Workshop focus: Girls in science

Erasing fear of technical fields aim of UCA conference

Hayley Johnson gets acquainted with a speckled kingsnake Thursday during the STEM Power for Girls conference at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
Hayley Johnson gets acquainted with a speckled kingsnake Thursday during the STEM Power for Girls conference at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.

CONWAY -- In a single day, scores of young women gathered at the University of Central Arkansas, where they solved computer problems, learned about criminal forensics, studied the stars, made paint and even handled snakes.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

FBI senior forensic examiner Becky Passmore (right) talks Thursday during the STEM Power for Girls conference at the University of Central Arkansas.

The events were part of a one-day conference called STEM for Girls, a series of workshops aimed at encouraging more women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, commonly called the STEM fields.

After all, about 48 percent of Arkansans are women, but women hold only about 25 percent of the state's science and technology jobs, said Umadevi Garimella, director of UCA's STEM Institute.

"We really want to show [the students] that women can be successful in STEM-related occupations and maybe inspire them to go into" such fields, said Garimella, who holds a doctorate in botany and a master's degree in chemistry.

One problem, she noted, is that too few Arkansas women have education above a four-year college degree.

Women seeking science and technology jobs need at least four years of higher education, she said. "But if someone wants to really be successful in STEM areas, I think you need to go further than that."

Ninety-one students, mostly high school students but also a few from UCA, attended the conference Thursday.

During the workshops, teachers helped students get past fears and misunderstandings about science and technology careers.

In a class titled "Snakes of Arkansas," participants were urged to hold, or at least touch, a nonpoisonous black-and-tan kingsnake.

"I'm just going to let you feel her belly," a graduate student said as she held the snake out to 11th-grader Angela Vorasane from Little Rock's Parkview High School.

"It's not slimy like I thought it would be," Vorasane said.

As one snake and then another passed from teacher to student over and over, there were squeamish giggles, reluctant touches and finally the clicking sound of cellphone cameras.

The workshop's teacher was Ginny Adams, interim associate dean of UCA's College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Adams said she used to be afraid of snakes, too.

"The way you learn not to be afraid of something is to learn about it," said Adams, who studies fish.

Other workshops focused on problem-solving with math, computer-science programming, forensic analysis, the chemistry of prehistoric cave art and even astrophysics.

In the computer-science class, teacher Namrata Nekkanti, who works for Acxiom Corp., told the students that an advantage to computer programming, especially for young mothers, is that they often can work from home.

"We are needed. We are not applying," she said of women.

Becky Passmore, an information-technology specialist and senior forensic examiner with the FBI in Little Rock, showed her bullet-resistant vest, helmet, gas mask and other equipment to students in the forensics workshop.

Passmore said five of the FBI's 16 evidence-response team members in the Little Rock bureau are women.

The FBI is recruiting women for various jobs and offers internships, she noted.

"I think a woman carries a passion," whether it's in doing her job or caring for a child, Passmore said.

She told the students how a forensics worker had found a murder suspect's DNA by examining pizza crust found at a recent crime scene -- the Washington, D.C., home where a wealthy couple, their son and their housekeeper were killed.

She said forensics work isn't "always pretty ... but it's very rewarding" when they can put the evidence together to identify a suspect and achieve justice.

"It doesn't have to be blood. It doesn't have to be guts," she said.

It can be about bullet trajectory, footprints, even a thumb drive used by a criminal but disguised as a poker chip or as a toy stashed among a child's possessions, she said.

Hannah Wolf, an 11th-grader at Vilonia High School, said she especially enjoyed the cave-art class, where she learned that archaeologists can better understand an item's history by examining the paint on it.

Wolf said she'd never thought about an archaeological career.

In addition to science, she said, archaeology would involve rock climbing and traveling.

"That would be something cool to do," she said.

Miranda Berry, another 11th-grader from Vilonia, said she, too, enjoyed the cave-art class.

She said the class made her curious to learn more and helped her realize that, "Hey, I'm not that bad at science."

State Desk on 05/24/2015

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