Eighth-grade students Arviana C. Woodland (left) of Southeast Middle School and Destiny Singleton of the Community School for Apprenticeship Learning (CSAL) try Entergy engineering hard hats on for size during Girls in Engineering, Math and Science Day at Scotlandville Magnet High School.

On Friday, January 7, Scotlandville Magnet High School’s Academy of Engineering gave young ladies interested in engineering, math and science the awesome opportunity to explore their topics of interest with hands-on activities and professional engineers.  Groups of anxious middle school students crowded into the high school library to participate in the Girls in Engineering, Math and Science (GEMS) workshop, which also served as recruitment for the Academy.  Students represented private and public schools from across East Baton Rouge Parish.

The middle school students were paired with high-achieving female engineering students in their junior year at the high school, female engineering Scotlandville High faculty members and professional engineers from Entergy and ExxonMobil. Activities included robotics, rocket launching competitions, creative problem-solving, explorations of nanotechnology and an introduction to electrical engineering and energy production. The students learned some of the fundamentals and basics of all the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) courses.

One of the participating students, Symone Puckett of Sherwood Middle Magnet School, said she was interested in pursuing chemical engineering and enjoyed the chemistry demonstration on nanotechnology. Another participant, Vivian Cotton, said she had an interest in mechanical engineering and wanted to attend Scotlandville High.  Alexandria Proffet, an Engineering junior at Scotlandville Magnet High School, said “the students were ecstatic to be provided with the opportunity to interact with professional female engineers.”
 
“I had the time of my life,” said Brandy Stewart of McKinley Middle Academic Magnet School.  “I feel as if I’m a future hornet, and Scotlandville is where I belong! I may have walked in not knowing my future career path, but I walked out certain that I want to be a computer engineer and study at Scotlandville Magnet High School.”