When it comes to science, math and girls too often the words that follow are can't, don't or won't.
It's a good thing that a couple hundred girls at Minneapolis public high school aren't listening.
"I like science and math, I think it's fun," Sophia Thao, a Patrick Henry High School junior says.
On Tuesday, about fifty girls from the seven Minneapolis public high schools came to the University of Minnesota to learn from professors and graduate students about what they all share a love for, science, math and engineering.
"I want to go into engineering," Thao said, "I love writing codes for computers."
These girls are saying no to the idea that girls can't.
"Boys and other people think girls can't do it. Well I think everyone can do it if they try," NaKiah Douglas, a high school sophomore, said.
During the day long visit at the U the girls were taught about the structure of the Universe by an astronomy professor. They learned about how to build robots from a graduate student in computer science, Kelly Cannon.
"When I was little I just built a webpage," Cannon said. "Then, I taught myself graphics on the computer and I was excited about that kind of stuff."
Cannon says she would like to see more women in her field of computer science. Right now, she says, in her department at the U there are nearly five hundred students, but, only 22-percent of them are female.
"We need more girls in this department," Cannon said.
That was a message the girls heard loud and clear on Tuesday, and have heard for the years they have been involved in the district wide High Tech Girls Society. When it was founded six years ago only 35 girls made up the society. Today, there are more than 250.
(Copyright 2007 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)
