The Atlantic Association for Research in the Mathematical Sciences (AARMS), in collaboration with the Girl Guides of Atlantic Canada, has organized several provincial scale camps for girls aged 9-17.  The first camp was held at the University of New Brunswick in 2018, and the second was held at Dalhousie University in 2019.  Unfortunately, the COVID pandemic interrupted these camps for a few years.  The final camps were held in New Brunswick and Newfoundland in 2024.

During these events, groups of up to 500 girls participated in mini-workshop sessions aimed at increasing awareness and engagement in Science - Technology - Engineering - Mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

2024 Camp in New Brunswick

On June 1st-2nd 2024, AARMS hosted the first post-covid All SySTEMs Go event in collaboration with Girl Guides NB/PEI. This year’s event involved nearly 100 Guides and almost 40 adult volunteers from the Guiding community.

Over the two days, the girls lived on the University of New Brunswick Fredericton campus: eating in the meal hall, sleeping in the dorms, and attending five one-hour workshops presented by faculty and students from the University of New Brunswick. The workshops covered STEM topics, including Math, Computer Science, Biology, Geology, and more! Some session titles included:

  • Landslides!
  • Math, Animation and Computer Science
  • Exploring Local Fauna
  • Powering Up: Climate Change

On Saturday night, the girls attended a panel discussion where they had the opportunity to ask questions about life as a woman in STEM. The girls were full of curiosity and insightful questions. The panel was made up of

  • Colleen Bray, DVM (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine) - Veterinarian at, and co-owner of, Douglas Animal Hospital (and Guider!)
  • Elise Collet, MSc Candidate Environmental Management – Environmental Scientist at Stantec (and Guider!)
  • Sheila Gonzalez, MSc, PhD Electrical Engineering – Senior Software Developer at Potential Motors
  • Janice Lawrence, BSc Marine Biology, PhD Biological Oceanography – Associate Dean and Associate Professor at UNB

The AARMS-Girl Guides collaboration is supported by the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) via the PromoScience program. The principal organizers this year were Erin Illsey (Girl Guides of NB/PEI) and Justine Gauthier (UNB).

2024 Camp in Newfoundland