Phoebe Cohen’s Letter to her 12-year-old self March 29, 2011
Posted by Science Club for Girls in Letter to Young Self.Tags: early experience, Letter to Young Self, women in science
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Dr. Phoebe Cohen is the Education and Outreach Coordinator & Postdoctoral Associate on the MIT NASA Astrobiology Team. As part of the Advent of Complex Life team, she studies fossils and answer questions such as, How did complex life evolve on Earth? What role did the environment and climate play? What do the answers to these questions mean for our search for life on other planets?
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Dear 12 year old Phoebe,
You are weird. Deep down, I think you know that’s awesome. But I know it doesn’t feel that way when you’re trying to walk to your seat on the school bus while being taunted for your crazy curly hair or your tom-boy clothes or your good grades. Eventually, you (and others) will learn to love your curls as a part of your personality. Eventually, you’ll start buying women’s jeans and learn to love them too, but you’ll always keep a pair of men’s jeans somewhere in your dresser too. As for the good grades, they will continue, a marker of your inherent curiosity in the world around you. I promise you this – the things that make you weird at 12 will serve you well for the rest of your life. However, it won’t always be easy.
Keep standing on the edge of the knot until your voice is heard because your voice is just as important as theirs.
Credit: Kris Snibbe/Harvard News Office
One of the things besides school that you will come to excel at is walking away from situations that make you uncomfortable. You’ll say to yourself over and over again – “I don’t want to deal with it.” In some situations, you will be doing yourself a huge favor. In others, you’ll use it as an excuse. Don’t. Yes, it’s hard to stand on the edge of the knot of boys talking about something that you are interested in, trying not to feel terrible about yourself when you are ignored the first 12 times you try to interject with a relevant comment. Do it 13 times. 14 times. Keep standing on the edge of the knot until your voice is heard because your voice is just as important as theirs. Most of the time, those boys (and then men) will have no conscious idea of what they are doing. They don’t hate you or think that you are stupid. They just don’t realize the effect that their behavior has on you. And that’s not entirely their problem – the person who can best advocate for you is you. If you believe your questions and your opinions matter as much as theirs, the fear will subside. So don’t let the school bus heartache make you turn away when you feel hurt and sad. Own it – stand your ground. This is a lesson you will have to keep learning, again and again.
Even though you are you own best advocate, you can’t do it alone. So the other important piece of advice
Joanne Kamens’ Letter to her 13-year-old Self March 14, 2011
Posted by Science Club for Girls in Guest Blog, Letter to Young Self.Tags: early experience, Letter to Young Self, women in science
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Dr. Joanne Kamens develops treatments for human diseases based on RNA interference, a natural mechanism of controlling gene expression.
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Dear Joanne at 13 and beyond,
Way to go—not that many girls make it into the Minnesota Talented Youth Math Program and none have ever come in number 1! You are so lucky to have this opportunity to meet other kids really interested in math and science and who also find it fun to do 300 math problems a week. You are geeky, but in this program, geeky is cool so enjoy begin surrounded by your own kind.
Don’t ever stop looking for and finding answers to questions. I know it is hard to be heard when you are a 4 foot tall, red headed girl and I get that you need to be strong about that, but maybe it would be good to learn other ways of persuasion and convincing too. It will serve you well later when you are in the working world—you won’t have to be boning up on your listening skills all the time if you start working on this early enough. I am still not that good at listening and try to work on it every day. But never be afraid to speak up and to make mistakes sometimes.
How lucky you will be—you can’t even know it now! You will choose a great advisor in graduate school (oh, sorry to break it to you, but you are not going to be a medical doctor—you love the basic science too much so will be getting your Ph.D. instead—your parents will be proud of you anyway). Your advisor will be gender blind and treat his whole lab with respect and equal support. He will be a real hero when you get pregnant (more…)
In Cambridge: Deep Roots, New Growth November 18, 2010
Posted by Science Club for Girls in Clubs.Tags: after school, Amigos, Cambridge, children, Clubs, college, early experience, Education, Fun, Harvard, Mentors, MIT, School, Science, STEM, Volunteer, women in science
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It was in Cambridge in 1994 that Science Club for Girls was born. Sixteen years later, the grass roots organization that was conceived by a few parents continues to grow, even where it is most established.
This fall, due to popular demand, Science Club for Girls brought its program to the Morse School. On Wednesday afternoons, girls gather together with their mentors to explore the science behind Chemistry and Crystals and Magic Science. SCFG was first brought to the Morse School by the mentors, a group of women in the graduate school of sciences at BU. They forged the way by piloting one club at the site last year. Having met with the success, the doors were opened to SCFG to expand the program, which now reaches girls in three grades at the site.
Emily Conn leading Toy Factory club in testing their toys. Pictured: a catapult.
In Cambridge, two new curricula have also emerged. Emily Conn, an engineering student at MIT and a returning mentor with Science Club for Girls, is piloting a curriculum that she wrote: Toy Factory. The curriculum explores the “E” in STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) by giving girls the opportunity to design and build their own toys. Bridget Alex, an archaeology student at Harvard and a returning mentor, is also the author of a new curriculum, Archaeology, which she and fellow mentor Meredith McGregor are piloting this semester. Through it, the girls act as archaeologists in activities that vary from deducing an owl’s diet by dissecting its pellet, to developing the most effective formula for mummifying apples.
Bridget Alex leading Archaeology club in weighing mummified apple slices.
Both curricula will be temporarily retired after this semester for fine-tuning, but as we await their induction into the halls of SCFG fame, we acknowledge our exceptional mentors, new and returning, who continue to make all the difference for us and for our girls.
Lawrence JMs in the House! November 2, 2010
Posted by Science Club for Girls in Junior Mentors.Tags: after school, CELLS, children, Clubs, early experience, Education, Fun, girls, high school, Junior Mentors, Lawrence, learning, Non-Profit, Science, STEM, Volunteer
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What makes SCFG a successful program? First and foremost, the answer is our dedicated volunteers. Science club participants look up to Volunteer Mentor Scientists and Junior Mentors as role models and as friends. These women give their enthusiasm, their personality, and their unique background in science to SCFG.
This year in Lawrence, we are lucky to have a new group of volunteer Junior Mentors from local high schools. High school teachers from Andover and Lawrence were excited to learn about volunteer opportunities with SCFG, and they have recruited excellent students from AP chemistry and biology to help lead clubs.
Our new Junior Mentors have exceeded expectations all around. They have stepped up by developing strong relationships with club participants, leading hands-on activities, and bringing their own outside knowledge into the curriculum. These Junior Mentors are already growing as leaders and developing valuable communication skills that will help them in college and future careers. SCFG is excited to continue working with this awesome group of Junior Mentors, and to expand our group of girls for the spring semester!
Thank you Sarita, Kathryn, Sammie, Elissa, and Chantel
Speed Dating for Science October 29, 2010
Posted by Science Club for Girls in Events.Tags: Boston, college, early experience, Education, Events, Fun, girls, Mentors, MIT, Non-Profit, Northeastern, Science, Show Me the Science, STEM, Volunteer, women in science
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Discovering gladiator Ant Lions!
The bell dings and you have a couple of minutes to show off all there is about you. You whip out your Ant Lions and show off their gladiator stylings as they devour a fly that never stood a chance. What? You don’t do that on a first meeting? You would if you were at Show Me the Science!
Mass Academy homeboy: Charles Darwin
We kicked off our first reverse science fair of the season on Saturday October 9, 2010 at Northeastern University. 21 presenters and 25 volunteers helped over 50 girls from the Boston area get to know Science and Engineering in a whole new way! From learning how to make dough from milk to trying to rip phone books in half, girls were able to experience the full gambit of STEM and learn that science and engineering is indeed fun and for everyone!
Can you rip apart phone books?
This event was hosted by our new college chapter at Northeastern. You can read more about the event in this article by Northeastern University and for all the great pictures, please visit our album.
*We also have a new site at Northeastern University that meets each Saturday from 10:30-11:30am. This site is open to all girls in grades K2-6th grade and is FREE! Click here to learn more and download the application.
