Middle School Girls Explore Science, Technology Careers March 1
Contact: Rani Gould, (207) 581-1259, George Manlove, (207) 581-3756
Editors: A schedule with workshop times and locations is available from the Dept. of Public Affairs, 207-581-3756
ORONO — Hundreds of Maine middle school girls will spend a day at college March 1, learning about science-oriented careers historically pursued by males.
Coming from all corners of the state, the girls will get a look at more than a dozen career fields, from learning about insects, wilderness skills, tracking wildlife to DNA research, veterinary medicine, glaciers, rockets and geometry software.
The day’s events are presented through the seventh annual “Expanding Your Horizons” program, coordinated by the University of Maine Women’s Resource Center with support from the Office of Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost.
Visiting students can choose among a variety of 45-minute workshops about science careers, and will have a chance to tour UMaine’s new Laboratory for Surface Science & Technology, with a new state-of-the-art “clean room” laboratory so tidy that scientists wearing special white suits perform molecular research in a hyper-ventilated, dust-free environment.
The girls will be mentored by almost 200 teachers from their schools, professional women from UMaine and the community, as well as university students.
A keynote presentation and welcoming remarks by physics professor Susan McKay and a performance by “sisters-IN-sight” begins the day at 9:15 a.m. at the Maine Center for the Arts. Registration starts at 8 a.m.
Workshop sessions are scheduled from 10 a.m. to noon and 12:14-2:15 p.m., with lunch available in the Memorial Union from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Closing ceremonies, with a review of the day’s activities, are scheduled from 2:30-3 p.m. at Hutchins Concert Hall in the MCA.
Workshops will be held in classrooms and laboratories throughout the UMaine campus, but clustered around Jenness, Murray, Neville, Barrows and Sawyer buildings.
Previous “Horizons” programs have included tours of research facilities such as the Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Laboratory and the Electron Microscopy Laboratory, and a workshop on gender equity.