Jane Sutton has been the science chair at the AAUW Circleville (OH) Branch since she launched the first countywide science fair in 1985. The event still takes place today — run by the county schools — and the branch continues to donate a prize to the winning high school student. In the 1990s, Sutton led her branch to become involved in National Chemistry Week. The branch sent volunteers to all 13 schools in the county to offer hands-on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs and demonstrations and to hand out memorabilia to the students.
“Our branch has been involved in science projects in the county since the 1980s, and it has evolved,” says Sutton. For the past four years, the branch has donated funds to local high schools to help them fill voids in their science labs. For the 2011–2012 school year, Teays Valley High School asked for a donation of books to augment their science library, and Logan Elm High School received rechargeable batteries and a charger.
So why science labs? Both Sutton and past branch President Jayme Hartley Fountain believe that STEM education can open doors for students in their community.
“There’s a lot of teachers and retired teachers in our particular branch,” says Fountain. “I have a chemistry degree, and I went to law school with my science degree. If you look at those degrees, it’s good for their future … and we firmly believe, for girls struggling in STEM, that it is important for us to help.”
“In our town, as in all communities, there’s a special need for science activities and math,” says Sutton. “DuPont and PPG Industries, who sponsored us before the economy turned south, are big in the local economy, and it seems like it was important for [children] to see what was going on in the large plants.”
DuPont and Four J Properties, the two organizations that partnered with the Circleville Branch to make the donations, have been very involved in community activities, and they play a large part in the town’s economy.
In school districts that continue to see funding cuts, investing in updated technology and science labs can be a struggle. “We just thought that they would need it most because often chemistry, physics, and biology require more money for projects, experiments, and books,” says Sutton.
For years, the branch also has helped sponsor two girls from local middle schools to go to the Be WISE Camp, a STEM camp for girls at Denison University in Granville, Ohio.
Sutton anticipates that there will be a new branch project to encourage STEM in her community this year. “There’s always a need for it, and I don’t know what direction it will go in the future, but the high schools that have accepted our offers have been very grateful,” she says.
To follow what AAUW is doing with STEM, “like” us on Facebook or follow us, @AAUWSTEM, on Twitter. And please let us know what your branch is doing to break through barriers for women and girls in STEM.
This post was written by AAUW Marketing and Communications Intern Marie Lindberg.
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