School girls try science

 The day was filled with activities besides experiments, too. For instance, the group of girls were given the chance to ask assistant professor Helen Caines, a nuclear physicist, questions in the “Ask a Scientist” session. Toward the end of the day, the girls were given a tour of Yale’s particle accelerator by professor Andres Heinz.

Many particularly enjoyed the sign on the wall that read, “Please put your toys away when you’re done.”

The girls attending GSI had interests in science ranging from research to engineering and even veterinary medicine.

“I want to study biochemistry and forensics,” Olyvia Elderkin, a seventh-grader at James H. Moran Middle School, said. “We studied Newton’s laws in school, but this takes it to the next level.”

GSI is funded through Fleming’s National Science Foundation CAREER grant, the Department of Physics, and Yale’s Office of New Haven and State Affairs, and is free for participating schools.