Girl Scouts Attend "Cool Science"

U.S. Air Force photo by Julie Imada

Just last week, approximately 50 girls experimented with liquid nitrogen, Alka Seltzer rockets and food chemical mixtures at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. Supervised by cadets, these girls were ages 5-7 and all belonged to Girls Scout Daisy and Brownie troops. At the Academy's workshop - titled "Cool Science" - the girls were able to see first hand how fun science can be through creative chemistry and physics experiments illustrated by the cadets.  Can I get three cheers for the Air Force Academy?! 

The Girl Scouts spent the day at the Academy working on simple hands-on, educational experiments like how to make ice cream with liquid nitrogen, how a film canister reacts with Alka Seltzer and how many chemistry books a tower constructed of paper and masking tape can support. 

Cadet 4th Class Katherine Case saw the bigger picture when she said, "It's an important event because ti gives an introduction to young girls about the world of science, which is important because there aren't many females in the field."  She added, "when I was younger, I went to something called 'Girls in Engineering and Mathematic Science' that presented workshops on career fields in science and made me fall in love with the field. Now I'm pursuing that love."

These are the type of programs that we need to see more of! Programs that ignite an interest in STEM fields and leave young students with the desire to pursue a career in STEM. While it's important to target girls when they're young so that they don't grow up thinking that STEM fields are for boys, there should still be a push to get boys just as interested and fired up about STEM. 

The Air Force Academy has hosted this workshop every spring and fall for 10 years and hopes it continues to be a hit. Read more about the Nov. 10 workshop.

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