The Gilbert Public School district’s technology department is hosting its third annual  GPS Girls STEMpowered Feb. 7. 

STEMpowered brings 170-plus young women grades 5-12 from each of the district’s 39 schools for a day of planning, engineering, creating, building, and programming with robotics. The event goes from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at the GPS Tech Services campus, 55 N. Greenfield Road, Gilbert. 

Last year, students worked in groups to create a tech-based Olympics-themed animatronic float and museum display. This year, the event will have an arcade theme where groups will create and code pinball machines with working parts, animations, sounds, and lights. 

The event gives girls an opportunity to come together, collaborate, create, and practice lifelike exposure to machines, tools, coding and real STEM experiences. 
 Transportation coordinates to pick students up from each of the elementary, junior, and high school campuses and bring them to the Tech Services campus. 

They are divided into teams that are strategically created so that there are students from each grade level and no students from the same school.  

 Additionally, they are assigned a Tech Team Mentor, a GPS adullt who is there to guide them and help keep each team on track.  

The participants are encouraged to work together to problem solve, refer to resource documentation online, and complete the coding project entirely on their own.  

https://sites.google.com/gilbertschools.net/stempowered/home