Recently, local Girl Guides had an opportunity to attend a STEM Camp which was held in New Hazelton.
The event was for Guides aged five to 17 and had about 44 local guides in attendance at the event held at New Hazelton Elementary School.
STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.
It was a weekend jam-packed with fun, learning and adventure. A highlight was a kids’ swimming pool filled with a mix of cornstarch and water to allow girls to check the experiment whether something was a solid or a liquid. This experiment was put together by an 18-year-old member who was the person in charge of organizing most of the activities.
All participants worked towards earning a special crest.
There were about 20 tables of experiments and observations available which included real microscopes, bubble monsters, creating individual tic-tac-toe boards, and working with circuits.
Ozobots on loan from the New Hazelton Library were available for learning about programming. These are little toy robots which bring together the physical and digital worlds and help teach kids about programming. They can identify lines, colors, and codes on digital surfaces such as an iPad, and physical surfaces such as paper.
There were also a few experiments such as exploding bags which caused entertaining reactions from members of all ages as they observed the reaction of baking soda and vinegar as the closed ziplock bag was puffing up and getting ready to explode.
Science lady Lynn Walcott came out with her large display cases of insects for the Guides to inspect. There were virtual reality goggles to try on and a drone as well.
The purpose of this camp was to give girls more experience with STEM activities and to bring the girls from the Hazelton and Smithers communities together.
