More than 40 girls from Butler Intermediate High School are spending the day learning about careers in science and math during “Introduce a Girl To Engineering Day.”
XTO Energy invited the students into their Warrendale offices on Thursday for several hands-on engineering activities designed to showcase the unique and real-world applications of STEM- which stands for science, technology, engineering and math.
“This is amazing,” Allie Vendetti, operations engineer for XTO, said in an interview Thursday. “When I was this age, I did not have an opportunity to visit, or talk, to an engineer. What I find really important today is I see young girls talking and supporting each other about going into a career that has been very male dominated.”
Students are working on two experiments today- one that challenges them to create a vessel using only foil, graph paper and straws, and it needs to bear the weight of pennies. A second experiment challenges the girls to create a launcher to deliver a marshmallow to a targeted area.
