Story by Steve Traiman
Featured photo is of 1st place winners in the Florida 13th District Congressional App Challenge. The will meet US Representative Charlie Christ, who sponsors the challenge in his district. From left to right are teacher Lafrance Clark and students Trudy Kwok, Rashonda Fayson and Jenna Nguyen. (not picture: Gabriel Moreno). Photo is from the Pinellas County School Boards.
Women are taking a leadership role in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) programs in Pinellas County, with expanding results for girls of all ages.
A sampling of programs includes the Pinellas County Schools STEM Academies, the USF College of Marine Science Oceanography Camp for Girls, and the St. Pete Science Fest.
One good university example of the history of women in science is Rockefeller University in New York City. According to the university’s website, www.rockefeller.edu,
• The university has long been a leader in promoting the careers of women scientists and takes great pride in this role. The groundbreaking Women & Science program has helped to support and recruit women scientists and faculty for nearly 25 years, and the university has become recognized around the world for its cadre of exceptional women scientific leaders.
• However, while the university is home to 35 portraits of male scientists who have contributed to its distinguished history, there is not a single portrait of a woman scientist on the entire campus. Brooklyn-based artist Brenda Zlamany, who painted a portrait of Yale’s first seven women Ph.D. students that hangs in the university’s Sterling Library, has been commissioned for this project.
• In the spirit of the Yale portrait, the university decided to commission a portrait of not one but five pioneering women scientists from Rockefeller University: Drs. Marie Daly: nuclei of tissues and ribonucleoprotein, Rebecca Lancefield: hemolytic streptococci; Louise Pearce: trypanosomiasis aka African sleeping sickness; Gertrude Perlmann; investigation of proteins in bodily fluids; and Florence Sabin; immune system cells and tubercular lesions, and the first woman named full professor.
• Each of these women held significant tenures at Rockefeller or went on to have careers at other institutions after training at the university. All were among the first women in their fields. Once completed, this portrait will be installed prominently above the fireplace in the lounge of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Hall.
USF Oceanography Camp for GirlsThe USF College of Marine Science in St. Pete launched its first Oceanography Camp for Girls (OCG) in 1991. That also was the year digital cell phone technology was launched, although most people still had phones attached to walls – and the year “the web” became publicly available, although few knew what that really meant. How the world has changed since 1991. But the OCG has stood the test of time. Last year’s 30th anniversary camp was held, in person, in July.
Dr. Teresa Greely, Director, USF College of Marine Science’s Education & Outreach, oversees the Oceanography Camp for Girls. During the camp operation, Teresa has been there, too. Her first camp experience began as a graduate student in the then Department of Marine Science. In the College she also teaches year-round and facilitates a series of ocean-themed professional development opportunities for K-12 teachers, and coastal field trips for their students.
This three-week summer program, designed for young women from Pinellas County in their sandwich summer between middle school and high school, has earned billing by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a model for immersive, experiential STEM learning for women and girls. Activities include a spectrum of hands-on field trips, guided laboratory experiments, interviews with scientists, communications training, and more.The camp is offered at no charge every year to 30 young women inclusive of all backgrounds, literacy, and aptitude levels — culturally, socially, economically and otherwise. More than 1,200 girls have participated since the camp’s inception. The OCG was the brainchild of former dean of the USF College of Marine Science Peter Betzer and two Pinellas County high school science teachers, Carmen Kelly and Jeanette Walker. “Over my 37-year career in marine science, one of my proudest and most significant legacies is the critical part I played in starting the OCG and then single-handedly building an endowment to support it in perpetuity,” says Betzer. “Through the years countless parents of our OCG alums have shared so many inspiring stories about the transformative experiences their young daughters had – and it’s thrilling to hear them every time.”
The OCG is now accepting applications for this year’s June 6-23 camp from eighth grade girls in Pinellas County through March 31 with this online applications link: www.usf.edu/marine-science/community-engagement/oceanography-camp-for-girls/how-to-apply/camper-applications.aspx
St. Pete Science Festival
Kim Amendola, NOAA Fisheries Communications Supervisor in St. Pete, is a founder of The St. Petersburg Science Festival, along with Alison Barlow, Executive Director, St. Pete Innovation District, The SciFest is an annual regional celebration since 2011 where families and the public can explore the wonders of hands-on science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM). Barlow confirmed: “Held virtually the past two years, we hope to go live this year, again in October in conjunction with MarineQuest, the annual open house of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.
“Tentatively, during the Friday, Oct. 14, Sneak Peek School Day, hundreds of elementary students will be able to experience STEAM through a series of fun, interactive demonstrations. The Saturday (Oct. 15) Public Science Festival will be full of hands-on activities and more. Programming is a little up in the air, but we typically have amazing exhibits by NOAA, US Geological Survey, USF, Eckerd College, and Clearwater Marine Aquarium, among others.
“Our goals continue to be: create a positive experience with STEAM-related activities that will inspire festival visitors to seek out involvement in other STEAM activities throughout the year; increase the participation in STEAM activities of children from underrepresented communities; and provide opportunities for research and science professionals to engage in conversation with the public regarding STEAM research endeavors and diverse career opportunities.”
Pinellas County Schools STEM Academies
The Pinellas County School Board began the STEM Academies program about eight years ago, according to Dr. Catherine Mullins, PCSB STEM Secondary Program Advisor. She works with Tracy Staley, elementary program advisor. The program vision is to increase STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) opportunities for Pinellas County students and encourage them to enroll in accelerated STEM courses as they progress through middle and high school. They make special efforts to include girls and other underrepresented groups in STEM programs through active recruiting.This free extra-curricular program impacts more than 5,000 students in grades K to 12 from 90-plus participating schools. The program offers students opportunities to conduct hands-on engineering design challenges, explore careers in STEM, improve teambuilding and leadership skills, learn about business planning, and interact with community and business partners. During the summer months, the K-12 STEM Department offers a STEM Innovation Summer Camp program for students entering grades 2-8 during the upcoming school year.Mullins told Paradise News, “Our program is now called the STEM Explorer Program, for our extracurricular STEM Academy Clubs and the Summer Innovation camps. We are still working on our summer program dates and they will be posted on the STEM website at www.pcsb.org/STEM. “
Shai’ Robia Davis is one of the youngest STEM Academy graduates to carry on the STEM vision. She created Shaping the Early Mind with her husband Marquis in June 2017 as an after-school program. She noted, “The program is designed to spark an interest in the STEM fields for minority children and encourage the youth to pursue careers in these fields. Working with a collection of science, technology, engineering, and math professionals and enthusiasts, we have overcome adversity to get to where we are, and we want to reach back and pull others up and over obstacles to achieve success and their goals and dreams of excelling in STEM career fields.” More info at www.shapingtheearlymind.com.
More girls have taken an increasing interest in STEM curricula – not only in Pinellas County but across the country – and this is just a good sampling of successful programs.
[Editor’s Note: Special thanks to Dr. Teresa Greely, Alison Barlow, Kim Amendola, Dr. Catherine Mullins and Katherine Fenz for their excellent information and photos.]
[Feature editor Steve Traiman is president of Creative Copy by Steve Traiman, providing professional business writing services since 1993. He can be reached via email to traimancreativecopy@gmail.com or by phone to 727-363-7531.]