This past August, FEMMES held its first week-long summer day camp here at Duke for fifty 5th-6th grade Durham girls. Serving as counselors and role models for the girls, FEMMES volunteers developed personal relationships with the campers and had a positive influence on their attitudes towards STEM fields. Our theme this year was Forensic Science, and we incorporated fun hands-on activities, such as fingerprint analysis, DNA extraction from cheek cells, blood spatter analysis, footprint impression, and powder analysis. In addition, field trips to the lemur center, the Smart Home, and the DiVE center, were integrated into the summer camp curriculum. The camp overall was a huge success, so we are hoping to establish this summer camp program as a long-standing component of FEMMES.
This semester, we also decided to add a six-week Saturday program component to our after-school program. The Saturday program, held on Duke's West Campus, had activities that paralleled the ones we had planned for our after-school program. However, instead of going to the elementary schools during the week, we invited fifty 4th-6th graders to Duke to do the activities. This way, we were able to reach out to other young girls who did not attend the elementary schools with whom we had already partnered with for our after-school program. We plan to continue the Saturday program as a vital component of our after-school program.
