlstart spokesman.

"They work with elementary school girls, keeping them engaged and inspired in STEM, to ultimately address the discrepancy in numbers between men and women in the U.S.'s professional STEM ranks," West said.

The Boys & Girls Club of Elgin has been a summer camp partner since 2013. Club leaders select students who participate. The site currently doesn't offer any Girlstart after-school programs, West said.

Founded in 1997, Texas-based Girlstart provides STEM programs in nine states. This year, summer camps are hosted in Texas, St. Louis, the Seattle metro area, the Silicon Valley and Boston. Those sites also will offer after-school programs starting this fall.

Girlstart also offers professional development for teachers, and community and online STEM education outreach programs.