Students learn artificial intelligence and machine learning during a workshop at the 2025 Youth in STEM Conference at the University of Wyoming. During the session, students followed and modified provided computer code, watching in real time as their models came to life on low-cost edge devices. This year’s Youth in STEM event is scheduled Tuesday, May 19, from 8:30 a.m.-2:15 p.m. at various locations on the UW campus. (Duong Nguyen Photo)
About 625 junior, middle and high school female and male students from 18 schools across the state have signed up to learn more about science and its various disciplines on the University of Wyoming campus.
The Youth in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) Conference, scheduled Tuesday, May 19, from 8:30 a.m.-2:15 p.m., is designed to spark students’ passion in STEM fields and provide the students with mentors and role models. The conference, now in its 26th year, formerly was known as the Women in STEM Conference.
“This conference is about opening doors -- sometimes, doors students didn’t even know existed. At Youth in STEM, we’re not just talking about careers or concepts; we’re giving students the chance to experience them,” says Megan Candelaria, an assistant research scientist in UW’s Department of Physics and Astronomy and co-director of the Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium. “They get to build, test, question and explore alongside people who use STEM every day, which helps make those pathways feel real and accessible, and connects what they’re learning to real opportunities here in Wyoming, including work that supports NASA and careers they can pursue right here at home.”
The conference, sponsored by Trihydro and Tata Chemicals, will offer 37 hands-on workshops.
Each participant will engage in three workshops and will meet professionals who do
“science” daily in their careers, Candelaria says.
Volunteers from UW and regional organizations will present workshops on a variety
of science- and technology-related topics, including meeting animal ambassadors; tree
identification; falconry; using gel electrophoresis to solve elk poaching cases; learning
how satellites collect information about croplands, rangelands, forests, wildfires
and floods; surviving in outer space; the Harry C. Vaughan Planetarium; searching
for evidence of water on Mars; learning about the Green River rock formation through
making bracelets; designing a new fish species; the science of speaking; the science
behind music; learning what’s inside a battery; discussing real-world scenarios that
link engineering, energy and ethics; design nature art; microscopy techniques; learning
the link between blood and health; and exploring science through the Colorado State
University mobile lab.
Other workshops will include a butterfly pavilion; STEM mobile science lab; becoming
an accountant and determining whether Nike is beating its competition; learning how
the brain controls what animals do; soil health and climate-resilient agriculture;
seeing beneath the soil surface; careers available at animal care facilities; 3D printing;
what ice cream floats and groundwater have in common; pharmacy’s role in cardiac arrest;
artificial intelligence and machine coding; Riverside Discovery Program animals; LED
circuit board keychains; a chemistry workshop; using stethoscopes to learn about nursing;
and controlled environment agriculture.
Workshops are scheduled to take place in various campus buildings, including the Agriculture Building, Aven Nelson Building, Biological Sciences Building, Classroom Building, College of Business Building, Engineering and Education Research Building, Engineering Building, Enzi STEM Building, Geology Building, Health Sciences Building, Physical Sciences Building and the Science Initiative Building.
Welcoming and closing remarks, as well as lunch, will take place in the Wyoming Union.
A student learns the fundamentals of how structures are built from the ground up by mixing masonry mortar and constructing a stack bond brick prism during a civil and architectural engineering workshop at the 2025 Youth in STEM Conference at UW. (Chicory Bechtel Photo)
To date, students from the following communities and schools have registered to participate in Youth in STEM:
-- Casper: CY Middle School, Centennial Junior High School and Dean Morgan Middle School.
-- Cheyenne: Carey Junior High School, Central High School, East High School, Johnson Junior High School, McCormick Junior High School and South High School.
-- Douglas Middle School.
-- Glenrock Junior/Senior High School.
-- Green River High School.
-- Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) Junior/Senior High School.
-- Homeschool students (various cities).
-- Laramie Middle School.
-- Mountain View Middle School.
-- Saratoga Middle School.
-- Yoder: Southeast High School.
Schools may still sign up to be on the waitlist and will be allowed to register if space opens, Candelaria says.
“What I hope students take away is a sense of possibility. Maybe they discover a field they’ve never considered, or maybe they start to see themselves as someone who can do STEM,” Candelaria says. “If they leave even a little more curious, a little more confident and thinking ‘maybe this could be for me,’ then we’ve done exactly what we set out to do.”
For more information about the Youth in STEM Conference, go to https://wyomingspacegrant.org/k12programs/youth-in-stem/.
