The Identification of Girls' Attitudes to STEM via Science Camp "Lab Technology and Everyday Life Consumption"
Abstract
The "Lab Technology and Everyday Life Consumption" science camp is one of the national activities of the European project Empower Girls to Embrace their Digital and Entrepreneurial Potential (GEM), which aims to promote the interest of girls aged 12 to 16 in STEM and the related field of ICT in the Czech Republic. It also has ambitions to inspire girls to choose a profession and do business in those fields.
The two-day science camp took place at the Department of Chemistry and Chemistry Education, Faculty of Education, Charles University in two runs at the end of August and October. It includes short lectures and discussions with scientists in chemistry and related fields, but the main emphasis is on practical activities.
The girls work with various laboratory equipment, such as computer-assisted measurement sensors, learn to handle basic laboratory operations and perform simple experiments. Their relationship to STEM and its components and connections with everyday life is identified before and after the end of the camp by a questionnaire created within the project.
In this paper, we focus on the description of preparation, implementation and evaluation of the science camp, as well as on the results of the evaluation of attitudes of girls identified in questionnaire surveys.