Girls in Science = AWESOME

I love this article from the New York Times .

Actually, I love the PHOTO that's at the top of this article. Notice the three girls holding tropies? It's because they each won their age division at Google's Science Fair.

Here are the projects that won:

Ovarian Cancer Drug Treatment studies

Air Quality Testing and affects on various populations

Reduction of Carcinogens in Grilled Meat using marinades

(Side note for those of you who have not known me forever: I did a variation of the last 2 projects on the list as my own science fair projects and one of them took me to the Intel ISEF when I was in high school.)

I am a HUGE believer in science fairs because I feel like it encourages people to get out of the classroom, think creatively, and apply what they have learned in a practical way. In fact, my own science fair experiences are what made me think I wanted to be an engineer (turns out, I am not cut out for research - although I still love the idea of it).

I wish / hope / pray that someday, I can influence a young woman at some point in her early life to be curious about the world, and can connect her with a mentor who can nourish that curiosity...and help her discover something great while entering it into a science fair.