DuPont, Girl Scouts encourage budding scientists

After making globby lip gloss from Crisco and Kool-Aid, sixth-grader Jahzara Jones wasn't ready to experiment on her mouth.

"I'll give it to my sister to see how it works," the Southbridge preteen admitted, grinning.

That's the beauty of science — designing, testing, refining (and recruiting a younger sibling as the guinea pig).

Jones was among more than 100 Girl Scouts, Girls Inc. members and daughters of DuPont employees who gathered Saturday at Conrad Schools of Science in Wilmington to see that female scientists don't all have coke-bottle glasses and live in test tube bunkers. Rather, they are intellectually curious, empowered professionals who bring clean drinking water to communities, build bridges to ease access and develop lifesaving medical treatments.

In its 28th year, the Engineering Your Tomorrow event is a collaboration between DuPont Co. and the Girl Scouts of the Chesapeake Bay to expose young women to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields before they've settled on a career path.

A new partner this year was the local chapter of Girls Inc, a North American nonprofit organization that inspires underprivileged young women through service and advocacy. About 40 Girls Inc. members participated in the afternoon event, joining the vest-clad scouts, who took a break from slogging through Samoas.

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It was a sight to behold — girls with neon hair and silver nail polish horsing around lab stations on their day off, their smartphones tucked away (for the most part). They rotated among four hands-on activities led by about 50 female DuPont employees, who channeled their creativity and problem-solving skills.

Meanwhile, some of the girls' parents participated in panel discussions related to STEM opportunities and career resources.

"The good thing about this age group is that they have so much future ahead of them," said Skye Schmidt, a STEM specialist for the local Girl Scouts who earned her doctorate in marine science.

A 2012 study by the Girl Scouts found that girls expressed an overwhelming interest in STEM fields, but only 13 percent saw it as a viable career. Typically, women are more interested in traditional helping professions like teaching, social work or counseling, event leaders said.

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Women comprise half of the total college-educated workforce in the U.S., but only 29 percent of the science and engineering workforce, according to the National Girls Collaborative Project. The organization advocates for STEM programs catered to young women.

The reasons for female underrepresentation are varied and involve the degree of parental and teacher involvement, socioeconomic status and gender stereotypes in media. We don't yet have a female MacGyver, but we do have a female cosmological physicist and neurobiologist on "The Big Bang Theory."

Studies show that male and female students generally perform equally well in math and science standardized tests, but gender disparities are more pronounced, especially for minority women, in undergraduate programs. Women receive far fewer degrees than men in computer sciences, engineering, physical sciences and math, according to the National Girls Collaborative Project.

While an increasing number of young women are pursuing STEM careers, more needs to be done, Engineering Your Tomorrow co-chair Sara McDonald said. Event enrollment has stayed relatively flat in recent years; leaders acknowledge that girls have competing priorities, such as athletics, entertainment and not being totally repulsed by boys.

McDonald, who supervises DuPont's field engineering program, grew up in rural North Carolina where she was the only female in her Advanced Placement biology class.

"The summer after 10th grade was the first time I heard about engineering," she recalled. "I only knew it from the railroad."

All three of McDonald's older sisters are teachers; Mom wasn't thrilled when her youngest turned down a teaching scholarship.

But there are benefits to a degree in a STEM field, such as solid employment prospects and a healthy salary. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2012 projects that the nation will add 1 million STEM jobs by 2022. In 2011, former Gov. Jack Markell established the Delaware STEM Council to expand the STEM-capable workforce statewide and attract new business.

Women in STEM fields earn 86 cents of every dollar earned by a man, compared with 78 cents in other fields. The difference is even greater for African-American women and Latinas.

That's one of the reasons why both Girls Inc. and the Girl Scouts stress STEM education year-round, with activities geared around digital microscopes, DNA fingerprinting and Punkin Chunkin-inspired catapults. (Fun fact: Former DuPont Chief Executive Ellen Kullman started out as a Girl Scout.)

On Saturday, the girls learned how to create something out of nothing, like using a bottle cap, CD and balloon to fashion a hovercraft and measure how far it would travel. Newton's first law of motion was buried in there somewhere, but applying the concept was way more fun than memorizing a textbook.

In another classroom, students mashed up strawberries to create a gray-purple sludge. Then, they added diluted dish liquid and rubbing alcohol to cause a cloudy spider web of DNA to bubble up.

To understand polymers (long chains of molecules), students nearby formed bouncy balls from glue, cornstarch and Borax.

Members of one team were disappointed that their ball jumped a piddly 3 inches, so they added more Borax. That only weighed the ball down more.

With four minutes left in the session, they rushed back to try again. In science, one instructor remarked, never be afraid to fail.

Contact Margie Fishman at (302) 324-2882, on Twitter @MargieTrende or mfishman@delawareonline.com.