Student Voices

Editor's note: In March, Susannah Lightbourne-Maynard, an eighth-grader from Sellwood Middle School in Portland, traveled to Sonoma State University in California for a math and science conference for eighth-grade girls. The following essay is an account of that experience that she wrote for Northwest Education.

At the end of March, I had an experience that not too many girls get to have: I went to a math and science conference for eighth-grade girls at Sonoma State University in California. The day was filled with speeches, active learning, and hands-on activities.

After everyone had gone through registration, I went to the auditorium to listen to women speakers in the math and science profession. They talked about how important it is for young women in their teens to get involved in math and science, because most girls think that math and science are generally guy things. I was hoping that a lot of girls at the conference had an assertive attitude about math and science because what the speakers were saying was very important. They are women who have gone through what girls my age are going through now. They know what it's like and want to be able to show us how to handle the good and the bad. I think they got all of us to look at math and science in a different way. It was head-on information.

Personally, I'm addicted to math and science, especially anything that has to do with space. My love for math and science comes from my own curiosity and a couple of teachers I've had. My science teacher, Mr. Eric Bergmark, is so enthusiastic. He says that everyone can have fun in science and told us to get "psyched." He also made everything seem not so complicated.

My math teacher, Mr. Gary Davidson, is the same way. He got me to look at math as something I could tackle with ease. I felt that I was the one in control and math has become so much easier.

I THINK THE WAY TO GET girls involved in science is to find out what they are interested in, then work from there at their pace. Of course, you have to use hands-on projects as much as possible—not boring paperwork! One of the things Mr. Bergmark did was hold star parties. On clear nights, students and parents were invited to come to a nearby park and take a look at the stars through Mr. Bergmark's GIANT telescope. It was a lot of fun. It made space seem so cool!

After all the adults spoke, we listened to a girl who is a junior in high school talk about her positive opinions of math and science. She spoke of how one should be challenged in life, and if you're not it might become boring. I totally agree with her. I'm in eighth grade. In seventh grade, I didn't challenge myself and I became bored. This year has become quite the challenge, and I love it!

After all the great speeches at the conference were over, it was time to begin class. Everyone was signed up for different courses. The first one I had was creating computer graphics. It was so much fun! We were able to do so many things on the computer that I never thought we could do. The instructor has designed many popular computer graphics, such as the giraffe for Toys 'R' Us. We found out that when the artwork goes on the cardboard, only four colors have been used: black, red, yellow, and blue. When you combine those colors, it looks like thousands of colors. On the computer, you can do things to your artwork like blowing up its face or other parts like a balloon, or make the artwork collapse on itself. You can also crystallize it and use other effects. There are tons more, but I can't list them all. It was definitely a great time.

After an hour we went to our second class, "Digging up the past." It was about geoarcheology, which is a way to find out about the people, climate, and land forms that existed years ago by looking at the soil. This was also a blast!

My friend and I analyzed soil using acid and water. We learned about some of the tools used in geoarcheology like a table to find out what kind of dirt we had (ours was clay). We also used a book that had different colors of dirt in it that we could match with our dirt. We also used brushes, picks, and our hands to feel the texture of the dirt, which helped us define our soil. Our "dig" went back about 800 years! Because our soil was clay, we could tell it was from a wet climate. Our teacher guessed it came from somewhere in Canada.

Soon the class was over and it was lunchtime. Even then, we kept our minds challenged: Everyone was provided math and science puzzles to solve.

AFTER LUNCH IT WAS TIME for another project: Adopt-A-Watershed. We learned about all the organisms and other life that exist in watersheds. We also played a game in a field where we threw toothpicks everywhere, then pretended we were eagles that had to find worms—the toothpicks. This helped us see how hard it is for animals to sometimes find food.

At the end of the day we went into the auditorium for a closing session. The main message I came away with is: If there is something out there that you are interested in, don't let things get in your way. You can do anything. I also learned to always challenge myself and to remember to make those challenges fun. The whole day was such a great experience! I hope more girls and boys get involved in science and mathematics. It's worth it.

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