Girls in STEM Day

Saturday, March 22, 2025 | 12–4 pm
Add to calendar 2025-03-22 12:00:00 2025-03-22 12:00:00 Event – Girls in STEM Day La Brea Tar Pits nhmla webmaster@nhm.org America/Los_Angeles public

Date

Saturday, March 22, 2025 | 12–4 pm

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Location

La Brea Tar Pits
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Tickets

Free with Museum Admission
Free for Members

Girls in STEM Day

This one-day outdoor/indoor event is an opportunity for girls ages 8-18 to participate in STEM activities, meet STEM professionals, and explore future career paths in a fun and engaging way!  Come on over to La Brea Tar Pits to be a part of this exciting STEM celebration!  The Girls in STEM Day celebration will include:

Fun Activities

  • Welcome Table: Learn more about the program, pick up a scavenger hunt, and grab a Girls in STEM sticker.
  • Live Music: Listen to DJ Wenluv spinning music on the Great Lawn!
  • Photo Booth: Take a free picture in the Girls in STEM photo booth!
  • Raffles: Participate in regular giveaways of exciting, fun, and educational gifts before each stage presentation!
  • Research & Collections Tables: Meet scientists from the Natural History Museum and La Brea Tar Pits and get up close to some amazing items from the Museum's collections!
  • Museum Educator Tarpits Tour: Take an outdoor walking excavator tour to learn all about the history of the Tar Pits and the specimens discovered here.
  • Hands-on Activities: Get crafty and explore your inner artist with some hands-on activities.
  • La Brea Tar Pits Mobile Museum:  Take a peek inside La Brea Tar Pits’ Mobile Museum and discover Ice Age Los Angeles, fossils, and more!
  • Food Trucks: Enjoy a lineup of food trucks with different food options, from sweet to savory, and then picnic on the Great Lawn. Be sure to bring a blanket!!

STEMinist Fair | Great Lawn

Meet and interact with local STEM-based organizations:

Women In STEM Stage | La Brea Tar Pits Museum
(by The Columbian Mammoth exhibit) 

Come and listen to inspiring conversations with STEM professionals who have all taken different journeys to arrive where they are today!

Full lineup:

  • 12:30pm | For the Love of Animals - Slither in and take a seat for a peek into the science of Animal Husbandry with our Senior Manager of Living Collections, Leslie Gordon, accompanied by one of the animals in her collection!
  • 1:30pm | Storytime with Joyce Uglow author of Stuck! The Story of La Brea Tar Pits- Come on over and get “stuck” with Joyce as she reads from her new book about the Tar Pits!
  • 2:30pm | Women in STEM Panel - Join us in conversation with our very own scientists as they share their journey and pathways into science.

2024 Girls in STEM Day at the Natural History Museum:

Museum Educators and guests standing on either sides of a table with specimens
Museum Educators and students standing on either side of a table with a large skull
Museum Educators and guests standing on either sides of a table with specimens
Museum Educators and guests standing on either sides of a table with a 3-D model of buildings and waterways
Two LADWP representatives standing behind a table with LADP on it under a yellow tent

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Meet the STEMinists

Dr. Leslie Gordon of NHM holding a snake

Leslie has worked at NHM for 25 years, caring for animals and educating about the most misunderstood creatures. Her career started in theatrical construction, but she has been a nanny, a carpenter, a welder, a gallery educator and a zookeeper. One of her favorite jobs was making toys and games for zoo animals at the LA Zoo Enrichment department. Everything she does at work these days is for the Love of Animals!

Dr. Emily Lindsey at La Brea Tar Pits

Dr. Emily Lindsey is Associate Curator and Excavation Site Director at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum. She studies what Ice Age animals and ecosystems were like, how climate change and human actions can combine to cause extinctions, and how plants and animals might respond to environmental changes going on today.

Juliet Hook managing the collections at NHM

Juliet Hook first started her journey at the museum volunteering in front of the dueling dinosaurs in highschool. After graduating from UC Davis with a Bachelor’s of Science in Evolutionary Anthropology, Juliet Hook began her career with this museum on a grant funded project to curate vertebrate fossils (over 19,000 years old) from Gypsum Cave, Nevada. While working at the museum part-time, she also stewarded the meteorite collection and gallery at UCLA. As she’s continued in her role as a fossil librarian, she’s had the opportunity to work with extinct bone crushing dogs, giant ground sloths, jetting ammonites, and even cannibalistic snails. She’s passionate about making the 7 million specimens she manages as accessible as possible and continues to learn something new about the field, our dedicated community, and these unique specimens every day.

DJ Wenluv getting ready to spin records

Wenluv is a Filipina DJ, sound healer, and anthropologist born and based in Los Angeles. A proud daughter of immigrants and a Beat Junkies Institute of Sound alum, she blends her deep love for music with cultural storytelling and healing frequencies. Whether on the decks or leading sound baths, Wenluv curates experiences that uplift the soul. True to her name, Wenluv, she spreads LUV and good energy, bridging communities through the power of sound.

Jann V

Jann Vendetti is the Natural History Museum’s Associate Curator of Malacology (Mollusks). She is interested in the natural history, evolution, systematics, and conservation of marine and terrestrial snails­­­­. She is proud of the Snails and slugs Living in Metropolitan Environments (SLIME) project, and champions the role of the public in documenting molluscan biodiversity.

Joyce Uglow

Joyce P. Uglow is a children’s book author, poet, speaker, and award-winning educator based in Burlington, WI. She’s the author of STUCK! The Story of La Brea Tar Pits (Bushel & Peck Books) and poetry in several print anthologies. She has an MSE in Special Education and MSE in Educational Leadership. She creates thought-provoking, curiosity-driven children's literature about nature, science, and our planet. Joyce explores museums, national parks, mountains, and the ocean whenever she can. She is SCBWI Wisconsin’s Assistant Regional Advisor, 2024 CYBILS judge for poetry, and past president of Wisconsin State Reading Association. https://joyceuglowauthor.com

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Leslie has worked at NHM for 25 years, caring for animals and educating about the most misunderstood creatures. Her career started in theatrical construction, but she has been a nanny, a carpenter, a welder, a gallery educator and a zookeeper. One of her favorite jobs was making toys and games for zoo animals at the LA Zoo Enrichment department. Everything she does at work these days is for the Love of Animals!

Dr. Emily Lindsey is Associate Curator and Excavation Site Director at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum. She studies what Ice Age animals and ecosystems were like, how climate change and human actions can combine to cause extinctions, and how plants and animals might respond to environmental changes going on today.

Juliet Hook first started her journey at the museum volunteering in front of the dueling dinosaurs in highschool. After graduating from UC Davis with a Bachelor’s of Science in Evolutionary Anthropology, Juliet Hook began her career with this museum on a grant funded project to curate vertebrate fossils (over 19,000 years old) from Gypsum Cave, Nevada. While working at the museum part-time, she also stewarded the meteorite collection and gallery at UCLA. As she’s continued in her role as a fossil librarian, she’s had the opportunity to work with extinct bone crushing dogs, giant ground sloths, jetting ammonites, and even cannibalistic snails. She’s passionate about making the 7 million specimens she manages as accessible as possible and continues to learn something new about the field, our dedicated community, and these unique specimens every day.

Wenluv is a Filipina DJ, sound healer, and anthropologist born and based in Los Angeles. A proud daughter of immigrants and a Beat Junkies Institute of Sound alum, she blends her deep love for music with cultural storytelling and healing frequencies. Whether on the decks or leading sound baths, Wenluv curates experiences that uplift the soul. True to her name, Wenluv, she spreads LUV and good energy, bridging communities through the power of sound.

Jann Vendetti is the Natural History Museum’s Associate Curator of Malacology (Mollusks). She is interested in the natural history, evolution, systematics, and conservation of marine and terrestrial snails­­­­. She is proud of the Snails and slugs Living in Metropolitan Environments (SLIME) project, and champions the role of the public in documenting molluscan biodiversity.

Joyce P. Uglow is a children’s book author, poet, speaker, and award-winning educator based in Burlington, WI. She’s the author of STUCK! The Story of La Brea Tar Pits (Bushel & Peck Books) and poetry in several print anthologies. She has an MSE in Special Education and MSE in Educational Leadership. She creates thought-provoking, curiosity-driven children's literature about nature, science, and our planet. Joyce explores museums, national parks, mountains, and the ocean whenever she can. She is SCBWI Wisconsin’s Assistant Regional Advisor, 2024 CYBILS judge for poetry, and past president of Wisconsin State Reading Association. https://joyceuglowauthor.com

Sponsored by

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Additional support for Girls in STEM provided by Santa Monica Westside Legacy Fund for Women and Girls and SoCalGas.