LMU, Project Scientist to Host STEM-Focused Summer Academy for Girls

LOS ANGELES, February 23, 2018 (Newswire.com) - Loyola Marymount University will partner with the nonprofit group Project Scientist to host five week-long summer sessions offering hands-on instruction for girls interested in science, technology, engineering and math.

The students, girls ages 4-12, who join Project Scientist’s Summer Academy will be immersed in STEM, learning from a tailored curriculum facilitated by highly skilled and credentialed educators. Project Scientist’s location on LMU’s Westchester campus marks the nonprofit’s fifth site in Southern California and results from a partnership with the School of Education.

We are honored to serve the West Los Angeles and South Bay communities by partnering with LMU. Allowing girls to participate in our program on a university campus that houses exceptional engineering and education programs will allow us to provide more girls with the Project Scientist experience while giving them a vision for themselves to someday attend institutions like LMU.

Sandy Marshall, Project Scientist founder and CEO

“LMU is thrilled to host these young scientists as they are introduced to intriguing STEM concepts, while also providing new internship opportunities for our undergraduate and graduate students,” said Shane P. Martin, dean of the LMU School of Education.

The partnership allows LMU staff members and students pursuing education- and STEM-related studies to gain professional development experience at the Summer Academy and develop curriculum.

"We are honored to serve the West Los Angeles and South Bay communities by partnering with LMU,” said Project Scientist founder and CEO Sandy Marshall. “Allowing girls to participate in our program on a university campus that houses exceptional engineering and education programs will allow us to provide more girls with the Project Scientist experience while giving them a vision for themselves to someday attend institutions like LMU.”

Students in the Summer Academy will experience a community of like-minded girls who enjoy exploring through the sciences and celebrating their accomplishments. They will participate in hands-on experiments and daily interactions with female role models from a variety of fields and take weekly “Expeditions” to STEM-oriented businesses near LMU.

“We are excited to partner with Project Scientist to provide this wonderful opportunity for students in our community,” said Darin Earley, director of the LMU Family of Schools, a collaborative dedicated to promoting student success and educational equity for schools in Westchester, Playa del Rey and Playa Vista. “Through this collaboration, we seek to increase student achievement in science classrooms by supporting aspiring science teachers’ professional growth while providing quality science instruction to local students.”

The Summer Academy at LMU will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and serve students from West L.A. to the South Bay. Information about fees, discounts and financial aid is available here.

The Summer STEM Academy 2018 themes and dates are:

July 2-6*: Tech Maker & Creator Lab. Take the tech world by storm through a variety of coding and robotic platforms including Makey Makeys, Beebots, Scratch, CodeSpark and mobile app development. *No camp on 7/4

July 16-20: Power Your World. Get energized about the power around us. We'll investigate different forms of energy such as chemical, electrical, sound and light, and tinker and test a variety of energy sources.

July 23-27: Grossology. Explore the GROSS side of science from human bodies and germs to wastewater treatment and decomposition. We'll get our hands dirty as we manipulate the chemistry and biology of these GROSS, but fun topics.

July 30-Aug. 3: Digging the Dino. Jump back to a time where dinosaurs ruled Earth. We'll be archaeologists and paleontologists sorting through bones, fossils and artifacts in our prehistoric world. 

Aug. 6-10: Girls Take Flight. Combining the forces of flight gives us liftoff into the field of aeronautics. We'll explore natural and man-made fliers such as birds, planes, helicopters, hot air balloons and hovercrafts, and launch our own into the sky.

For more information, visit www.ProjectScientist.org.

About Loyola Marymount University

Loyola Marymount University, the University of Silicon Beach®, is ranked in the top 12 percent of higher education institutions nationally by The Wall Street Journal. Founded in 1911, LMU is a Catholic, Jesuit and Marymount university with more than 6,100 undergraduate students and more than 3,000 graduate and law students. LMU offers 58 undergraduate majors and 53 minor programs, along with 46 master’s degree programs, one education doctorate, one juris doctorate, one doctorate of juridical science and 13 credential/authorization programs. LMU’s intercollegiate athletics teams compete in the West Coast Conference with 22 Division I and varsity sports. 

LMU news and events are found at www.lmu.edu/news.

About Project Scientist

Founded/established in 2011, the mission of Project Scientist is to educate, coach and advocate for girls and women with an aptitude, talent and passion for STEM. Through engagement of top STEM companies, universities, teachers and hands-on curriculum, Project Scientist Summer Academy attendees discover opportunities available to them in STEM. The need for Project Scientist was based off research that shows girls with a high skill, aptitude and talent for STEM subjects are not currently served or identified at a young age. Founder Sandy Marshall of Laguna Beach, California, created Project Scientist to change the world's view of "who" a scientist is and "what" a scientist does. Project Scientist partners with Harvard University and the University of North Carolina Charlotte to research its educational model and to validate the impact that camp programs are having on those who attend. http://www.projectscientist.org

Source: Project Scientist