![]() Each night the girls had the option to participate in activities such as swimming, volleyball, watching a movie and scrapbooking. The girls stayed in a residence hall, Raney House, on The Ohio State University’s campus. ![]() YWSI students touring Chadwick Arboretum. “It’s a lot of work, but it is so rewarding at the end of it because you see the kids come out with so many new skills and so much more confidence in presenting and their ability to do the work,” Stong said. The girls were kept busy every day with their project work but were given breaks that often featured hands-on activities or tours, said Elizabeth Stong, YWSI and OSC program coordinator. “Public speaking is definitely a part of the program that builds the girls’ confidence.” “By getting up in front of an audience of their parents, peers, families and the staff, they learn how to gather information for their presentation, what to speak about in their presentations, what looks good, what’s easy to understand, paying attention to who the audience is and catering to that audience,” Kordes said. Presenting their project findings offered the girls practice in public speaking and other skills that they can use in the classroom and their future careers, Kordes said. The girls worked in groups of three with a teacher to develop a set of hypotheses about their assigned watershed before analyzing the data provided and seeing how their hypothesis fared. The projects were about Ohio’s watersheds, or areas of land with a connected water system. The girls also developed a sense of confidence over the course of the week, which was evident at the end of the camp during the presentations they gave about their projects. ![]() “That was just really nice to see, especially after a couple years of the pandemic,” Kordes said. The group of girls at YWSI this year immediately began interacting and opening up to one another, Kordes said. There are other girls in the state that are doing the same thing you’re doing.” YWSI student collecting a water sample for Batelle-Darby creek. “You might be the only girl in your science classroom that’s interested in this, but that is OK. ![]() “I think one of the best things that the camp does is foster that sense of ‘Hey you can do this,’” Kordes said. Providing participants with an all-girls group at YWSI allows everyone to have an equal opportunity to participate as much as they want or share their ideas in a comfortable space, said Betsy Kordes, YWSI chaperone and educational programming conference planner at the Ohio Technology Consortium.īy having girls from different parts of Ohio participate in YWSI, Kordes said participants can see that they may not be the only one passionate about science. The program was created to help increase the representation of women in STEM fields, particularly information technology. OSC launched YWSI in 2000 with the intention of sparking Ohio middle school girls’ interest in STEM before high school. At the Chadwick Arboretum & Learning Gardens, they learned about rooftop gardens and different plant species. The girls also visited The Ohio State University’s Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center to understand more about climate change and ice cores. At the creek, the girls examined water samples and went to the park’s Nature Center, where they learned about the different ecosystems within the park. The girls learned about data and watersheds and practiced analyzing water samples before going on an excursion to Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park Nature Center southwest of Columbus. Fifteen Ohio middle school girls attended the Young Women’s Summer Institute (YWSI) hosted by the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) from July 17-23 2022.
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