An AP article in yesterday’s Courier-Journal described what US colleges and universities are seeing: a big surge in student interest in renewable energy — and in enrollment in science and engineering programs — prompted by President Obama’s calls for more clean energy and green jobs and by growing concern over global climate change.
I hope that this encouraging development includes more young women. After all, no field can be its best if populated by only a small, certain subset of us. All fields benefit from diversity.
Studies have long shown that societal messages discourage girls from becoming scientists and engineers. Typically beginning in middle school, girls get the idea that science is for boys. In high school, girls learn that most boys don’t ask out girls whom they see as smarter than themselves. (As a science-fair judge, I often encounter smart girls that under-play their talents to avoid showing up their male classmates.) That there’s a limited number of women scientists and engineers to serve as role models doesn’t help.
Do you know a girl or young woman whose interest in science or engineering you’d like to encourage? In-depth interviews with women that, against the odds, became scientists, reveal some instructive commonalities:
- At least one family member or teacher encouraged her to pursue her interest in science, starting in elementary school and continuing through graduate school.
- A family member or family friend, male or female, was a scientist or engineer.
- They had opportunities to do hands-on science projects in elementary school, usually with other children.
- They had opportunities to experience nature, from which they often created collections of found objects, such as leaves, rocks or feathers.
So, please, encourage her, find her a role model, urge her teachers and youth group leaders to provide her with hands-on, group science projects and take her out into the woods.
