STEM Story Archives - Page 2 of 4 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

New Bipartisan STEM Caucus Aims To See More Women In Science, Math Careers

The U.S. Senate launched a new caucus focused on helping women advance in STEM education and careers. West Virginia’s Sen. Shelley Moore Capito is one of the lawmakers spearheading the effort.

The bipartisan caucus was started by Capito, a Republican, and Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada, a Democrat. The two women announced its launch on Monday, which was also National STEM Day. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math.

Capito said the caucus will focus on providing a forum for discussion and legislative collaboration about ways to expand access for women in these fields.

“STEM fields are where the in-demand jobs are right now, and it’s where they will be in the future. These are jobs in industries that are critical to our economy, and will help our states and country as a whole grow,” Capito said. “However, as a former educator and college advisor, I have seen firsthand how young women often do not consider STEM education for career paths … Inspiring our young women to rise up and reach their potential is so important, and I’m excited to be a part of this partnership that will help continue the momentum we’ve started.”

According to the U.S. Census, women are still underrepresented in the STEM workforce, holding less than one-third of all jobs in the field.

“I know the career opportunities that are available with STEM education, and I’m committed to helping more women, particularly women of color, enter and succeed in these exciting fields,” said Rosen. “This bipartisan caucus will bring together diverse voices to develop and promote policies and programs that support women and girls in STEM. We will also raise awareness on how women’s underrepresentation in STEM classes and jobs limits the United States from achieving our full economic potential and fully addressing some of the most pressing challenges of the 21st century.”

In related news, Capito will be in Wheeling on Nov. 10, at Bethlehem Elementary School for her West Virginia Girls Rise Up program. Capito launched this initiative in 2015 with the goal of empowering young women through education, fitness, and self-confidence.

Successful WVU STEM Mentoring Program Heads to Alabama

The West Virginian Health Sciences and Technology Academy, known as HSTA, is a mentoring program housed at West Virginia University. It helps participating students succeed in science, technology, engineering and math-based undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

Now, that program is going on the road. The University of Alabama Capstone College of Nursing in Tuscaloosa, Alabama has received a $1.2 million Science Education Partnership Award from the National Institutes of Health to set up a HSTA program there over the next five years.

This is the first full-scale Health Sciences and Technology Academy outside of West Virginia.

The Alabama program will serve primarily rural, low-income African American high-schoolers.

Of the 3,000 young people who have graduated from West Virginia’s HSTA program, 99 percent have gone on to college, 89 percent have obtained a college degree, 84 percent continue to live and work in West Virginia, and they earn, on average, $30,000 more per year than their highest-earning parent.

Robin Bartlett, associate dean for research at the University of Alabama Capstone College of Nursing, will lead the team in establishing the nursing-focused pilot program in Alabama’s Hale and Pickens counties.

In speaking to the importance of HSTA-AL, Bartlett said, “Our state is in dire need of more nurses, particularly nurse scientists, nurse faculty, and registered nurses from rural areas and diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. To change this dynamic, we must encourage students from underrepresented populations to enter the field of nursing before they graduate from high school. We will build on WV HSTA’s successes, opening Alabama high school students up to the possibilities of a biomedical career, especially a career in nursing.”

Author: Women in STEM are More than Marie Curie

I'd like to start by talking about Marie Curie, and I am going to talk about her to say, we are not going to talk about her.

Rachel Swaby took the stage at the Walker Theater in Charleston as a part of the Higher Education Policy Commission’s Division of Science and Research STEM Speaker Series. Swaby, a freelance journalist, published her first book in April titled “Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science- and the World.”

“I think it’s easy to say, oh Marie Curie and just check that ‘you’ve talked about a woman in science’ box, but we should have a breadth of knowledge of many women who have done many amazing things,” Swaby said before her June talk.

Swaby’s book details the lives of 52 women from the science, technology, engineering and math fields.

One of her favorites ie Yvonne Brill, a rocket scientist who, in the 1970s, invented a satellite propulsion system that’s still being used today.

As a journalist, Swaby said she often finds herself writing about the STEM fields and doesn’t encounter much difficulty finding women to write about or talk to, but, she added, many journalists “rely on a rolodex of scientists” they’ve already been exposed to when writing their stories.

“There’s not a lack of women in science. There are a lot of women in science, they’re just not being covered as much, and I think they’re not being covered as much because of habit.”

Swaby said she hopes her book inspires conversations to change those habits, both for journalists and young women who may be interested in STEM careers.

The next event in the Higher Education Policy Commission’s Division of Science and Research STEM Speaker Series is scheduled for Thursday evening in Charleston.

Theoretical physicist Dr. Leonard Mlodinow will discuss the development of scientific theories and his book “The Grand Design,” which he co-authored with Stephen Hawking. That event is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at the Culture Center Theater.

#girlsinSTEM: Camp Looks to Boost Women in the Workforce

A group of 24 high school girls from across West Virginia are spending the week on the campus of WVU Tech in Montgomery, designing shoes and testing mock samples for the AIDS virus.

The girls are participating in WVU Tech’s first ever all girls STEM camp, short for science, technology, engineering and math.

Throughout the week, the girls will participate in classes in various STEM fields. In a lesson on computer programming, they learned to plot a path for a robot. In biology, they learned how to test fake blood samples for viruses and how to track the samples back to donors, and in a biomechanics course, the girls learned how to build shoes out of paper that would hold up under the body’s weight.

A team of three W.Va. High school girls compete in @wvu_tech's all girls STEM camp shoe building competition. (If you can't tell from the video, as soon as Sarah stands, her paper sandals collapse!) More on the camp tomorrow on #WVMorning at 7:41! A video posted by West Virginia Public News (@wvpublicnews) on Jul 1, 2015 at 2:17pm PDT

In addition to their lessons in various engineering and science fields, the campers are also interacting with college students majoring in STEM, with female professors from the university, and professionals brought in as guest speakers in the hopes of encouraging them to follow their love of science and math later in life while choosing a career.

“There’s still a large gap in the number of women that are in engineering. We’re not seeing as many women go into engineering and stay in engineering,” said Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering Kimberlin Gray.

As one of the camp’s organizers, Gray hopes to change that trend.

“One of the things that a lot of research has shown when people have looked into why is that people are more likely to go into things where they have role models and mentors that have already done those kinds of things,” she explained.

“I feel like [role models] are hard to find in my community” Buckhannon Upshur High School senior Laura Dean said.

“A lot of people in my school, I don’t think they’re really into engineering. So, I can’t really point out to my community and say I want to be like her.”

More from @wvu_tech: the only group whose shoes didn't collapse! #girlsinSTEM A video posted by West Virginia Public News (@wvpublicnews) on Jul 1, 2015 at 2:19pm PDT

Camp counselor and mechanical engineering student Kaylah Bovard said her role is to show the girls that despite the lack of woman working in STEM fields, it’s a viable career option.

“If you really are enjoying this and you really are great at math or science or you even just have a passion for it, you can succeed in this field,” Bovard said.

The camp lasts through Friday on the Montgomery campus.

National Youth Science Foundation Obtains Education Center in Tucker County

After four months of waiting, the National Youth Science Foundation has acquired a research and education center in Tucker County.

The National Youth Science Foundation, or NYSF, acquired the $20 million dollar Canaan Valley Institute facilities in Tucker County Tuesday. This comes after an agreement originally made in 2006 between the two organizations. The NYSF received federal approval for the site in March of this year.

NYSF plans to recommission the campus as a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, or STEM, Education Center, which will be capable of providing innovative STEM programs for hundreds of students each year.

NYSF is asking for state and federal officials to help provide funds to enhance the various programming.

Equal Pay Day Prompts Bake Sales and "Fix-It" Parties in W.Va.

Equal Pay Day fell this year on April 14. It’s the day that women’s wages catch up to men’s wages from last year, according to national rates. Of course, if it were a state holiday, we would have to celebrate in May or June. Women in West Virginia face some of the largest gender wage gaps in the country.

Unequal Bake Sales

Equal Pay Day brought bake sales throughout Morgantown. To highlight the national wage gap statistics, men paid a dollar and women only 78 cents per baked good. Danielle Conaway, a member of the WVU Council for Women’s Concerns, organized the sale and said she considers the event a success.

“We just basically wanted to create a dialogue about this issue,” Conaway said.

In West Virginia, the gender pay-gap is second-worst in the country. Women get paid 67 cents to a man’s dollar for equal work. A 2015 study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research estimates that by current trends, women in West Virginia will not reach income equality for another two to four generations.

The sale raised a couple hundred dollars and some concerns over wage inequity in West Virginia especially. Organizers said they received some heckles, but mostly experienced positive feedback throughout Unequal Pay Day. Proceeds will go to the WVU Council for Women’s Concerns.

UnHappy Hour “Fix-It” Party

Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer hosted an Unhappy Hour at a Morgantown wine bar to mark Equal Pay Day. She said it’s especially important to focus on the issue in West Virginia where such disparities exist.

“It’s probably the rural nature of West Virginia, women just don’t get paid as much. And it’s hard to make it.”

Folks joined Fleischauer for half-priced wine by the glass and $5 pizzas, and to discuss how to close the gender wage gap. Among them: Jesse Kalvitis, an adjunct professor in WVU’s English Department. She says it’s been an eye-opening experience to teach young women at WVU in recent years, many of whom are engineering students.

“As much as my English friends would shake their heads and cry, the push to get more women in STEM fields is really, really helping,” Kalvitis said.

Men and (mostly) women from all walks of life met at Wine Bar at Vintner Valley in Morgantown, W.Va., to talk about how gender roles are changing, workforce participation is shifting, and what community members can do to help affect positive change for men and women today in the workplace.

The Gap Persists

While the wage gap has narrowed during the past 30 years, many experts speculate that the reason the gap persists is because of the extremely under-valued business of bringing babies into the world and raising them. The Pew Research Center reports women were more likely to say they had taken career interruptions to care for their family. And Fleischauer points out that 40 percent of working mothers in the U.S. are the sole providers for their families. She said wage inequity leads to poorer living conditions, inadequate nutrition, and significantly fewer opportunities for the children of almost half of the families in the United States.