More than 300 teenage girls from more than 60 Utah schools attended the third annual Expanding Your Horizons Salt Lake City conference last weekend at Northwest Middle School. The goal of the conference is to get young women excited about careers in science, math and other technical fields, where women remain underrepresented. Girls from grades six through 12 chose to attend three of the 27 hands-on workshops taught by women. They got a sense of what a career in these fields would be like and met role models, making it easier for them to picture themselves in the same career.
The workshops included a variety of activities, including learning how to program a robot, launch a rocket, make chocolate highways and extract DNA.
“We learned that strawberries have the most sets of identical DNA, and then extracted DNA from a berry,” said Tristan Coder, an 8th grader from Northwest Middle School. “I loved all the workshops – I really had a lot of fun.”
One of the workshops was led by Rocky Mountain Power’s Eve Davies, who is an environmental scientist in the company’s hydro department. Along with her team of volunteers, which included a U.S. Forest Service District Ranger, an ATK Aerospace Systems rocket scientist and an associate with an architectural firm, students constructed platforms for nesting osprey. These platforms keep the birds and their offspring away from power lines. The girls completed seven platforms that will be placed throughout the utility’s service area.
Key Note Speaker Joy de Lisser, vice president and general manager of ATK Aerospace Structures, told the teenagers that they have the ability to change the world.
“You have choices. The education you choose, the people you associate with and every other choice you make today will provide a foundation for tomorrow,” de Lisser said. “I want you to go out there and give it your all. You just might change not only your world, but the world around you!”
The Expanding Your Horizons Network is a national organization dedicated to sparking an interest in young women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math by organizing hands-on activities and opportunities to meet role models. The Expanding Your Horizons goal is to motivate girls to become innovative and creative thinkers ready to meet 21st Century challenges.
The event in Salt Lake City last weekend was sponsored by ATK Aerospace Systems, in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, Salt Lake City School District and the Utah Math/Science Network. An Expanding Your Horizons conference for northern Utah will be held this fall. Click here for more information.
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