CU conference for middle school girls fights a gender gap

Sara Sherlock, 12, of Central Square Middle School north of Syracuse, eyes a chicken during the "Funky Chicken Session" in the Morrison Hall chicken lab. The exercise was part of the Expanding Your Horizons conference on campus for middle-school-aged girls, April 24. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

By Kate Becker

Morgan DeLosh has a wavy blonde ponytail, a smile crossed by hot-pink braces and a spot on almost every team (soccer, softball, volleyball) at Mexico Junior High School. She also has a budding passion for marine biology -- an interest that the organizers of Expanding Your Horizons (EYH), a science conference at Cornell for middle school girls, hope she will hold on to long after her braces come off.

DeLosh, an eighth-grader from Mexico, N.Y., was one of more than 200 middle school girls from across New York attending this year's EYH, held on campus April 24. The conference invites girls into laboratories across Cornell for workshops on cutting-edge science, engineering and math, led by women starting their careers in these disciplines.

The middle school years are "an interesting age," said conference co-chair Karen Masters, a Cornell graduate student in astronomy. Girls who had been excited about science in elementary school "start to think it's an unfeminine thing to do," she said. "It's very important for them to see young women who do science."

The EYH workshops, run by about 300 students and faculty volunteers, were the centerpiece of the conference. Each girl selected three hour-long workshops from the 34 that were offered. At the chemistry department's "Rubber Baby Buggy Bumper" workshop, girls made their own silly putty, bouncy balls and gak, a slimy green concoction made from glue and liquid starch. At the "DNA Technology in Biodiversity Conservation" workshop, girls used a blender, salt, shampoo and some alcohol to extract DNA from a banana.

"That was pretty cool," said DeLosh, who took home a small orange vial full of stringy banana DNA as a souvenir of the experiment. DeLosh's favorite workshop, though, was "Creative Color Chemistry," where she and about 10 other girls bellied up to the lab bench in safety goggles and plastic aprons to make their own "tie-dyed" T-shirts. "It's wicked cool," said DeLosh. "All you have to do is draw your picture with a Sharpie" [a permanent marker] and add acetone.

Said graduate student Anna Cherian, who helped run the workshop, "We wanted to do something they would really enjoy but at the same time would teach them something."

Some girls were paired up with female "buddies," mostly undergraduate and graduate students, who escorted them to their workshops. The "buddy" system is one of the best things about EYH, said Masters. "The opportunity to hang out with a college student for the whole day ... they really enjoy that."

Buddy Elizabeth Quevedo, a first-year graduate student in chemistry and chemical biology, accompanied Kelly, a seventh-grader from Southern Cayuga Middle School, Poplar Ridge, N.Y., to "Fortune Telling for the 21st Century," a workshop on probability theory. Kelly came to EYH "with all these negative ideas about math and how difficult it is," said Quevedo. "She didn't consider other applications than doing her homework." But the workshop changed Kelly's attitude completely.

Parents and teachers were invited to a panel discussion on how to get -- and keep -- girls interested in science.

"There are not enough women going into technology and sciences," said Rebecca Mueller, who traveled from Galway, N.Y., to the conference with her daughter. EYH "gives middle-school students a chance to see an actual university and lets them start thinking about their careers," she said. "They can see it's not so intimidating."

EYH isn't about pushing girls into science careers, emphasized Masters. "They should get a chance to experience everything. We want to make sure they don't forget science is an option." Masters also noted that many EYH participants come from rural schools lacking modern science facilities.

The conference was run by graduate student volunteers, including Masters, Jennifer Oaksmith and Kate Papay, both graduate students in chemistry. The 20 sponsors included the Educational Programs Office of the Cornell Center for Materials Research.