(upbeat music) - What we're going to do today, we're going to do a Hot Wheels car experiment.

We have boxes, we have books, anything that you need to create.

- So, today we are doing our fourth week of girls in STEM in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

It's a free program for girls between the ages of 12 and 16.

And the goal of our program is to introduce them to different STEM fields and STEM careers.

STEM being science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

- The primary problem is does the height of a ramp affect the distance a Hot Wheels car would travel?

- So, this activity is fun because they'll be split into teams and it's very hands on.

They'll be building some car ramps and testing whether the height of the ramp affects the distance that the car can travel.

- I love cars.

I love motors.

Like my favorite car is a BMW because it can go from zero to 80 in about two or three seconds.

Does the weight of a car affect how long a car will extend?

You will have to write what you discover.

You will have to measure.

I'm looking at future engineers, doctors, scientists, people that's going to discover cures for incurable diseases.

People who are going to not be afraid to speak out for people's rights.

I'm not going to tell you exactly what to use.

I'm not going to say, okay, pick this up.

Now, measure this.

Now, measure that.

You've been taught all those things.

The great thing about being a scientist or an engineer is that you won't be perfect.

Scientists test and try things.

They try to prove what they believe their hypothesis is correct.

And you're going to have to develop a hypothesis.

- Hopefully they leave with some confidence.

I think especially young women lose confidence if they're not like super great at math, or super great at physics.

And so, they get self-conscious and then don't pursue those interests or careers.

So, we try to show them that you don't have to be perfect.

- Does everybody know what variables are?

I'm getting thumbs up.

If you don't know, it's okay.

That's the good thing about a scientist.

They realize they're not perfect.

They realize like, hey, I need to try this.

I need to get my hands on it.

- I've been doing this for five years, but I started volunteering this year.

Female representation in STEM is not like a lot.

There's a lack of it.

So, I decided if I can help these girls be confident in the ability to do STEM activities, then like, that's everything.

- You're going to have 40 minutes to decide how you want to build your ramp.

- They don't teach you this in regular school.

I get to learn about like things they do in the real world.

There's so many careers in STEM and this program shows the ones that are available and all the opportunities you can have.

- A lot of women have these like ideals that they can't do a certain job.

So, it's important that all of us women work together and we start pushing ourselves to do hard things in order to put women in these high powers of places.

- Being in the program, it allows me to meet different people and meet different mentors from different ages and different grades.

Seeing women in these positions inspires me along with other girls to do things like that.

And I think slowly it's changing things for the better.

- It amazes me to see what these girls are doing.

They're really experimenting, seeing how far they can go, how far the car can go, looking at if it falls what do I need to do so the car will continue to travel?

That's amazing to me because that's what we're teaching them to be independent thinkers.

- I love the experience that we do every year is something different.

- We use chairs, we used a whiteboard.

We used anything we could and it was like really a way to get creative 'cause you had to.

- We know all of you are leaders.

So, what you did today was what architects, engineers, civil engineers, that's what they do every day.

All of that matters.

- It's really fascinating to see these women in these various fields because I could one day be in their position.