Girls in STEM

Making science cool

As she prepared for high school, Taylor Barrett faced a difficult decision. She could continue to focus on competitive gymnastics, which had been her lifelong passion, or she could follow a more academic path.

Taylor knew she wanted to attend college and knew she would need financial aid. 

“I could continue to follow the sports route – knowing that, for gymnastics, scholarship money is sparse – or I could basically get ahead,” she says.

Her “getting ahead” choice was to enroll at Brunswick County Early College High School, which features a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) curriculum and offers students the opportunity of earning both a high school diploma and an associate’s degree at the end of four years.

With a fifth “graduate” year, a student can potentially earn an associate of arts and an associate of science degree.

When she opted to attend the program, located on the campus of Brunswick Community College, Taylor was already sold on the high school’s small size and reputation for personal attention. What she wasn’t so sure about was the STEM focus.

“I’m more of an arts person, but they really encouraged me,” she says of the high school’s faculty. “The strongest jobs are emerging in the science field.”

On the verge of her graduate year, Taylor has four of the program’s blockbuster chemistry and biology courses behind her. She looks back on one in particular with pride.

Vicky Snyder, principal of the early college high school, says that her school’s emphasis on STEM subjects has reaped benefits for girls.

“Participation in STEM is good for girls and women because they are often scared of math,” Snyder says. “It may be true that there’s a societal math barrier for girls in the younger years, but if you present to older girls that math is the language of science, they grow very interested, leading them into careers in science and medicine.”

Taylor’s classmate Brittany Facine says that as a child, she was interested in math, science, technology – all the subjects that explore the world around us and how it works.

“When I got to middle school, though, I lost interest because that was portrayed as uncool,” she says. “But in high school, I got interested again. We have a female teacher who is really passionate about science; she really got my interest back. It also helped that there were other students, especially other girls, who were also passionate about science.”

Two local, female GE Hitachi engineers, through their volunteer efforts, are trying to change that “uncool” perception that sometimes surrounds STEM subjects.

One, Maria Kretzing, coached a Wired Wizards team of high school students from all over New Hanover County through its first robotics competition last year.

“Maria got her spark from being on a robotics team in high school, so this was full circle for her,” said Christopher White, spokesman for GE Hitachi. “She went on to get an engineering degree and is in our early career development program for nuclear engineers. She helped start the Wired Wizards program here, which is growing by leaps and bounds. This year, there is more than one team from Wilmington in the state robotics competition.”

Leah Crider, a commercial project manager for GE Hitachi, tutors a Wrightsboro Elementary School student in math and reading. She is also active with GE Volunteers, which is involved with many educational events throughout the year.

One activity is the Girls in Technology Summit, held during Engineers Week in February each year and aimed at middle school girls – students who, like Brittany, often feel pressure to steer away from “uncool” areas of study.

“For the summit, we bring in sixty, specially chosen female students from area middle schools to the Cape Fear Museum. They spend a while talking about engineering in general, and then they get a project,” Crider says. “There’s a lot of energy in that room. Past projects have included designing bridges with gumdrops and toothpicks and designing a roller coaster. They look at engineering in a fun, relatable way.”

Crider and the GE Volunteers also work closely with students at Wilmington’s Freeman School of Engineering.

“During Engineering Week, second- and third-graders participate in an egg drop contest, designing ways to protect their eggs as they drop them from increasingly tall ladders,” Crider says. “The ultimate drop for the eggs that are still unbroken is from a fire truck ladder.”

Fifth-graders, Crider says, use Lego kits to build robots that compete on a special course.

Paris Land, science educator at The Children’s Museum of Wilmington, looks for ways to introduce STEM subjects to young girls. She designed the museum’s inaugural science camp for girls this summer.

Midway through their week, the girls made pond scopes by fusing recycled plastic juice containers together, sealing them with colorful duct tape. New creations in tow, they trooped off to the museum’s pond to see what kinds of small water creatures they could spy.

Activities drawing on the girls’ observations of the natural world included building a bird’s nest and monitoring activity in and around the nest, observing a school of ants and submitting their comments to a science research website, making recycled paper, and planting a butterfly garden in the museum’s courtyard.

“We want to change how girls think about science,” Land says.

“STEM is a hot topic right now,” adds Julia Pleasants, the museum’s director of guest services. “We want to up the science content of the museum. Paris is expanding the view of science to be more inviting to girls. If boys were included in the camp, the girls would stand back. We’re trying to plant a seed.”

To view more of photographer Jeff Janowski's work, go to www.jeffjanowski.com.