On its fifth year, the "Physics Wonder Girls Summer Camp" - a STEM day camp for middle school girls conceptualized by Dr. Ramos and previously funded by the National Science Foundation, was implemented on the campus of the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. This year, the camp received funding from the Lindback Foundation, enabling two four-day-long camps to be offered to 24 middle school girls who were pre-selected from a pool of top science students nominated by Philadelphia science teachers. The girls experienced four days of project-building, physics experiments, hands-on demonstrations, career talks and presentations by female scientists from the private sector and academia, and a capstone Physics Girls Show where the girls performed demonstrations to their families, teachers and friends.

This year's guests included Miss USA 2017 Kara McCullough, a scientist at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, astrophysicist Dr. Kate Daniel from Bryn Mawr College, biophysicist and Haverford College Physics Chair Dr. Suzanne Amador Kane, and three food scientists (Brenda Ramos, Kirtley Karpodinis, and Amanda Ballentine) from Puratos Corporation. The camp crew consisted of mostly female USciences physics majors.

Physics Wonder Girls twice attracted the attention of Philly’s ABC Network News Channel 6 which aired, in 2016, a two-minute segment on its primetime 6 o'clock news, and again in 2017 featuring the visit of Miss USA. The news network has a potential regional viewership of 6 million people. as they interviewed campers and the PI about “girls in science” and the role of STEM camps.

Physics Wonder Girls Camp Website  

Philadelphia ABC News Feature on Physics Wonder Girls Camp (2016)

Philadelphia ABC News Feature on Miss USA/Scientist Kara McCullough's visit to the camp (2017)

2016 Physics Girls Camp Youtube Slideshow

Physics Wonder Girls featured on NSF-funded Funsize-Physics Outreach