For Immediate Release; Coverage welcome - see contact information and schedule below for planning purposes
Monday, July 11, 2016
          Contact: Maryjane Briant
          News and Media Relations Director
          Galloway Township, NJ 08205
          Maryjane.Briant@stockton.edu
          (609) 652-4593
          www.stockton.edu/media

Galloway, N.J. - Sixty girls from throughout New Jersey will learn about Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields and meet female career role models in a hands-on residential camp here sponsored by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and Stockton University from July 17-23.

“As AAUW New Jersey president, I believe in the power of projects like Tech Trek because they inspire our girls to dare to dream about the future and make it happen,” said Carol Cohen. “I'm proud that Tech Trek continues our AAUW NJ tradition of encouraging girls' involvement in STEM through our programs such as Teentech and Tween Tech. New Jersey is the only state that hosts all three of these programs, and we keep the costs down to $50 per camper for the entire week, based on generous contributions. The more girls we can prepare for higher paying STEM jobs, the closer we will come to ending the pay equity gap.”

Studies have shown that girls initially interested in STEM fields tend not to pursue them after early adolescence. Yet there is a growing demand for jobs in those male-dominated fields, and the United States has a shortfall of qualified graduates to fill them.

The students, who will be entering eighth grade in the fall, will live on campus and participate in activities such as programming apps for tablets and smart phones, conducting chemistry and biology lab experiments, exploring cybersecurity online, building circuits, maneuvering a robot over an obstacle course, and collecting samples from Lake Fred to examine under a microscope.

On Wednesday, July 20, two field trips will focus on aviation. Twenty girls will be going to Philadelphia International Airport’s air traffic control tower, and two other groups of 20 each will rotate through a day of drone flights and building and launching rockets on the Galloway campus.

“Stockton deeply values the action that AAUW has been taking to close the gender pay equity gap,” said Dean Claudine Keenan of the School of Education, an AAUW member and one of the event’s organizers. “Decades of research point to the reasons that adolescent girls turn away from pursuing STEM fields, where higher paying careers show the starkest gender imbalances.”

“The Tech Trek camp model puts that research into action, providing girls with hands-on STEM experiences, led by women in these fields, at our state-of-the-art facilities, in our naturally beautiful, residential campus environment,” Keenan said.

All campers will attend core classes during the week including:

Symantec Cyber Security: Learn how a computer works, how to code and finally how to hack like a hero - with LOTS of hands-on activities.

It’s Electric! Learn how circuits work and creating your own with light-up name tags, flashlights and a circuit thank you card for the sponsors. Learn about women such as Edith Clarke, who made their mark in electrical engineering before anyone believed we could.

MIT Inventor Apps on Verizon Tablets: Use existing phone app templates to add one’s own spin on coding apps. Learn the basics of app invention in an environment that MIT developed, and discover how apps are used on mobile phones and tablets.

1-2-3 Blast off to STEM: During this interactive and hands-on learning approach, actively participate in several different laboratory experiments understanding the how and why things work in various branches of science while integrating technology seamlessly within each step of our learning. Students will build rocket racers, create an apparatus to have the highest explosion with Coke and Mentos, walk across eggs, and much more.

For more information about the camp, visit the AAUW Tech Trek site.

For more information about Stockton, visit www.stockton.edu.

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Note to Editors - For Planning Purposes and Not for Publication: All campers’ parents have signed photography and media release forms.

Media are welcome to contact Peg Fiore of AAUW at 347-539-0757 to arrange coverage of activities listed below:

Monday

12 pm: N-wing Cafeteria Group Photo in their camp t-shirts.

2:30 pm: Unified Science Center (USC) Room 151: Underwater Flashlight workshop– Stockton Associate Professor of Biology Tara Luke facilitating

Tuesday

9 am: USC Room 153 Coke and Mentos Blast Off – Stockton adjunct Melissa Krupp teaching 1-2-3 Blast Off Science Class

2:30 pm: USC 153 Kitchen Chemistry Workshop - Guest faculty from Atlantic Cape Community College, Laurie Lemons, will be facilitating.

Wednesday

9 am: Room F114 Droneology Computer simulation with Stockton Computer Science major, Rajvi Singh

9:15am: Room J228 Rocket Assembly with FAA guest presenter Jerry Iacona

10:30am: Lake Fred Spillway/Bridge Netting samples with Stockton Assistant Professor of Oceanography Anna Pfieffer-Herbert.

11:30am Pomona Road Athletic Fields Drone Flights with FAA volunteer Greg Meyer

1:30pm Pomona Road Athletic Fields Rocket Launch with FAA guest presenter Jerry Iacona

Thursday

10 am: Room F114 girls making computer tablets shake with their own apps

12 pm: N-wing Cafeteria group photo of campers in tie dye shirts

3 pm: Room F226 campers maneuver a robot through an obstacle course with Women in Engineering volunteers

Friday

11 am: Room J228 campers will make their circuits light up in the It’s Electric class

1 pm: Room J228 campers will use iPads to make designs for a 3D printer