Women in Science to be held Friday

For more than 300 junior high girls, most of them from northwest Ohio, getting up close with snakes, lizards and their reptilian relatives will serve as a Friday morning (Nov. 6) wake-up call.

That’s how the seventh- and eighth-graders will start their day at Bowling Green State University’s Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) program, sponsored by BGSU Continuing and Extended Education.

Dr. Eileen Underwood, an associate professor of biological sciences at Bowling Green, will introduce the girls to the reptiles from 8:55-9:50 a.m. in the Bowen-Thompson Student Union’s Lenhart Grand Ballroom.

They will then move on individually to three sessions, choosing from a number of topics in the STEM fields. Among the possibilities are:
• a forensic science presentation that will include demonstration of a saliva detection technique, from both 10-10:55 a.m. and again from 11:05 a.m. until noon in 315 Union;
• hands-on forensic science and chemistry activities, at the same times in 145 Overman Hall, and
• from 12:40-1:35 p.m. in 183 Overman Hall, “Life on the Beach in Ohio—390 Million Years Ago!” In that session, led by Dr. Margaret (Peg) Yacobucci, an associate professor of geology, participants will examine fossils common to Ohio to reconstruct what its environment was like millions of years ago.

Sessions will also be held in the Education, Physical Sciences Laboratory, Life Sciences and Technology buildings.

In addition to Bowling Green and Toledo-area schools, the girls will come from such northwest Ohio schools as Allen East, Archbold, Edgerton, Patrick Henry and Van Buren.

For more information about the day, contact either Sherry Pickerel at 419-283-4675 or Rhonda Hile at 419-722-1015.

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(Posted November 05, 2009 )