2024 Girls Empowered by Math & Science Conference

Girls Empowered by Math & Science (GEMS) Conference is an annual event hosted by Girls Inc Southeast WI at UW-Parkside to raise awareness about STEM fields for middle school girls. This year over 500 8th graders participated in a variety of workshops to learn about diverse STEM fields.

Cook lab PhD students (pictured below from left to right Casey, Kerrigan, Rachael, [Sumaiya from the Petrella lab] and Justine) hosted a workshop about insect mimicry that involved games where attendees tried to guess the imposters. Everyone had a blast learning about cool bugs, mimicking behaviors, and catching imposters.

In addition to the workshop on “Environmental imposters among us”, several other groups from Marquette also hosted GEMs workshops such as “Everything has DNA that is alive!”, “Mind control your friends!”, and “Guide to Gecko Diversity”. It was an incredible opportunity to connect with our community and share our passions with the next generation.