Kentucky is facing a shortage of people to fill technology careers and related fields. There is a need to have trained scientists to solve problems and educate others on issues that are rising, and have a knowledgeable workforce to operate, service, and maintain advancements in robotic manufacturing and production technology. In these fields of technology, women and minorities have been under-represented as holding these careers. According to the Community Assessment Report (2019) for Bullitt County, members wanted to see better youth career readiness.

Bullitt County 4-H offered a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) day camp for youth aged 9-12 years old. This day camp had 8 youth participate, 5 of which were female. During this day camp, the youth learned about power and renewable energy and how to conserve their use of the energy in their houses. The youth named off various ways that they could help to conserve their use of energy and how they could make a bigger impact at places in the community. Immediate outcomes included the youth being able to understand how to conserve energy, learned about the different types of renewable energy, and they collaborated in teams to help solve the issues on “energy island” a board game that was part of the STEM challenge. Intermediate and long term goals can be assessed at a later date.