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STEM

More Than a Scavenger Hunt: GE Summer Camps Offer Young Girls a Window to Explore the STEM World

Caroline Morris
August 24, 2022
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More than a decade ago, then GE CEO Jeff Immelt worried about the lack of women in the STEM fields — science, technology, engineering, and math. So, along with other initiatives, GE divisions started running weeklong summer camps for young girls so they could explore the STEM world and maybe become inspired to enter it.

The 11-year tradition remains, and in early August the GE Girls camp in Madison, Wisconsin, run by GE Healthcare, concluded its fifth annual session for about 20 middle school girls. It’s one of 11 camps throughout the country and around the world (including Switzerland, Spain, Canada, India, and Mexico) that partner with local GE businesses and universities. (The number of camps peaked at 23 prior to the pandemic.) While they all explore STEM fields, each camp has its own curriculum designed by GE employees.

The Madison camp uses the week to take the girls through product development processes. On the first day, with the focus on design, the girls create towers out of balloons and tape. The next day teaches electrical engineering, with soldering always being the biggest hit. The following day is all about mechanical builds, constructing bridges and catapults. Day four focuses on manufacturing — the girls get to go on a tour of the local GE business to test out their own designs from earlier in the week. The final day is marketing, with the girls presenting their work to a “shark tank” panel of GE volunteers. Activities changed in recent years, with more virtual and hybrid activities because of COVID.

The GE Healthcare Madison camp is run by Samantha Sweet, ultrasound advanced manufacturing engineering manager; Jill Cornell, women’s health and X-ray quality leader; and Kristen Seashore, anesthesia program manager. “It’s my favorite part of my job,” Sweet said.

Though the sessions must eventually come to a close, GE Girls stays in touch with the campers, offering them alumni days, opportunities to speak to GE employees, doorways to scholarships, and, said Sweet, “hopefully we could even hire some of them at GE eventually.”

 

GE Girls Legos
Putting their lean manufacturing skills to the test, the campers participated in a lean Lego activity in which they built Lego airplanes. They realized pretty quickly that single-piece flow was better than batching. This allowed them to better optimize their lines.

 

GE Girls Tour
On a manufacturing plant tour, the girls learned about the products GE designs and manufactures. Among the highlights were learning how anesthetic agents work, watching test lungs inflate, and meeting flow sensor robots, whom they gave the names the Bentley and Bailey.

 

GE Girls shark tank
During a shark tank session for potential investors, the campers were asked to consider who their customer was, who their competitors would be, and how they would differentiate their product. Awards were given for Most Social Impact, Best Marketing Plan, and Best Business Case.

 

GE Girls ice cream
A food science session involved making ice cream. The girls learned how to combine ingredients, and about the reaction that results in ice cream, which they of course got to sample. They also got creative with their mixing and leveraged the terrain to really get the ingredients churning.

 

GE Girls rockets
A crowd favorite is always the launching of rockets. With help from counselors, the rockets were equipped with their engines and taken outside for liftoff. There were successful gentle parachute landings and some epic crashes — both were equally entertaining. Images credit: GE Healthcare.