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Sally’s science

On Sunday afternoon, girls swarmed the Kresge Auditorium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, anticipating the on-stage arrival of a hero. But it wasn’t Britney Spears or the lead singer of the latest boy band that spurred their cheers and applause.

It was Sally Ride, former National Aeronautics and Space Administration astronaut, who stepped up to the microphone. “You,” she told her devotees, “are just about the right age to be one of the first people on Mars.”

Ride, 50, spoke of her experiences aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger at the first Boston Science Festival, organized by the Sally Ride Science Club. For the young girls who attended (some of them with their brothers in tow), the day was filled with workshops and exhibits designed to show them that science can be interesting.

They built volcanoes, solved mysteries with forensic scientists and forecast the weather. Kelly Mogren, 12, contemplated her future as an astronaut. Although Mogren admitted to thinking more about recycling than astrophysics, listening to Ride speak was “pretty cool since she was the first woman astronaut.”

Mogren is a seventh-grader who is being home-schooled with her three brothers by her mother, Susan.

“We’re here because we do interest-based home-schooling, and we’re trying to find authentic interests for her to pursue,” Susen Mogren said.

Alann Lopes, the co-founder and the vice president of technology at Imaginary Lines, the parent company for the Science Club, said the festival was a great success. Pre-registration attracted 725 participants to the Boston festival, but close to 1,000 had shown up, forcing him to turn some people away.

“It’s incredible,” he said. “It’s great to see so much interest.”

A HISTORY OF FEMALES’ ROLES IN SCIENCE

Ride founded the Science Club to encourage young women to pursue opportunities in science and technology. As a young girl, she played with telescopes and chemistry sets, but during her high school years, her self-confidence waned. She attributes much of her success to her parents and to a couple of teachers.

“They made me believe in myself and that I had the talent to go on,” she said.

Many girls, of course, do drop out of science early in their education. Reports from the National Center for Education Statistics and the Congressional Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering and Technology Development show that in fourth grade, girls and boys enjoy math and science equally, but by eighth grade, things have changed. Without role models and encouragement girls often lose confidence in their math and science abilities.

“One of the goals of the science club,” Ride said, “is to make girls feel like they belong to the scientific community and to help them connect to this community and stay involved.”

WOMEN IN SCIENCE ON THE COLLEGE LEVEL

Although women constitute the majority of undergraduates at universities in the United States, their numbers remain small in undergraduate engineering programs. Nationally, women made up 19 percent of the total enrollment in undergraduate engineering programs in 1997, the most recent date for which statistics are available. But for women interested in engineering, Boston is a popular destination.

In 2001, nearly 28 percent of undergraduate engineering students at Boston University were women. MIT and Tufts fared slightly better, where women represented 35 percent and 33 percent of the class, levels that were reached only after a decade of aggressive recruiting practices, according to an article in The Boston Globe.

David Campbell, Dean of Engineering, could not be reached for comment about BU’s methods of recruitment.

BU’S CONTRIBUTION TO FEMALES IN SCIENCE

At a local level, the BU branch of the Society of Women Engineers supports young girls’ interest in science. Songeeta Palchaudhuri, the publicity chair for the society and a senior in the Department of Engineering, said the society has sponsored rocket-building design competitions and helped Girl Scouts earn their patches.

The members of the society do much of their work through the Pathways Program, which gives young women the opportunity to meet with female scientists and tinker with microscopes, computers and experiments. Palchaudhuri said the society was not aware of Ride’s newest organization.

“We would love to get involved,” she said. “We’re always looking for opportunities to promote engineering and to increase interest in engineering among girls.”

Not quite a year old, the Sally Ride Science Club has attracted between 2,000 and 3,000 members, Lopes said. As the club grows, Lopes said she plans to develop local chapters that would host their own meetings and festivals and mentor local members.

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