Girl Scouts get excited about careers in science and technology

PALMER -- Local Girl Scouts received an inspiring message about the potential of women in science careers during the Women of Science and Technology Day last Saturday.

The girls engaged in nine separate activities to instruct them in scientific vocations using hands-on experiments.

A water resource management activity offered at one of the stations taught participants about the water cycle using cups filled with beads that represented the movement of water from clouds to mountains to rivers to the sea. The girls also engaged in a Water Management Challenge in which each scout was given a nametag with the title of a public works agency (such as "Parks and Recreation" or "Sewer Management), and were required to balance a single cup of water suspended between them with yarn.

Another yarn-related event of the day involved learning to spin the ductile fabric from loose individual threads, an event instructed by Valley Fiber Arts Guild. Other activities included sessions on Forces of Flight and Aviation Careers with the FAA, Environmental Chemistry, Volcano Seismology, and firefighting.

Caroline Roy with PRISM HazMat centers taught groups of girls about protective measures used when handling hazardous materials spills, suiting up in massive airtight, corrosion-resistant coveralls and a gas mask. Roy proceeded to demonstrate the assorted awkward measures needed to communicate and perform activities while wearing the suit.

In another room, girls gathered and identified facsimiles of housecat bones under the watchful eyes of Fran Seager-Boss and Becky Saleeby of the Mat-Su Borough Cultural Resources Division. A mounted cat skeleton helped the amateur archaeologists to place their bones relative to others and identify their functions.

Nearly 200 girls participated in the activities, comprising four different Girl Scout ranks: Daisy, Brownie, Junior, and Cadet.

"We're teaching them everything from flight to firefighting to oil field science," said Terri Tichenor, spokesman for the Girl Scouts. "But there's an Alaskan focus to everything: how it works here and how it affects us."

"We're trying to show the girls that they can do it, to have confidence in their abilities," said Garret. "We have girls in fields that are predominately male. This gets them thinking: 'That's really cool, I can do that.'"

Garrett thanked the University of Alaska for donating the rooms for the event, and the local Mat-Su communities for their outreach of volunteer support for the event.

The event employed multiple Program Aides, high-school level Scouts who assisted the instructors in managing their classes, as well as community members. "Some volunteers come back year after year," she said. However, the organization is always in need of helping hands. "The recent influx of population [in the Valley] means that sometimes we're behind the 8-ball," said Garrett.

"We have a great group of girls getting hands-on experience here," said Garrett, who noted that some of the activities counted toward merit badges for the girls, and some were simply recreational and informative. "We tried to get a smattering of a lot of things from a lot of sources rather than a narrow focus."

"The idea is to get the girls interested in science," said Tichenor. "It ain't just cookies anymore."

Contact Daniel Spoth at daniel.spoth@frontiersman.com.