Background: Despite representing half of approximately 1.5 million camp counsellors in the United States, women in outdoor experiential education (OEE) continually face barriers that constrain them to lead according to restrictive gendered expectations. While scholars have studied this issue across a variety of OEE contexts, summer day camps are…

Motivated by a desire to encourage girls to pursue science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) studies, librarians at the Marston Science Library (Marston) at the University of Florida (UF) developed Girls Tech Camp (GTC), a summer camp designed to introduce middle-school girls to creative technologies used in these fields. This week-long…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the outcomes of all-female camp experiences on women's lives. Using a retrospective approach, this study collected qualitative data from 131 women to examine the benefits of all-female camp experiences, to analyze the skills they gained at camp, and to understand how they apply these skills to their…

On a Monday morning in July, a fan as tall as a refrigerator churned noisily in the cavernous classroom. As the outdoor temperature crept higher, teenage girls wearing hardhats and safety glasses wiped perspiration and sawdust from their faces. This was not a field trip. This was the second hour of camp at Ranken Technical College in St. Louis,…

This study aims to determine the role of youth camp practices, organised by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, in the development of self-awareness and leadership skills of female students participating in youth camps. As a result of analysis of the data collected with triangulation method--observation, focus group discussions and document…

This article reflects upon an investigative study of the powerful impact that mentoring partnerships have on pre-college students and young engineering professionals in Hartford, CT. It was found that these partnerships can provide very strong foundations for a diverse pre-college student engineering pipeline that includes significant numbers of…

There continues to be a persistent, widespread gender gap in multiple STEM disciplines at all educational and professional levels: from the self-reported interest of preschool aged students in scientific exploration to the percentages of tenured faculty in these disciplines, more men than women express an interest in science, a confidence in their…

Research suggests that a girl's career interests in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) declines between grades 6 and 8. Similarly, in middle school, there is a decrease in physical activity among girls. Researchers at the University of Rhode Island (URI) conducted a chemistry-based science camp that took place…

Low-income minority females are disproportionately affected by obesity. The relevance of summer months to weight gain is often overlooked. Some evidence suggests that summer programming, such as day camps, may offer increased opportunities for structured physical activities resulting in less weight gain. This study examined the effectiveness of…

Our research examines the relationship among identity, age, gender and athleticism through a study of the association between sports clothing and the identity work of pre-adolescent female soccer players. Based on participant-observation and interviews conducted at three co-ed youth soccer camps, we find that age is an important element of…

Although the number of women majoring in engineering and engineering technology has increased in the last few decades, percentages lag behind those in other STEM disciplines. Young women often have misperceptions about the nature of engineering, and that leads to lack of interest. Engineering is often seen as men's work. They do not understand how…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of Cheering in the Classroom, a four day program designed purposefully to increase female awareness and perceptions of technology fields. The camp included discipline-based activities from the 13 different programs of study based in technology. The camp targeted high school cheerleaders and…

This article focuses on a bookmaking project that was conducted with pre-adolescent Serbian and Bosnian girls at a summer camp outside Sarajevo, Bosnia in 2005. During this camp, children from Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia were brought together by the Global Children's Organisation to engage in a variety of activities, including conflict resolution,…

Many informal science educational programs aim to help students improve their understanding of science. Little research, however, has focused specifically on the direct experiences and subsequent ideas of culturally and linguistically diverse girls when they engage with science in informal learning settings. The research described in this report…

The current number of women in technology and engineering only represents a fraction of today's workforce. Technological innovation depends on our nation's best and brightest, representing all segments of our diverse society. Sanders (2005), in talking about women in technology and engineering, stated that women's lack of participation can only be…