Pasadena City College to Host Free Science Day for Middle School Girls April 25

Middle school girls across the Pasadena area can spend an April morning building circuits, extracting DNA and peering through telescopes at Pasadena City College, where the annual STEM Savvy: Girls’ Science Day returns Saturday, April 25.

The free conference, organized by the American Association of University Women Pasadena Branch in partnership with Pasadena City College, pairs 6th- through 8th-grade girls in small chaperoned groups with women working in science, technology, engineering and math careers. The event has run for more than 25 years at PCC, according to the AAUW Pasadena Branch.

Activities begin at 9 a.m. and end at noon. Check-in opens at 8:15 a.m.

Workshops have covered fields including aerospace, astronomy, creative chemistry, DNA exploration, paleontology, automotive technology and computer science, according to the AAUW Pasadena Branch website. The sessions are led by women professionals and college students in STEM, with past presenters drawn from institutions including Caltech, Carnegie Observatories, City of Hope, Huntington Medical Research Institutes and PCC, according to the organization.

The morning includes short hands-on activities and at least one classroom workshop for a longer project, according to the AAUW Pasadena Branch. Girls are assigned to groups and accompanied by adult chaperones throughout the event.

The AAUW Pasadena Branch organizes the conference with partners including Pasadena City College, the PCC MESA program, the City of Pasadena, Pasadena Unified School District, Delta Sigma Theta, Caltech and the YWCA.

The event takes place at Pasadena City College, 1570 E. Colorado Blvd. Parking is free in Lot 5, entered from South Bonnie Avenue. Student drop-off is available via the Lot 7 shuttle area on South Bonnie Avenue south of Colorado Boulevard. Registration is available at STEMSavvy.eventbrite.com. For information, contact the AAUW Pasadena Branch at aauwpasadena@gmail.com.

The conference is one of several STEM outreach programs run by the AAUW Pasadena Branch, which has maintained partnerships with Caltech and PCC and has promoted equity and education for women and girls since its national organization was founded in 1881, according to the branch’s website.