By Jarret Liotta
More than 430 middle school students from the San Fernando Valley got energized about clean energy and sustainability on Thursday, Oct. 24 at the Future Green Leaders Summit at the Discovery Cube in Sylmar.
Organized by L.A. County’s Southern California Regional Energy Network, the STEAM resource fair featured activities, entertainment and information booths aimed at introducing kids to potential career paths in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The event had an additional focus on demystifying careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics — widely known as STEM — for young women who have traditionally steered away from those careers.
“I think it’s super inspirational,” said Lola Tobin, 14, an eighth-grader at Dolores Huerta Middle School in Burbank. “I think things like this can help inspire young women to go into fields with STEM. I think it’s great.”
The opening event included speaker 44th District state Assemblymember Laura Friedman. She said “STEM and science touches so many things that we don’t even think about,” noting the role of these skills in filmmaking, oceanography, forestry, space exploration and gaming.
“All of these are open for you as occupations, if you so choose,” she told the crowd, “plus so many more things that I couldn’t even list.”
After the opening ceremony the students were divided into four different workshops including sustainability exhibits in the Discovery Cube itself, an energy-related performance by an educational acting troupe called Energy Battle Royale, a series of informational booths hosted by employers with sustainability-related ties, and a workshop on the Shark Lab shark-monitoring program run by Cal State University, Long Beach.
Felicity Eriksson, education coordinator for Shark Lab, talked about the value of gender equity in STEM disciplines.
“I think it’s really important for women to have a space in science, especially in fields that are less female dominated,” she said. “Marine biology, I think, is a unique field where women have broken into a lot of the positions that you can have. (But) I think it’s still lacking in things like engineering and math.”
“Getting kids interested, in especially environmental sustainability, is really important to our future,” Eriksson said. “That’s kind of a whole mission of our lab as well.”
Francisco Camacho, curriculum director with Regional Energy Network, known as REN, and a former school teacher, came up with the idea for the event in the hopes of making green topics relevant to life outside of school.
“You want kids to feel that their learning is connected to the real world, to outside opportunities,” he said. “We’re bringing the community together to provide an introduction to green jobs. … And we’re doing it in a way that’s fun.”
Following comments from officials, students watched the eight costumed players in Energy Battle Royale storming the stage in a showy display of their individual energy identities.
They included Ethanol, who was dressed to look like several ears of corn; Wind, who displayed giant butterfly-like wings to the cheering students; and Biogas, who had a toilet seat around his neck and pantomimed according to his unique means of generating energy.
“The superheroes are fun to watch,” said Harlow Baldinver, 14, an eighth-grader at Louis Armstrong Middle School in Sherman Oaks, who was excited to hear about green businesses.
Regarding the power of girls, she said it was important they be introduced to these disciplines. “I think girls are so smart, and we can do anything,” she said, “and I feel like we’re gonna help the world go through climate change and overcome it.”
“I’m excited for the future of girls,” Baldinver said.
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