Science World event encourages girls to explore, expand ambitions
Credit to Author: Glenda Luymes| Date: Sun, 03 Nov 2019 00:17:03 +0000
There’s a question Carla Bitter loves to ask kids.
“What do you like to think about?” she says.
The answers are inevitably fascinating and, in time, can lead to some amazing places.
On Saturday, Bitter, the vice-president of learning and programming at Science World, welcomed 300 girls — ages 11 to 13 — to the geodesic dome on Vancouver’s False Creek to explore their answers to her favourite question.
Science World’s Girls and STEAM event, which fills up minutes after registration opens, is designed to encourage girls to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Design, and Math through hands-on workshops and spending time with female role models.
But while the end goal is to see more women represented in a field that has traditionally been dominated by men, the event simply encourages girls to dig into whatever they’re interested in, whether that’s tinkering, coding, dissection or experiencing virtual reality.
Asking a child to decide on a career when she’s only 11 is a stretch, but asking her what “sets her on fire today” can lead her there, said Bitter. “We try to move the needle a little further, by finding out what they like, and what they want to know more about.”
Scarlett Enzinas, 11, (left) and Bailey Swartz, 10, watch a 3D printer at the Girls and STEAM event.
For Bethany Downer, the answer to that question has always been space.
While she didn’t set out to become an astronaut, it’s likely she’ll be conducting science experiments on a suborbital flight some time in the next decade.
The astronaut candidate with PoSSUM (Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere Project) was the keynote speaker at the Girls and STEAM event.
“I was just a girl from Newfoundland,” she said. “I had people tell me it’s never going to happen.”
Bethany Downer, a 25-year-old scientist-astronaut candidate leads a group of girls during the Girls & STEAM event at Science World.
But Downer said female role models were key, as was support from her family and friends. She completed a Bachelor of Science before doing her Master’s degree in space studies. She now works with the Hubble space telescope while doing her astronaut training with PoSSUM.
“I want to make it easier for girls in the future,” she said.
Among the participants at the event was 11-year-old Peyton Ashton of North Delta. She admitted that when her mom asked if she wanted to attend, she first said no.
“But now that I’m here, I’m really glad,” she said.
An aspiring doctor or surgeon, she was intrigued by a workshop where participants pinned an earthworm to a tin of wax and then dissected it to find the heart and brain.
“It was really fun — and gross,” she said.
Group leader Vickie Irish said the workshop was designed to “pique their interest and make them curious.”
No one in her group was afraid to touch the worms.
Twelve-year-old Caryl Szeto was excited about getting practical experience that’s rare in school science classes, where study is more academic.
When asked why she thought fewer girls decided to pursue careers in science, she said some might be turned away by the idea of being alone.
“I wouldn’t want to be the only girl in a class of boys,” she said.
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