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Girls and Science camp offers hands-on fun and learning
Photo by Billy Kingsley
Vanderbilt medical student Ying Du shows Girls and Science participants a sheep’s lung, one of many hands-on activities. Left to right, Paula Kennedy, Lesa Heintzmann and Anita Pai react to feeling the lung.
by Amy Pate
As a high school science teacher, Vicki Metzgar knows firsthand how girls tend to drop out of science in their teen years. So, as a teacher in residence at Peabody College, she wanted to find a way to hook girls on science.Thus was born the Girls and Science (GAS) camp, in its first year at Vanderbilt. “I’m well aware that girls don’t continue in science,” Metzgar said.
GAS camp gives girls who have completed seventh and eighth grade a week of hands-on science experience along with interaction with female science role models.
Girls who have completed seventh grade came to the camp June 5-11. Those who have completed eighth grade are on campus this week. In all, more than 60 girls will participate in the camp.
Activities during the week-long camp include T-shirt chromatography, which illustrates the principles behind the chromatography used in DNA testing, and tongue mapping, where the girls map on a diagram of a tongue where they taste sweet, bitter, sour and salt solutions. The girls also learn about using computers to research topics on which they give Power Point presentations at the end of the week.
Hands-on experience is the common denominator in all the activities, from the metric mini Olympics to the nitrogen ice cream. “I love science, period,” Angela Denmark said when asked why she participated in GAS camp. “I like to be with people who love what I love.”
“We have lots of hands-on experience here,” Jenny Harrow said. Harrow, whose favorite subjects in school are math and science, had a simple reason for her participation. “I was bored at home,” she said.
“I feel very strongly that this is a critical time for girls in science, and our goal in this camp is to offer to these girls an environment and activities to show them that science can be fun, and that they can succeed in science,” said Virginia Shepherd, a professor of medicine who helped secure funding for the program.
“We’re delighted that Vanderbilt and Peabody are offering this opportunity to our girls,” Joyce Lavery said. Lavery works with the Girl Scout Council of the Cumberland Valley, which helped recruit some of the GAS camp participants.
“These are all high achievers,” medical student Hong Yu said. Yu and medical student Sonal Saraswat are community scholars working with the girls on computer research and presentation skills.
Kathy Lee, Martha Day, Barbara Nishimoto-Smith and Thomasena Wood, all Metro science teachers, lead the activities with help from medical students and Girl Scout staff members.
The Girls and Science camp is a Vanderbilt-wide endeavor. It is being funded by the School of Medicine, and the Women’s Center is providing lunches. The University is providing space for the camp’s activities. The Girl Scouts are providing transportation for those who need it.
It’s a GAS!
Photo by Billy Kingsley
Monica Maderal, a Mt. Juliet Junior High School student, works on a T-shirt chromatography project during the Girls and Science camp. Maderal was among 40 girls at the first week of the camp, held June 5-11. The camp is also in session this week. (See story.)
