Girls take to science at MSU event

Bozerman Daily Chronicle: Girls take to science at MSU event
When Kelli Lemke was in high school, she didn't know what engineering was - and she certainly didn't know it could be a career.

Then she shadowed an engineer for a day, and she's now a mechanical engineering student at Montana State University.

"I liked being able to apply science and math instead of just learning them," she said.

Saturday, Lemke was able to share her passion for engineering with junior high-aged girls who attended "Expanding Your Horizons," a conference that introduces hands-on math and science.

More than 200 girls from across the state attended the program, according to Suzi Taylor, the outreach and communications director for MSU Extended University. Each girl attended four workshops throughout the day, which included activities like creating a simulated whitewater kayak course, programming robots, and isolating DNA.

About 70 volunteers helped put on the event, including MSU students and faculty and professionals from the community. Abbie Richards, a chemical engineering professor, said this is her third year volunteering for the program.

"It excites girls about opportunities in science and technology careers," she said, adding that when she was a freshman in college, there were about 500 men in her physics class and only a few women.

In the classes she teaches today, she said about 20 to 30 percent of the students are women. However, that number is beginning to flatten out, which she said highlights the importance of programs like "Expand Your Horizons."

Teresa Blaskovich, a medical student, was helping with an activity where girls learned about brain processes - there was even a human brain on display. She said many of the girls who'd been in the workshop wanted to be doctors or pediatricians.

Blaskovich said she attended a similar program when she was in middle school, and it got her interested in science and math.

Cenzi Clarno, 12, came from Lima to attend the event. She said it was fun and she learned a lot, and added that she wants to be a forensic scientist when she grows up.