In late February and early March, WEN partnered with the Girl Scouts to provide after-school STEM lessons for girls at Washington Middle School. WEN provided watershed education that involved watershed enactments, data collection, and interpretation.
We started with a map of the Columbia Watershed, ours, to orient them. To better explain the components of a watershed, Kyra led them through a simple 3D watershed construction. The girls took soda
bottles and egg cartons, among other miscellaneous items, to create their idea
of a mountain shape. Kyra helped them place a tarp over this with the folds representing
valleys so they could see how water (in the form of rivers and lakes)
eventually flows to the lowest point.
The girls guessed how water would flow down the tarp valleys by placing strings. The strings started on the slopes and ended in the valleys, indicating that they understood water flows to the lowest point. Pointing at each feature, Kyra explained the headwaters, tributaries, and river stem. The girls identified a few areas that would be lakes as well.
Then we told the girls to be the
watershed. Two served as the headwaters, a couple on the sides as tributaries,
and one as the Pacific Ocean. Connecting these features were the rest of the girls, serving as the river. As the source of the water, the headwater girls passed beads to their river buddies, with the beads representing one volumetric unit of water flow. Downstream, each girl had a cup with which they
transferred the beads. The Pacific Ocean held a small bucket to contain all the incoming "water" from the "Columbia watershed."
First they simulated low river flow (summer), passing the beads leisurely. For high river flow (spring snowmelt or
storms), Kyra instructed the headwaters to pass the beads more quickly. Rainy audio played in the background as beads overwhelmed the girls at intersections of headwaters and tributaries. Beads bounced out of cups, as if the river was flooding.
Then Kyra modified the game. She gave one headwater and one tributary pieces of trash to pass along with the beads. "It's getting disgusting..." said the girl holding the Pacific Ocean, as the trash collected in her bucket. Notice how only a few parts were polluted, but it polluted everything downstream, Kyra said. Then the girls were given cards with pictures of aquatic invasive species. These included mussels and a weed. These also spread quickly through the watershed, overwhelming the girls. This demonstrated how easily invasive species can colonize an entire watershed
from one entry point.
After each round, the girls did the math to see how many beads, trash pieces, and invasive species ended up in the “ocean” and compared these numbers graphically. The numbers differed drastically depending on the flow of beads.
What struck me as these activities went on was how interested and
participatory these girls were, and that they voluntarily signed up for a STEM
after-school program. This indicates that girls
are interested in science and
math. Either we are catching them at an age before they feel discouraged by
STEM, or girls in the community are starting to get the message that STEM is
for them too, both of which are good outcomes.
I felt proud that we were able
to provide so many female science role models for them, as we had 4 WEN staff
and interns present, including myself. I think it helped that the biology teacher (and WEN board member) who hosted us in her classroom was also a woman, so her classroom was filled with animal artifacts like it was its own natural history museum. On one wall were poster assignments by some of her students, depicting genetics and heredity of dragons. This caught the attention of one girl, who said she couldn't wait to take biology
and draw dragons. "Dragons are more fun than peas," the teacher told me.
All we have to do to make kids - and adults - interested in science and technology is make the content fun and interesting! If that means applying real world concepts to fantasy animals, I'm all for it. I think we did a pretty good job keeping the lesson interesting, even though it was simple. "Who knew counting beads could be so fun?" the Girl Scout coordinator said.
I also realized how many women work and
volunteer for WEN in general – we had 8 women in the office at one time one
day! We didn't have to try hard to rally up female volunteers to represent WEN for the girls in the after-school program because WEN is already full of women. Not to mention that WEN was started by a woman - our lovely Director, Deb. I was also proud of Kyra for taking charge of teaching the lesson and organizing the girls, while Natalie, Taylor and I engaged the girls in small conversations about the activities. Teaching was new to her, and while I am also uncomfortable leading lessons, Kyra seemed a natural.
Exposure to women who already are or have been involved in science helps them realize that such a path is possible, and they can be successful in it. This gives me hope for the future of female-driven science innovation.
-Cassie Sevigny
AmeriCorps Volunteer
Media Coordinator
