Camp Information

Girls Talk Math is a FREE two-week day camp hosted on WPI campus. Camp is for rising 9th to 12th grade girls and non-binary students interested in STEM who are excited to explore challenging problems that go beyond the high school curriculum. Lunch and snacks will be provided and a $250 stipend will be paid to each camper at the successful completion of the program.

In 2023 Girls Talk Math at WPI will take place July 10th-21st, Monday to Friday, 9AM to 4PM.
Girl working out math problem at the board

Group Projects

Campers will divide into groups of four or five to complete several projects throughout the two camp weeks. Each group will:

  1. Work independently through a problem set on an advanced STEM topic usually not encountered until college or even graduate school.
  2. Write a blog post about the topic learned in the problem set. Read blog posts from past Girls Talk Math campers.
  3. Research the life and work of a scientist from a marginalized group whose scientific contributions are related to the problem set topic.
  4. Write and record a podcast about the scientist’s life and work. Listen to the Girls Talk Math podcasts on SoundCloud or iTunes.

Camp Structure and Activities

Girls Talk Math is a day camp running for two consecutive weeks, Monday to Friday, 9AM to 4PM.

There will be time for group work every day with several other activities interspersed throughout the two weeks. These activities include short lectures on the topics campers are studying, panels with STEM professionals, and several hands-on workshops, including “How to Make a Podcast,” “Introduction to Scratch,” and “How to Get into College.”

WPI'22 Girls Talk Math students solving problems as a team

Typical Camp Day

A typical day at camp is divided into four group project time-blocks, with two short breaks and a longer lunch break. All camp activities will be on WPI campus: group project time-blocks will be in classrooms and activity rooms, short breaks will be outside (weather permitting), and lunch will be in the Morgan Dining Hall. Pre- and post-camp care are available upon request.

Typical camp day schedule

9:00AM - 10:20AM – Welcome and work on group projects
10:20AM - 10:40AM –  Snack break
10:40AM - 12:00PM – Morning activity (see examples above)
12:00PM - 1:00PM – Lunch in the Morgan Dining Hall
1:00PM - 2:20PM – Work on group projects
2:20PM - 2:40PM – Short break
2:40PM - 4:00PM – Afternoon activity (see examples above)

Girls Talk Math was founded by Professor Francesca Bernardi and Katrina Morgan when they were PhD students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Girls Talk Math is now hosted on three US campuses: at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (founding chapter, since 2016), at the University of Maryland College Park (sister chapter, since 2018), and at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (sister chapter, since 2022). Learn more at https://girlstalkmath.com.

Girls Talk Math is funded through grants from the Women's Impact Network (WIN) and the MAA Tensor Women & Mathematics program.

This program welcomes all participants regardless of age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or veteran status. In particular, we encourage individuals, regardless of gender, gender expression, gender identity, and sex, to participate in this program.