By Deemah Pulak
Designing specialized robots, understanding Ebola, learning about 3D printing, harnessing energy from natural disasters, finding out how scientists quantify the light spectrum and building calculators – these are a few of 55 different abstracts girls can research in a new program called Young WISE (Women in Science and Engineering).
“We will learn the ins and outs of the entire field,” junior Miranda Gavitt said. “I think it will be a huge advantage careerwise.”
The class, called Scientific Research and Design, is geared toward empowering women in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) field and will be implemented in the four high schools in the district starting this fall.
“There’s not sufficient women interested in the STEM field,” STEM Berkner HS senior Katherine Roldan said. “I like the idea of the class and the fact that they are encouraging young women to join the STEM field and to be interested in it.”
The girls in the class will be put in groups of three and will take part in a year-long research project from their selected abstract.
“I think the program is really beneficial,” Roldan said. “It’ll really look nice on a college application, and it’ll teach you more about engineering as a whole.”
At the end of the year, the schools around the area will present their findings to a panel of experts. Richardson is competing against schools from the district and Dallas.
“I hope the ladies gain a better appreciation for the scientific method and what a powerful tool it can be,” Coordinator James Stanfield said. “In terms of gaining knowledge, I think the project they selected is pretty challenging and will require them to learn quite a bit about a wide range of topics in order to be successful.”
With the help of four mentors – a teacher mentor, a college student mentor, a faculty mentor, and an industry professional mentor – the girls will improve upon the abstract and present their findings at the end of the year.
“I’m excited for the young WISE program because it gives me the opportunity to gain the skills of critical thinking, persistence, planning and presentation,” Gavitt said. “These are vital to succeeding in the STEM field.”
Individuals and groups can receive scholarships and, in some cases, a patent based on their findings.
“I like how it’ll teach me both lab techniques and presentation skills,” Gavitt said. “We get to meet with people in the field and learn how the STEM field actually works.”
The program hopes to encourage women to pursue careers in the STEM field in the future.
“I think this experience may help me make up my mind about my future because I’m still very unsure,” Roldan said. “Maybe this program can help me realize that my future lies within the STEM field. This program can only help me grow.”
Girls who were interested in the program attended an information session at University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) at the beginning of the school year to learn about the new class. Students who take the class will have access to UTD facilities.
“The fact of the matter is that not a lot of women are interested in science and engineering,” Roldan said. “That’s a shame because you make a lot of money and you can really help and benefit a lot of people. I think it’d be great that women would be able to get this experience so they could possibly end up liking it and end up having a future in the STEM field.”
In order to participate in the program, girls have to be classified as a high school junior or senior, have a GPA of 3.0 or higher, be currently or have been enrolled in a Physics course, and receive free or reduced lunch.
“I would advise people who wish to try something new and who want to explore and experiment new avenues to join the class,” Roldan said. “Most people think that the STEM field such as working with robots and building technology is not how they want to picture their future. I would recommend people who are willing to give new ideas a shot and those willing to try to do it.”
The class has already started, but the official kick off is this weekend at UTD. There, the girls will meet their mentors and start formulating the problems they are going to work on throughout the year. They will have milestones along the way, such as finishing up research, designing the experiment, running experiments and analyzing their data.
“The potential for networking and impressing the right people with their creativity and hard work is an enormous advantage to this program and will set the ladies up for success in college and the real world,” Stanfield said. “Since Richardson is committed to giving our students every opportunity for future success, it was easy to decide to participate, even on short notice.”