2010 Women in Science
Several Silver Lake Junior Girls Attend Conference
by Lacoln Strasburg
February 24, 2010
On Friday, February 19th and 20th, three junior girls had an opportunity to attend the Women in Science Conference held in Lincoln. The young women in attendance were Bailey Morris, Erin Plambeck, and Lacoln Strasburg. Science teacher Rich Lemmerman sponsored the girls. Upon arriving in Lincoln at the Holiday Inn Convention Center, the girls had an opportunity to visit science career booths. The booths gave students a chance to talk to UNL students and professors about majors they may be interested in, and more information about those majors, such as dentistry, nursing, forensic science, agriculture, chemistry majors and more were available to see.
On Friday night, February 19th, the girls were invited to supper and a guest speaker. The 2010 keynote speaker was Concetta DiRusso. As a professor, DiRusso works in the Department of Nutritional and Health Science and Biochemistry, which is a basic study of how different kinds of fat in the diet influence health and diseases. She works to determine if biological fats can supply our fuel needs in the future.
Bright and early Saturday morning the girls had a chance to listen to a panel discussion. The panel discussion was with several professional women working in various science careers. This again gave the opportunity for the young women to ask questions. After panel discussions, the girls loaded back up in the van and headed to the Beadle Center, which is the science center on the UNL campus. Here at the Beadle Center, the girls were able to work hands-on in several different areas in science. In one workshop, students were able to extract the DNA of a soybean plant, see how color molecules move, and insert DNA using a Gene Gun. After two hours of workshops, the girls once again climbed into the vans and headed to Hardin Hall, where they parked and headed over to a Valentino’s Buffet lunch.
After lunch, back at Hardin Hall, the students were divided into groups for their workshops. The workshops were: Nursing, Dentistry, Engineering, and Environmental Studies. Here students were able to see some of the things they would find in that specific career, and once again ask questions.
The Silver Lake girls’ favorite part of the day was last. The girls climbed onto buses where they were taken to Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital, where they received a “behind the scenes” tour. In the pharmacy, they learned that the hospital sends down around 100 prescriptions an hour, and that they receive over $10,000 in medicine daily! They then went to see the Cyber Knife. Don’t be fooled by the name, the Cyber Knife is a noninvasive radiology procedure. The Burn Center was their next stop where they were able to learn more about burn patients. Did you know that the operating room in a burn center is kept at a temperature of 90-95 degrees Fahrenheit? This is to maintain the burn victim’s body temperature. Last on their stop was an operating room. Here they were able to see how a surgery using a scope is done. The students were even able to “play” with the $1.1 million machine!! After returning to Hardin Hall for an evaluation and snacks the girls loaded up on the van and headed back for Roseland.
Bailey Morris commented by saying, "It was a very fun and interesting weekend. There are a lot of science careers that i didn't know about until that conference, and I became interested in some careers that had never caught my attention before. Overall, the trip was more than worth it!"
This conference gave the girls in attendance an opportunity to learn more about science careers, it even persuaded some to consider different areas in the science fields. This experience will be one not forgotten by those in attendance.
