Girl Scouting Teaches Youngsters To `Act Like Scientists'

Dale McCreedy enjoyed the job she had from 1978 to 1988 as a research assistant in immunology at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia. In her current position, she is working with the Girl Scouts of the United States of America to ensure that a new generation of young women has similar positive scientific experiences. McCreedy is one of several researchers throughout the U.S. who are joining forces with the Girl Scouts to change the way young women view science and, consequently, to increase the number of women who choose it as a career. Women can "contribute a lot," she says. "They can shatter the stereotype of scientists as white, nerdy males." Girl Scout officials believe that young women still lag behind young men in science and math skills and that their lack of involvement with science not only denies them access to many career options, but also denies the U.S. a large pool of future researchers. "Unfortunately, many American students, both boys and girls, are ignorant of the most rudimentary principles of science," says Mary Rose Main, national executive director of the Girl Scouts. "This problem is particularly acute among girls. Girl Scouting, with its emphasis on informal, noncompetitive education, presents an ideal environment where girls can learn science by acting like scientists--by questioning, experimenting, and observing." Girl Scouts are "acting like scientists" in a number of programs. Science Partnership McCreedy, for example, is program director of the National Science Partnership for Girl Scouts and Science Museums, a three- year, $1.5 million effort funded by the National Science Foundation and several private granting agencies. The partnership began in the fall of 1988 as a pilot project between Philadelphia's Franklin Institute Science Museum and two local Girl Scout councils to provide training and hands-on science activity kits for leaders to help their troops earn science- oriented merit badges (see accompanying story). Suzanne Amsbaugh is one of the leaders who took the "lab-in-a- bag" training. "It is still very obvious that females are not pushed or encouraged," says Amsbaugh, a former research technician at the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Dental Research who left science 10 years ago to raise her daughter, Michelle Broulx, now 10. "We have to fight our way for everything--promotions, recognition, etc." Amsbaugh says she does anything she can as a Girl Scout leader to encourage the young women to study science. Her troop has some of the top students in her daughter's school, and they have a strong interest in science. "We talk about science constantly," she says. "We study ecosystems, go on nature walks when camping, do experiments with food, work with microscopes, and collect water samples from ponds. Having a science background really helps." Another "lab-in-a-bag" trainee, Kathryn Haas, a radiologist and an anatomy instructor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, thinks the Girl Scouts can help increase the number of girls going into science because it is "more friendly." Haas says her daughter, 10-year-old Amanda Haas, tells her that her science class is not as much fun this year as it used to be. This can be attributed to two factors, Kathryn Haas says--the quality of teaching and peer pressure from other pupils. "Girls are very put off by science and math in the schools," says Haas. In addition, her daughter's peer group seems to be giving a "real subtle message that science is not feminine, so girls avoid it as they get older." This year, the National Science Partnership has been expanded. Five other partnerships between museums and Girl Scout councils have been formed in Hartford, Conn.; Columbus, Ohio; St. Louis; Dallas; and Los Angeles. The partnership is expected to serve 138,000 Girl Scouts and 11,500 leaders. The program is expected to expand further next year. ROBOT In Hickory, N.C., a town of 30,000 people near the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a science-fair project called Reaching Out Beyond Our Technology (ROBOT) drew almost 2,000 visitors to its third annual event March 27. About 50 individual Girl Scouts and 25 troops set up booths, according to Deb Dowling, program director for North Carolina's Catawba Valley Girl Scout Council. Another 40 booths were sponsored by businesses, industry, clubs, and colleges. Among other activities, visitors got to make X-rays of Barbie dolls or look at X-rays of the skeleton, use a computer-aided design system, be encased by giant bubbles, play math games, and view aquatic life through microscopes. John Leach, an electrical engineer and co-owner of Hi-Tech Fuses Inc. in Hickory, is one of the founders of ROBOT. Both he and his wife, Eileen Leach, an agricultural scientist, have been active in the Girl Scouts. "There is quite strong evidence that girls get shortchanged in math and science education," he says. "For example, boys are called on more in science and math classes. Girls are not encouraged as much as boys; it is not considered feminine. There is a lot of pressure on girls not to be interested in science. If we are to recover--or keep, depending on how you view it--our world role as a science leader, we can't afford to dismiss 50 percent of the population." James Hall, a zoologist from Duke Power Co. of Huntersville, N.C., has brought an aquatics display to all three ROBOT events. "A lot of kids come to ROBOT, really love it, and get excited about science," says Hall. "Kids need to be exposed to this kind of thing." Hall, who has also helped stock fish ponds for a Girl Scout camp, collects live samples for the display and brings several microscopes so youngsters can study close up the aquatic food chain, the predator-prey relationships, and how factors such as water pollution, temperature, and the introduction of non- native species affect the environment. He lets the children handle the samples while he gives a "whole environmental talk." Hall says that "girls are pretty excited about science. They have more interest now because everybody is more environmentally conscious. Ten years ago, girls were less interested in bugs." The National Science Partnership for Girl Scouts and Science Museums offers "lab-in-a-bag" kits, covering topics in chemistry, physics, and astronomy. These topics correspond to science activities found in the official Girl Scout handbook. For example, a kit called Movers (for Brownies, ages six to eight) is designed to show that science is fun. It contains peanut plants, from which the youngsters can watch peanuts grow, as well as paper planes, pinwheels, and balloon-powered rockets to introduce the concept of movement. Because Girl Scout volunteer leaders range in education from those with less than a high school degree to Ph.D.'s, the kits are designed to be easy to use; they include either the materials necessary for the activities or a "shopping list" of supplies available in grocery stores. Only leaders who have been trained to use the kits can get them. Kathryn Haas, a radiologist and an anatomy instructor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, took the "lab-in- a-bag" training, which she liked because it was "very hands-on, practical, and anticipated questions." National Science Partnership program director Dale McCreedy says that because Girl Scout leaders who are uncomfortable with science did not sign up for training, she started taking "science teasers" to leaders' meetings. For example, leaders might be presented with two containers of clear liquid, each also holding a smaller container of liquid. One of the smaller containers floats, the other sinks. By asking questions requiring "yes" or "no" answers, the leaders learn why this is so. The point of the exercise, says McCreedy, is to show "the importance of hands-on activities and of asking questions, and that it is okay not to know the answers." McCreedy adds: "While it is nice to encourage girls to consider science careers, most of them won't go into science, so we also want to increase their appreciation of science and improve their science literacy." Kay Moses, 14, who has just completed the ninth grade at Freedom High School in Hickory, has participated in ROBOT events with her troop, which built displays on energy, water, and conservation. She says that, unlike most of the young women she knows, the members of her troop are very good at science and math, "so our three leaders focus on it." Kay is an expert in insect identification who last year won second place in a national science competition, the Science Olympiad, sponsored by several corporations and run out of Rochester, Mich. She shared her knowledge at a Girl Scout science workshop. This service project won her a Silver Award, the second highest award given by the Girl Scouts. `Camp-Ins' At the Museum of Science in Boston, 20,000 students a year from New England and New York spend the night at the museum, in a program called a "Camp-In." They participate in hands-on workshops, view exhibits, and see planetarium shows. Seventy-five percent of the participants in the Boston program are women and girls, including about 12,000 Girl Scouts and their leaders, according to Marianne Dunne, Camp-In program manager. "In one overnight you can't learn all about a topic, but you can get girls excited about and involved in science," says Dunne. "We still feel it is really important for girls to see female role models, so we try to have women who work in science teach the workshops and do the demonstrations." Workshops focus on how scientists do their work. In behind-the- scenes tours of the museum, youngsters can watch women planning and building exhibits. Rhonda Setkewich, 15, who has finished her freshman year at Central Academy in East Springfield, Mass., and is a member of the Pioneer Valley Girl Scout Council, has been on two Camp-Ins at the Museum of Science in Boston and one at the Springfield (Mass.) Science Museum. The Camp-Ins, she says, were "really neat because we got the whole museum to ourselves. It wasn't crowded, and we could go where we wanted to and spend time really looking at things on our own. "Math has always been my favorite subject," she says, "but science was hard before, probably because I didn't pay attention to it." This year science is her favorite class, she says. She used to want to become a lawyer, but she now plans to become a psychiatrist, a field that combines her interests in both science and the humanities. For information about starting a ROBOT event, call Deb Dowling at (704) 328-2444 or John Leach at (704) 322-2860. For more information about the National Science Partnership, call Dale McCreedy at (215) 448-1092. Judy Henderson is a freelance writer based in Portland, Ore.

Girl Scouting Teaches Youngsters To `Act Like Scientists'

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of