At a long table, about a dozen girls smashed up strawberries inside plastic bags. After smashing up the material, they added dish soap, water and a pinch or so of salt. Rubbing alcohol and cheesecloth was also involved.
“Science is messy,” advised Peter Maloney, a corn breeder at Monsanto.
Along with letting the girls get their hands dirty, the activity also demonstrated one of the building blocks of life. Through the experiment, the girls extracted DNA from the strawberry.
“If you know how to read the DNA, you know what the physical trait is going to be,” Maloney said, relaying basic genetics.
The session was one of four taking place simultaneously Saturday morning at Code in the Schools’ office in Station North as part of the Girls in STEM Summit, an event in its fourth year that looks to provide more exposure to STEM fields for girls in city schools.
Elsewhere, Jessica Conjour walked a group through the grocery store to categorize items in the food pyramid.
At the Code in the Schools Scratch workshop. (Photo by Stephen Babcock)
Code in the Schools provided a workshop on how to use Scratch. Earlier in the day, AT&T announced a donation of $10,000 to the nonprofit organization, which looks to provide computer science education in Baltimore City Public Schools.
“By working with these students today and exposing them to the skills needed to pursue STEM careers, we are working towards our goal of ensuring that the students of today are ready for the careers of tomorrow,” AT&T Regional Director for External and Legislative Affairs LaTara Harris said. Under Armour and CoverGirl sponsored the summit.
Along with exposure to the subject matter, the daylong program also looked to get at the motivation factor. A member of the Science Cheerleaders was on hand before lunch to lead a cheer.
“Give me an S,” the cheerleader, who holds a Ph.D. in chemistry, chanted.
“What does that spell?” she asked a few letters later.
You guessed it.
“Science!”
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