The Alliant Energy Pioneering Your Future in STEM is a one-day event for fifth through eighth-grade students, with a focus on getting more girls interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Participants have the opportunity to learn about careers that require creative problem solving, encourage forward thinking, make a difference in society, and share the future of our world. Women remain underrepresented in the science and engineering workforce with the greatest disparities occurring in engineering, computer science, and the physical sciences (NSF, Science & Engineering Indicators, 2018).
Explore careers with hands-on, interactive sessions that involve:
- Critical thinking
- Experimenting
- Learning the design process
- Using problem solving skills to solve real-world challenges
Learn about the exciting career opportunities that are available for women interested in STEM. Those in STEM careers make a difference in society, and many more women are needed in scientific fields.
Attending Pioneering Your Future in STEM
Pioneering Your Future in STEM is open to students in grades five–eight. Individuals, chaperoned school groups, and home-school groups are all welcome. Registration is limited to 150 participants and once capacity is reached, registrants will be added to the waitlist. This event tends to fill up quickly and usually before the registration deadlines. All participants and chaperones must register.
Student participants must be chaperoned by teachers, parents, or guardians. Groups must attend with a 10:1 participant-to-chaperone ratio. Schools may bring parents as chaperones. Chaperones have primary custodial care of their participants. A chaperone must attend each breakout session with their students. Participants from the same school will be put into groups with no more than 10 students from that school to maintain the 10:1 ratio.
Please contact Kim Sargent at pyf@uwplatt.edu or 608.342.7137 with any questions.
Cost
Cost includes breakfast, lunch, program materials, and project supplies. Credit cards are not accepted. School groups may request an invoice for payment by email. Individuals with financial need may request a scholarship by emailing pyf@uwplatt.edu.
Session Topics
Pioneering Your Future in STEM is a collaboration of faculty, staff, and students from STEM programs at UW-Platteville such as agriculture, animal science, biology, chemistry, computer science, dairy science, engineering, environmental science, and society, horticulture, industrial studies, mathematics, psychology, and sustainability and renewable energy systems. Each year has different topics that participate in the sessions. We also have sessions led by our industry partners such as Alliant Energy, John Deere, and Oshkosh Corporation.
Click on the UPCOMING EVENTS for date-specific details, including cost, deadlines, and registration.
Mailing List
Get advance information about Pioneering Your Future in STEM along with other pre-college program events like Women in STEM Career Day and STEM Expo, by signing up for the mailing list.
Pioneering Your Future is for 5th – 8th grade students. Our focus is on girls to encourage them to enter the STEM fields by providing female role models to help them see themselves in STEM Careers. In the US, women make up about 34% of STEM occupations. When you break that down by discipline, women are 14% in engineering and 21% in computer programming. Our mission of the Women in STEM Program is to recruit and graduate more women in the STEM programs that we offer to create a more diverse STEM workforce. We also have our annual STEM Expo which is open to girls and boys.
