Oregon Public Broadcasting

The science and engineering fields have traditionally been dominated by men. The demographics are changing, but not fast enough for University of Idaho professors.

This week, they’re showing high school girls from the Idaho Panhandle that science careers can be challenging. North Idaho correspondent Doug Nadvornick attended one workshop and prepared this report.

University of Idaho Science Education Professor Anne Kern knew early in life that she wanted to be a chemist. But her father, a physics professor, told her to leave the science careers to her brothers and find something easier.

Anne Kern: “I think he felt that there were just too many things, I don’t want to say marks against me, but things that would maybe inhibit my path to doing what I really wanted to do.”

Kern is guessing that other young girls share the love for science that she had.

Now Kern and the university have created a Women in Science program. This week they welcomed 50 Idaho high school students to the university’s research park in Post Falls.

These young women were invited to this workshop because they’ve scored well in their math and science classes. Some, like Katilyn Campbell from Kellogg, Idaho have already decided on a science career.

Katilyn Campbell: “I’m kind of torn. I want to do nursing or be a chemist. My mom works with a chemist and she said it would be really good for me.”

That’s what Anne Kern is hoping. The experiment that she’s organized for these young women is to test samples of water she collected from Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Anne Kern: “Science comes alive when you can study it in your own backyard. And I firmly believe that. That’s what got me interested.”

As for Kern’s brothers, she says they went into non-science fields. That points to a separate problem. Boys are drifting away from science too.