'Girls in Aviation Day' guides girls towards a career in aviation/STEM

HORSEHEADS, N.Y. (WENY) -- On Saturday, one organization hosted an event to guide girls toward a career in aviation/science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The Soaring Capital Eagles Chapter of Women in Aviation International hosted its first annual "Girls in Aviation Day" to help increase the number of girls in the field.
"We're trying to get girls interested in STEM education, fields like aviation/rocketry, [and] going into those fields that sometimes women aren't represented in. We're hoping that girls come here today and get some experiences that they'll take with them into the future," said Nicole Burt, the director of education at Wings of Eagles Discovery Center.
Kids could participate in activities like seeing how many pennies could fit on their aluminum foil boat before it would sink, flying an airplane simulator, and making different types of paper airplanes. The event was for kids of all ages, but it was mainly to show girls there are exciting careers in STEM.
Anna is a fourth grader and attended the "Girls in Aviation Day." She enjoyed making paper airplanes, spinning balloons, and controlling robots.
"I got to drive a drone and a robot. It was amazing. It kind of made me want to do robotics or something like that," said Anna.
Did you know? Women consist of less than 20 percent of the aviation workforce and only 27 percent of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields.
"So, women are highly underrepresented in fields of science and math, and we're trying to make sure that girls have an opportunity to learn about these fields ahead of time," said Burt. "When they go to make decisions about what [they're] going to do when [they] grow up,...we want to make sure they're aware the science fields are open and available to them."
For anyone interested, the Discovery Center is open on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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