UI Women in Science and Engineering Reach Out to Young Girls

Science was sweet Saturday at Girl Scout Badge Day.

The University of Iowa Women in Science and Engineering Ambassadors organize the event to teach girls that science and engineering can be fun. Seventy-six girls from throughout Eastern Iowa attended this year's event at the Iowa Memorial Union.  This year, they made landfills out of candy to understand the dynamics of a landfill, compounded their own lip gloss, and learned about geoscience by excavating fossils and identifying minerals.

The WISE Ambassadors is a student group of women in the science, health care and engineering fields. They come up with the ideas for the event, trying to cover a variety of science and engineering categories, said Amber Meyer, president of the WISE Ambassadors.

"I think (the activities) are a lot of fun, and it looks like the girls are having a lot of fun," Meyer said.

Meyer said the goal is for the girls to come out of the event more interested in science and engineering.

"They see someone closer to their age in these fields than adults and teachers," she said.

Jenny Kolwey, leader for Troop 8504 from Davenport, said she liked seeing the girls in her troop having fun while learning.  "Science and engineering jobs are where women are a minority," Kolwey said. "It's important to me for the girls to see this can be a career for them."

Girls rotated through five 20-minute activity stations and heard presentations by Monica Challenger, an electrical engineer at Rockwell Collins, and Miss Iowa Anne Michael Langguth.

The lip gloss station was the favorite for Troop 8504 member Veronica Henderson, 10.

"I think the lip one was kind of cool because you actually get to make it," Veronica said. She made hers root beer flavored and there were other flavors, too, she said.

Macey Barnhart, a 10-year-old from Colesburg, agreed that the lip gloss activity was the best one of the day. She made blue-colored, vanilla-flavored lip gloss.

Girl Scout Badge Day "was awesome," Macey said, "and I want to come again a lot."