OC Girl Scouts Participate Virtually in 5th Annual GSOC STEM Expo

On Sunday, October 25, nearly 200 Girl Scouts in grades 4-8 gathered for Girl Scouts of Orange County’s 5th annual STEM Expo – this year hosted online! During the three-hour expo, Girl Scouts rotated through 23 volunteer-led STEM activities – including learning what is visible through a Solar Telescope with Science Heads, coding with The CoderSchool, STEM Career Exploration with Raytheon, and building brain models with student volunteers from Cal State Fullerton’s Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) program - a federally funded program that offers undergraduates the training and preparation to pursue careers in biomedical research. Each girl received an activity kit prior to the event with supplies to support her hands-on STEM experiences.

Celebrating its fifth year, the event was created in partnership with the Cal State Fullerton's Association for Computing Machinery-Women in Computing student organization and GSOC STEM Patrol volunteers and made possible through funding from the Girl Scouts of Orange County STEM Consortium.

“We are thrilled to have been able to deliver this favorite Girl Scout event to hundreds of girls in a safe virtual format,” said Girl Scouts of Orange County STEM Manager Lara Childers. “Girls had the opportunity to interact virtually with small groups of their peers for hands-on activities while hearing from incredible STEM organizations. The success of this year’s program – which included over 90 separate sessions - has much to do with the dedicated volunteers who came together to transform Girl Scouts of Orange County’s annual STEM Expo into a fun and engaging online experience.”

Girl Scouts also heard from volunteers from several organizations launched by local Gold Award Girl Scouts themselves. GearUp4Youth - founded by 2019 National Gold Award Girl Scout Megan Loh from Placentia, CA - demonstrated how to make a Happy Birthday Light Up Circuit Card. Megan’s Gold Award Project GearUp4Youth has brought robotics education programs to over 13,500 girls to date in Southern California and beyond. Volunteers from STEMUp4Youth – a nonprofit started by her sister and 2017 National Gold Award Girl Scout Sharleen Loh - led Girl Scouts in a marshmallow cannon activity. 2020 Gold Award Girl Scout and recent alum Samantha Goble from Brea led a planting activity to support Orange County’s pollinating insects as part of Project Pollinator – her Gold Award Project.

Special thanks to our generous sponsors and GSOC STEM Consortium members:

Broadcom Foundation (Founding Member), Blizzard, Capitol Group, Edwards Lifesciences, Ericsson, Kaiser Permanente Thrive, Municipal Water District of Orange County, Union Bank, and Western Digital.

Girl Scouts introduces girls of every age to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) experiences relevant to everyday life. Whether they’re discovering how a car engine runs, learning to code, practicing citizen science, or exploring careers in STEM fields, Girl Scouts learn that STEM is for them.

To learn more about Girl Scouts of Orange County’s exciting STEM programs or to volunteer or join, visit girlscoutsoc.org.

We are Girl Scouts of Orange County. We are 30,000 strong –nearly 18,000 girls and 12,000 adults who believe in the power of every G.I.R.L. (Go-getter, Innovator, Risk-taker, Leader)™ to change the world. With programs in every zip code in Orange County, Girl Scouts offers every girl opportunities to practice a lifetime of leadership, adventure, and success. To volunteer, reconnect, donate, or join, visit www.GirlScoutsOC.org.

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