♪ Morehead State University is once again playing host to a very special kind of summer camp space track is an intensive two-week space systems.

Engineering course that host 9th through 12th grade girls from around the commonwealth to come together to complete a space-related science mission.

More in today's Education Matters segment.

>> It's no secret that females are underrepresented and many stem.

Careers in STEM disciplines and aerospace and similar engineering programs, whether it be electrical computer, mechanical.

>> Are short.

On females in that industry.

Space track.

Shows girls that a natural skills and talents that they have align with these industries and therefore they should consider these careers for themselves.

>> Space truck really affords them a unique opportunity to gain relevant engineering, insight and expertise as they are navigating what their career would look like.

Long term.

So a lot of career or camp experiences, our surface level and maybe doesn't afford them.

A full perspective on that career.

But the experience of space track is relevant to industry girls come in.

They learn about electricity.

Electronics.

>> And they learn to read electrical schematics and they learn to solder and they build their own satellite like device called a cricket sat and they're told that their mission is to measure the temperature of the atmosphere up to 5 kilometers and they do that with this cricket said they assemble their own satellite tracking station and in real time they collect atmospheric data and they become the scientist of record for that data.

♪ Provides a rigorous academic challenge that is basically analogous to a space mission.

It is hands on.

>> And it really gives them a opportunity to come to a decision as they navigate.

There are college and career pathway choices.

>> I've always been into getting talented programs as well all other programs going around.

And a lot of those times, those are male dominated or them and speak up way more than the women do.

And it has kind of pushed me to the side.

But here I feel like really renewed.

Having a ton of other people who are is interested and spaces.

I am is super fun to have.

It's been really rewarding.

Really rewarding to see.

>> Other women in similar fields.

I like because whenever I want to talk about this with my classmates and stuff, the ones who tend to like.

Standards than what engineering and things like that are always the guys.

And there's always that a-level convention that you always have with other girls morning.

You will with guys.

So it's been really nice to have that connection with those who left the same things I do.

>> It has been extraordinarily extraordinarily successful over the years and it's resulted in an extremely high number of young women in our undergraduate program.

Most undergraduate programs in engineering might have 10, 12% females where the 35 to 40% range.

And it's can be directly attributed to space trick.

>> Before I went to space check, I KET that I like to engineering.

I like the challenge and I are is been interested in space and the stars, but I never KET that space systems, engineering or the space field was an option for me living in eastern Kentucky.

And so coming here and seeing what was going on at the Space Science Center and the impact that the Space Center is making in that field.

I'm really showed me that I I can do it, too, is a wonderful program to be able >> accomplish things in the short amount of time with people who you may not have known before, but by the end of the 2 weeks, they'll be your best friend and the staff is so kind and they care about you and they want you to learn to the best of your ability.

And I think that if you're interested in.

Space systems or engineering or STEM in general, that this program is a good start to figuring out what you want to do and growing as a person.

>> Last year, Kentucky's top export was aerospace products and parts bringing in more than 13 billion dollars in revenue