School girls try science

The first two experiments of the day involved Galileo’s experiments on gravity and Newton’s laws, illustrated by a demonstration of a feather and a penny falling in a vacuum tube. The girls also learned about sound wavelength and frequency by studying tuning-fork frequency, string and water ripples.

Holding vibrating tuning forks over a coaster-sized microphone, the girls watched as jagged lines representing the variations in wavelength appeared on a computer screen.

The girls learned about not only the physical laws, but also the scientists who pioneered them.

“I like seeing how things work,” Denisha Kuhloi, a seventh-grader at Dag Hammarskjold Middle School, said about the experiments on offer. “The science books just tell you information. This shows you how it plays out in reality.”

The program increases the girls’ confidence in their ability to do science, in addition to sparking their interest, Marion Applequist, a retired high school physics teacher and a non-faculty volunteer for the program, said. The women volunteering for this program, she explained, want to give girls support and encouragement to continue in a male-dominated field.

“It’s nice for the girls to be able to ask questions and say what they want without being judged by guys,” Michele Dufault ’11, an astronomy and physics major who was volunteering at the event, said. “Almost all of the volunteers and scientists involved with this program are women — showing the girls that women can succeed in the sciences. I wish I had that opportunity at their age.”