ORONO, Maine — If you ask a kid what they like to do over the summer, you'd probably get a variety of answers.
Maybe exploring the outdoors or playing video games with friends.
But for Sloane Haagen and other campers attending Girls Build the Future, the answer might come as a surprise.
"I thought engineering would be like pretty cool to do because you get to play around with a lot of different experiments," Haagen said.
During the weeklong program hosted by the Maine Discovery Museum and Sargent Corporation at their main office in Orono, Haagen and other girls in middle school are getting hands on engineering experience free of charge.
"We always try to put the hard science and the skill learning in, so it's not necessarily obvious for the girls. It just happens organically," Trudi Plummer, camp instructor and director of education at the Maine Discovery Museum Trudi Plummer, said.
Through building and testing things like model excavators and cranes, the campers get an idea of how engineering equipment functions.
"Last time was an excavator, and we had to scoop more stuff, and it didn't work as well as scooping stuff with the new one we made," camper Andy said.
Throughout the week the girls also get the opportunity to speak with real engineers at Sargent about what careers in construction engineering look like.
"I want them to kind of realize that they have an active role to play in shaping the buildings and cities and highways and transportation of the future," Plummer said.
Commissioner Heather Johnson from the Department of Community and Economic Development, the agency responsible for funding the camp, says will not only increase the number of women in construction, but improve the industry altogether.
"These young women have a lot of interesting ideas about engineering and how to modernize construction and really having an opportunity to do the hands-on work and see what works and what doesn't work even at the model level will keep them connected to the sector long term, " Johnson said.
And with all the skills she's learned through the camp, Haagan feels like she has the knowledge to help her succeed in the future.
"I feel a lot more prepared because now I know what I should do or how I can help," Haagan said.
While this is just the pilot for the program, the organizations hope to continue it in the future. If you're interested in signing your child up for the camp, you can visit the Maine Discovery Museum's website.