Despite efforts to increase gender equality in education, significant disparities still exist in STEM subjects, particularly in technical disciplines. To address this issue, a theory-based STEM student orientation programme was developed and implemented for high school female students to encourage them to pursue careers in technical fields. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the programme in improving participants’ knowledge structures through a five-day intervention. Using a word association test (WAT) administered before and after the programme, changes in the students’ knowledge structures were quantitively analyzed. The results show that there was a significant increase in knowledge in six of the nine areas examined. The greatest increase in knowledge was in the areas of production management, robotics and virtual reality. These results indicate that hands-on, problem-based learning approaches effectively engage students in STEM topics. However, no significant improvements were observed for example in sustainability and renewable energy, suggesting that these topics may already be well integrated into prior education. In conclusion, it can be said that the intervention had a positive effect on the participants’ knowledge structure.