Chicago: Not So Nerdy: Argonne Shows Girls the Fun Side of Science

From Darien Patch: Not So Nerdy: Argonne Shows Girls the Fun Side of Science
Middle-school girls from around Chicago visited Argonne Thursday for the 11th annual Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day.

The scientist asked the girls, what’s the term for when a solid turns directly into a gas?

“You thought, ‘Ohhhh, never thought I’d use that again,’” climate researcher Doug Sisterson said.

But the concept, just like so many aspects of math and science, is a part of everyday life. (For the record, the solid-to-gas transformation is called sublimation.)

Just as science is intertwined with all aspects of daily life, Argonne National Laboratory is committed to teaching young women that careers in engineering aren’t as vague and unattainable as they might think.

Middle school girls from around the Chicago area visited the lab Thursday to learn just how realistic such careers are during the 11th annual Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day.

“We want to get them early telling girls this is a possibility for you,” said the event’s co-chair Mary Finster, an environmental engineer.

While many girls may be intimidated by the idea of a career in engineering, Finster said it’s a myth that you must be a straight-A student in math and science to succeed.

Finster’s co-chair Maria Power confessed she had a hard time understanding the practical impact of physics when she was a student.

“It was so theoretical at the time,” she said.

But today the computer scientist works in Argonne’s physics division.

Power and Finster designed the day’s activities to be as interactive as possible so the students could see how things they learn in the classroom translate to the real world.

During the event’s expo, Sisterson, a climate researcher, created a mini-twister with a bathroom exhaust fan mounted on a Plexiglas box. While a cloud of dry ice vapors whirled inside the contraption, Sisterson explained how engineering helped scientists understand where tornadoes get their power.

“When kids are young, they never learn about science because it’s nerdy,” he said. “They want to be doctors or lawyers. So when they go to college, their minds are already made up they’re not going to be scientists.”

But engaging bright children with demonstrations such as the tornado show them all the possibilities of a career in the sciences, Sisterson said.

Cass Junior High eighth-grader Mady Matsunaga said she enjoyed the hands-on projects, which included constructing a miniature battery-operated car from an array of brightly colored parts.

Mady began taking engineering courses at Hinsdale South High School this year after building a working Mars rover model in science class.

“Today definitely helped me narrow down what type of engineer I want to be because it gave all the different categories,” said Mady, who is interested in building things like the rover.

Old Quarry Middle School eighth-grader Gabby Voltarel, for one, thought slimy goo the girls created during the morning session was awesome — and she had the bright blue hands to prove it. Gabby wants to be an environmental scientist because of her love for nature.

The day's activities succeeded in proving to Gabby that science is anything but nerdy.

“Learning about all the different types of science and engineering," she said, "is really cool."