Girls Expand Their Horizons at Conference

Over 200 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade girls from remote northern California—places such as Zenia in Trinity County, Litchfield in Lassen, and Yreka in Siskiyou—attended the Expand Your Horizons conference on January 8.

Sponsored by the CSU, Chico Center for Mathematics and Science Education and the American Association of University Women, the conference introduced students to women working in math and science related occupations. In workshops led by a firefighter, criminologist, naturalist, geologist, computer programmer, engineer, and veterinarian, the students tried out various aspects of the jobs or the math or science required for them.}BA Susan Evers, Chico veterinarian, assists a student as she listens to the heart of Annie, Evers' Dog. The students compared Annie's heartbeat to Rosie the cat. Students also examined a heartworm-damaged dog's heart, tapeworms and roundworms, obstructions from a horse's intestines, and other fascinating oddities found in domestic animals.
LaDawn Haws, Mathematics and Science, demonstrates the Bernoulli principle (that as a fluid increases speed, it decreases pressure) with an ordinary hair dryer, and a ping pong ball.
Firefighter Lydia Soileau from the California Department of Forestry demonstrates the proper way to create a pelvic harness for rappelling down cliffs during rescues.

(photos BA)