Program hopes to peak girls' interest in science

SANDPOINT - Scientists from two Idaho colleges did not have to do much to convince Lake Pend Oreille High School senior Judy Dunnagan that more women are needed in the field.

The teen, who said she "loves science" and has plans to become a forensic anthropologist, is one of 50-plus female students from Clark Fork, Bonners Ferry, Sandpoint and LPO high schools invited to attend the University of Idaho's first Women in Science and Mathematics event held Wednesday at the Ponderay Events Center.

The new approach is designed to boost the numbers of young women studying math and science in high school and college, said Larry Branen, University of Idaho's Coeur d'Alene campus vice president.

"We need women in science today," said Branen, adding that "there is a great demand today for people in science." Branen also is a food sciences professor.

Organizers broke the event into two parts. The first segment included a presentation by three women, two of whom are scientists and teachers, and one who has a cardiology practice in Coeur d'Alene and also is a Bonner County native.

The speakers include Rhena Cooper, an NIC microbiology teacher; Dr. Anita Robinson, a cardiologist who primarily works with geriatric patients; and Dr. Anne Kern, a UI Coeur d'Alene professor of education and chemist.

Robinson, who grew up on a Dufort-area dairy farm with two brothers, including Bonner County prosecutor Phil Robinson, said she and her siblings did not want to spend their adult lives milking cows.

She was fortunate to take college-prep courses at Sandpoint High School, before attending the University of Idaho, she said.

Following college graduation, Robinson was one of five women out of 55 students enrolled in a South Dakota medical program, then went onto to study medicine at the University of Texas, Southwestern and UCLA, before completing her studies in Boston.

"If you want to be a doctor, you just have to do it," Robinson said. "As a doctor, you can go anywhere you want."

After the presentation's first half, the attendees took part in a water quality experiment to determine where the locations in which four water samples were taken from around Lake Coeur d'Alene.

UI is using the event as a recruitment tool.

Although the number of women attending college now outnumbers men, those numbers do not translate when it comes to math and science.

UI's College of Science is a perfect example of that disparity, with females representing only 24.7 percent of its staff. That is changing however, said Dr. Mark Nielsen, a UI math professor and associate dean in the College of Science.

That is beginning to change with four of six of the department's new hires being women, he said.

The United States enjoys one of the best living standars in the world as a result of its innovators. However, if half of its citizens - women - do not work in the sciences, math and technology, it have "shut off" half of its available talent, Nielsen said.

The new program, which will be held annually, also dovetails with the Wild Rose Foundation's efforts to create a UI field campus in Sandpoint.

Curriculum would include an environmental science component revolving around what Branen calls  one of the best natural lab in the area,  Lake Pend Oreille.

Although LPOHS does not have a science lab and teacher Jan Fitzpatrick thought her students would not be interested in the event, she said Lake Pend Oreille School District curriculum director Judy Hull insisted she poll the students.

Four students responded, including junior Cara Wilcox, who wants to be a dental hygenist.

It aslo generated interest in other students, Fiitzgerald said.

"It actually sparked more interest in the school population," she said.