Girls from Gilbert schools practice tech skills building Olympic-themed parade floats

GILBERT, Ariz. - More than 100 female students in Gilbert are showing what they can create using STEM programs including science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

They're using computer science and engineering skills to create Olympic-themed parade floats.

"We bring 180 girls from 39 of our schools," Shawn Abele, Gilbert Public Schools Instructional Technology Coordinator said. "Students are in grades five through 12."

Each group has a task to build an Olympic parade float. So this year's theme is the Summer Olympics with the Summer Olympics coming up."

The school STEM-powered event is catered to young women because they're underrepresented in computer science and engineering fields.

"They design them, engineer them, build them and then program them so they'll be driving literally down the middle of our floor at the end of the day," Abele said.

There are 16 groups in all, plus one group of drone programmers.

"We're just trying to make a float," student Samantha Carriere said. "We're actually assigned to the base section of the float. So we're programming the wheels to go in the direction they need to go,"

Carriere runs the STEM group at her high school so the event is very exciting for her.

"It's super cool. We get the opportunity to meet so many new girls that are all interested in the same thing," Carriere said.

The group is not just building floats. They are also organizing the school parade and building other items to improve their skills.

"They're also creating a museum artifact and each of the museum artifacts," Abele said. "Then we have a group that's programming drones to start off our parade with a drone show."

"I think the ultimate accomplishment is when they see themselves as a computer scientist, they see themselves as an engineer, they see themselves as someone who can do this," she said.