LSU Girls Night at the Museum Inspires Girls to Chase Science
All month long, the College of Science will be celebrating the achievements and research adventures of phenomenal women scientists as part of Women’s History Month. We decided to take this year’s celebration to the LSU Museum of Natural Science (MNS) as the college and MNS teamed up to offer a night of fun and edutainment (education + entertainment) tailor made for GEMS (Girls Exploring Math and Science).
On Friday, March 9, the exhibit halls and research areas of the MNS were filled with more than 30 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade girls for LSU’s first ever Girls Night at the Museum. The night began with tours of the museum collections and chats with women scientists, and culminated with exciting hands-on activities and demonstrations.
I invite you to experience the excitement of Girls Night at the Museum with our guest bloggers and Girls Night participants Izzy, Cidney, Heaven, Halie, Kelly, Tobi, Eluan, Heather, and Kennedy. These future innovators had a lot to say about their evening at LSU and why it is important for girls to chase science. Enjoy!
Izzy Shanklin is a student at the LSU Laboratory School and potential inventor. Her unique ideas for “bubble technology” could spark a new trend in baggage transportation.
College of Science: Can you tell us about one of your inventions?
Izzy: My idea is a floating bubble that you can tie to a leash and put your stuff in, like school books. Eventually it could be paired with your watch and it would always know where you are and lockers would not be needed. The bubbles could also keep your food fresh. There could be so many uses for the bubble!
College of Science: What do you love most about science?
Izzy: I like engineering, building, and the history of the science.
College of Science: Why do you think it’s important for girls to be scientists or engineers?
Izzy: I think it’s important because we are smart and have a lot of good ideas.
Cidney Collins is a student at Westdale Heights Academic Magnet School and loves life science! She has a special interest in taking care of our home, Earth.
College of Science: What was your favorite part of the night?
Cidney: We got to make specimens. I made a pigacorn - a pig that’s a unicorn.
College of Science: Do you have advice for girls that want to be scientists?
Cidney: If girls want to be scientists, they can try really hard. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it. You can!
Heaven Edwards is a student at Forest Heights Academy of Excellence and hopes to change the world by inventing a vaccine that prevents cancer!
College of Science: What was your favorite part of the night?
Heaven: When we got to make animals out of the clay. I made a fish because it’s my favorite animal.
College of Science: Why do you think it’s important for girls to be scientists?
Heaven: Because when you are a scientist, you get to do a lot of things like [predict] weather and build things.
College of Science: What is one of your favorite sciences?
Heaven: Weather [meteorology]
Stroll through the photo gallery and take a behind-the-scenes tour of the LSU MNS.
Kelly Fan is a student at the Baton Rouge Center for Visual and Performing Art and loves biology and animals!
College of Science: What was your favorite part of the night?
Kelly: Doing rotations and learning about science - Extracting DNA.
College of Science: Why do you think it’s important for girls to be scientists?
Kelly: Girls are the future.
Heather Sreiy is a student at Westdale Heights Academic Magnet and sees how beneficial and life-saving science can be!
College of Science: What do you love most about science?
Heather: It’s just interesting honestly! I mostly like animal science.
College of Science: Do you know what you want to be when you grow up?
Heather: An author or an architect. I have a love for reading.
College of Science: What was your favorite part of the night?
Heather: There’s a lot of stuff! Maybe it’s the ice cream. I just love ice cream.
College of Science: Why do you think it’s important for girls to be scientists?
Heather: It’s important for girls to be scientists because it brings confidence to people. We find and invent new things.
Representatives from LSU's Chem Demo program showed the girls how to use liquid nitrogen to make ice cream. I think it's safe to say that the ice cream was a hit, but what happens when you dip flowers in liquid nitrogen?
Chem Demo was just one of eight hands-on demonstrations used to help the girls explore a variety of science principles. Also, represented were the departments of biological sciences, physics and astronomy, mathematics, and geology and geophysics, along with the MNS, School of Veterinary Medicine and LSU's Shirley C. Tucker Herbarium.
Tobi Famuyide is a student at Parkview Baptist School with a spirit of adventure and a knack for problem solving.
College of Science: What do you love most about science?
Tobi: It’s really interesting. You get to discover new things and do different experiments.
College of Science: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
Tobi: Antarctica because it’s a weird place, super cold, and rarely anybody goes there.
College of Science: What was your favorite part of the night?
Tobi: Probably the chemistry. They made ice cream out of the liquid nitrogen. It’s also really cool how the flower freezes once it goes into the nitrogen.
College of Science: Why do you think it’s important for girls to be scientists?
Tobi: So we can show other people that girls can actually do things too and it’s not only boys who are really smart.
Halie Fogleman is a student at Parkview Baptist School and may have a bright future in science communication. She wants to learn about the types of experiments that scientists conduct and how they communicate their results!
College of Science: What was your favorite part of the night?
Halie: Seeing all the animals [specimens at the LSU Museum of Natural Science].
College of Science: How do you participate in science communication?
Halie: I do experiments with my teacher and share with other students.
College of Science: Why do you think it’s important for girls to be scientists?
Halie: Because they can learn many new things.
Eluan Clark is a student at Baker Middle School and believes that learning more science can improve the world!
College of Science: What was your favorite part of the night?
Eluan: My favorite part of the night was when we went through the different stations and did the [liquid] nitrogen activity. We made ice cream. We also got a rose and put [liquid] nitrogen on it. It became hard, and we had to crack it.”
College of Science: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Eluan: Mechanical engineer
College of Science: Why do you think it’s important for girls to be scientists or engineers?
Eluan: Because most people think that being a scientist is a boy’s job and I think that girls can do whatever boys can do.
Kennedy Rose Pointer is a student at Episcopal School and she hopes to change the world one smile at a time as a successful orthodontist.
College of Science: What do you love most about science?
Kennedy: You get to experiment and test new things out that you didn’t know before.
College of Science: Why do you think it’s important for girls to be scientists?
Kennedy: “So things can be equal. Not just boys can be scientists.”
The girls spent part of the evening chatting it up with women scientists like Dr. Tiffany Stewart from LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Dr. Revati Kumar in the Department of Chemistry, Dr. Sophie Warny from the Department of Geology & Geophysics and curator in the LSU Museum of Natural Science, and Katie Nugent an undergraduate student in the Department of Physics & Astronomy. They shared their passion for science, talked about their research experiences, and answered questions about their journey as women in science. They also offered lots of great advice to help the girls feed their science curiosities.
Tiffany: Stay with your passion. Don’t let anybody deter you. Build your confidence up and go for it because the world needs more women scientists.
Revati: Pursue all branches of science at this age - math, physics, chemistry, everything. And then decide later on what you really want to do. Try to get all your tools in right now.
Katie: If you don’t know what you want to do right now, it’s no big deal. I switched majors in college. You have to do what you really love. Now, sometimes you may have to work really hard at it, but it’s worth it in the end because you love it so much.
Sophie: Take the hardest science and math classes that you can take in high school to be well-prepared. Then your first year in college will be the best and easiest.
Even though the event was for the girls, our LSU scientists still learned a thing or two.
Tiffany: I think it’s just phenomenal to meet women doing wonderful science [outside of my expertise] to get that multidimensional perspective on how the scientists need to work together to achieve great things.
Revati: For me, it was great to learn what Tiffany is doing. To explore a different aspect of science that I didn’t know about. Also, interacting with girls at that age group. I haven’t interacted with them since when I was a girl. Maybe we can inspire these girls to come and be scientists...to be our colleagues one day.
Tiffany: We tried to talk about how all science is important, so any area of science that the girls want to go into is so awesome. What inspired me the most is that girls this age are already identifying their passion and interest in science and pursuing it. I am confident that we have whole next generation of girls that are going to be scientists. I’m so excited about that!
Katie: I learned tonight that actually there are a lot of girls out there that are interested in STEM. These kids are learning so much and they’re putting themselves out there. It’s really great that they’re doing that!
Parents were not excluded from the Girls Night at the Museum fun. They received a crash course in “Coaching your Daughter in STEM,” which included a panel discussion with LSU women scientists, museum tour, and hands-on science demonstrations. The session was led by Dr. Zakiya Wilson-Kennedy, assistant dean for diversity and inclusion in the LSU College of Science, who left the parents with some key tips to help support their daughters' interest in science.
1. Allow your daughter to be fearless in exploring her interest and give her space to investigate. This investigative nature allows her critical thinking skills and confidence in exploration to grow.
2. Get your girls involved in as many science activities as possible. Here are a few to consider:
- LSU Night at the Museum of Natural Science
- Astronomy Night at the Highland Road Observatory
- Museum Special Saturdays
- XCITE: Xploration Camp Inspiring Tomorrow’s Engineers
- Ocean Commotion
- Super Science Saturday (check website for 2018 date)
- LSU Porcelli Lectures hosted by the LSU Department of Mathematics
- Science Saturdays at LIGO
3. Encourage deeper learning through the asking of questions. You do not need to be a scientist or mathematician to guide your daughter through STEM. All you have to do is encourage your daughter to ask questions and support her as she seeks the answers to her own questions.
4. Get you daughter involved in organizations like Girl Scouts, which encourages girls to explore science, technology, engineering, and math, and they incentivize their exploration with cool STEM badges. 4H also offers outreach activities to help cultivate STEM thinking.
5. Many STEM activities are promoted on social media, so get your girls connected and help them engage with scientists involved in activities that interest them. Following the LSU College of Science social media pages and subscribing to The Pursuit blog is a great start!
6. Remind your daughter that her interests are valid and do not need to be justified or explained, and help her to develop relationships that feed her science curiosity.
Girls Night at the Museum was planned by a group of women passionate about giving girls access to science and math experiences. Thank you to all of the volunteers who joined with us to offer a memorable and inspiring night for young girls interested in STEM. Thank you to the parents for bringing your girls to LSU and for supporting them as they explore the possibilities that await those who chase science.
Girls Night at the Museum was sponsored by the LSU College of Science, the Museum of Natural Science, and the College of Science Office of Diversity & Inclusion. The event was also supported by LSU distinguished alumnus Latoya Bullard Franklin and the C-STEM organization, Shell, and LSU Auxiliary Services.
Thank you!