By the end of their first week at an unusual summer camp at the University of St. Thomas, seventh-graders Ingrid Holstrom, Ann Rysavy and Annie Holtz, all of Austin, had built and flown their own model airplanes. Holstrom and Rysavy attended week one of camp June 23-26; Holtz will attend week three July 14-17.

But the camp organizers were hoping something else would take flight, too — an interest in science and engineering.

STEPS (Science, Technology and Engineering Preview Summer camp for girls) is underway for the ninth year at St. Thomas. About 160-200 girls participate in the free camp each summer, or about 40 in each of the five weeklong sessions. By the end of the final session on July 24, more than 1,400 girls will have participated in the camps since the program came to St. Thomas in 2000.

“We know that young people start making career decisions around sixth or seventh grade,” said Dr. Ronald Bennett, founding dean of the School of Engineering at St. Thomas. “We also know that when it comes to earning bachelor’s degrees in engineering, men outnumber women by five to one. The difference is even more pronounced in the fields of electrical and mechanical engineering. Our ultimate goal in hosting the STEPS program is to encourage young women to consider careers in these fields. Plus, it’s a lot of fun for them, and for us.”

The girls attending the St. Thomas program this summer live on campus and take classes in plastics, electricity, machining, computer-aided design, assembly, Web design, chemistry, physics, engineering and robotics.

They create their airplanes from start to finish: using a hot-wire saw, they cut wings from sturdy Styrofoam; assemble the fuselage; cut, bend and install aluminum parts for the rudder and elevators; thermoform the canopy; and finally decorate and cover the plane’s exterior.

They also log computer time with a flight simulator to become familiar with the remote-control devices they’ll use to fly their planes.

Their work is put to the test on Wednesday evenings, also called “fly nights,” when the girls head south to Rosemount where the planes are fitted with gas engines and flown with the help of volunteers from the Tri-Valley Radio Control Flyers.

More information about the program can be found on the Web at www. stthomas.edu/engineering/steps.