ST PAUL, Minnesota — On Tuesday morning, Grace Vickers is digging into the dirt at a compost pile at the University of St. Thomas.
"Usually when you think of dirt, you just think of dirt. But I like finding out what's actually in there," said Grace Vickers, 11, of Minneapolis.
Vickers is homeschooled, going into the sixth grade.
She's one of about 120 middle school girls in total who will take part in a summer camp at the university by the end of the week.
UST School of Engineering's Science, Technology and Engineering Preview Summer program (STEPS) is a chance for middle school girls to get hands-on lessons on campus.
About 20 girls are part of each free, day-long camp, taking part in activities like launching water bottle rockets.
"I love getting girls, in particular, excited about science," said Becky Riethmeier, a science teacher at Epiphany Catholic School in Coon Rapids. "You can't really be a scientist unless you're doing science and a lot of times in the classroom it's a lot of reading the book and answering the questions but here they get to actually do stuff. That is what science is all about."
Women represent nearly half of the workforce but only 27% of STEM jobs, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
"I've been in education for 23 years now and it's just really great to introduce students, especially girls, into the sciences," said Michael Gerard, STEPS program coordinator. "Oftentimes, you don't become interested in something if you don't learn about it in the first place. So we like to bring them on campus, treat them like college students so that they can start thinking about their future."
According to a Microsoft report, middle school girls who participate in STEM clubs and activities are more than twice as likely to want to study physics in high school, and nearly three times as likely to study engineering.
"I've been having a great time," Vickers said.
While watching the water bottle rockets launch, Vickers added, "This is super cool."
The girls also tour the engineering lab, talk to admissions and learn about Newton's Laws of Motion through bowling. The one-day camps are every day this week.
Next year's registration will open in January for girls in 6th or 8th grade and are chosen by lottery.
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