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Three hundred and fifty-seven local middle school girls, 50 adults and 130 volunteers showed up at the 29th annual Expanding Your Horizons math and science conference for girls, held on the Mills College campus, last Saturday. 

Nary a boy was in sight and the enthusiasm for hands-on scientific experimentation was infectious. 

Part of a national program based at Mills College, Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) encourages middle school girls to discover the excitement of scientific discovery and the career opportunities available to women in science-related fields like math, technology, engineering and medicine. Last year over 28,000 girls attended EYH events across the country.  

Karen Chang, 26, a graduate student at UC Berkeley, was one of 12 chemistry graduate student volunteers working with a class full of girls signed up for “Colorful Chemistry.”  

With great enthusiasm Chang schooled the assembled girls in proper lab technique while warning them of dangerous chemicals and the possibility of explosive chemical reactions.  

“I love explosions,” Chang told the wide-eyed girls as her fellow graduate students poured clear colorless chemicals into beakers, concocting Cal’s colors: blue and gold. She then poured two more clear colorless liquids into a larger beaker and stirred it while the liquid transformed into an opaque black then back to transparent clear and then back to black in an infinite and enchanting cycle.  

“It’s a really good way to get them exposed to science,” Chang said later. “A lot of times chemistry is given this negative attitude, negative reputation as being harmful for the earth and it’s bad for us. We often don’t see the good side of chemistry. It’s fun and exciting and people can learn that too. I think this is great. These activities are fun.”  

In an hour-and-half hands-on class, the girls learned how to make polymers and “super” bouncy balls, bronze coat pennies, recognize chemical components by their fire-oxidized color qualities, flash freeze compounds and numerous other common chemical processes used in manufacturing million of chemical compounds. Best of all, their instructors were all women only a decade older than the middle schoolers.  

With a streak of pink dyed into her long blonde hair, Lynn Trahey, 24, a graduate student in material chemistry at UC Berkeley, has been volunteering at Expand Your Horizon events for the last three years.  

“I always have a really good feeling at the end of the day,” Trahey said. “It’s not that much work and the girls always get really excited. I feel like if they get excited they may carry this with them further on. I didn’t get turned on to science until I was in high school where I had a teacher who had lots of fun experiments.” 

Trahey said she thinks it’s important for young women to see female role models in their lives.  

“A lot of schools don’t have female professors,” Trahey said. “So you can’t project yourself into that role. I think a lot of women don’t apply to grad school because you don’t see examples of women in the positions that you would acquire after a graduate degree. The role models need to be there for undergraduates. I’d like to be a female professor so that female chemistry students can see me and say, ‘Ahh! I’d like to do that too.’”  

One such inspired young lady in attendance was Cassy Muscer, 13, from Julia Morgan School for Girls on the Mills Campus.  

“I went here last year and I really liked it,” Cassy said. “I just think it’s really fun. I learned a lot about a lot of different things like how to set up battery circuits and about genes and stuff. It was really fun.”  

She said she plans to take more math and science classes and hopes to become a marine biologist.  

Teaching math to girls at Julia Morgan, Liz Gibbs Campbell said, she sees first hand the issues many young women face when they consider science classes.  

“In middle school, in particular, girls get subliminal messages from adults in their lives and other people and media, that math isn’t something that girls do,” said Gibbs Campbell. “It’s not an appealing subject area or thing for them to pursue in their lives. I just really want to be a strong advocate for girls and for how math can be fun and interesting.” 

Gibbs Campbell taught a class on architectural drafting on Saturday.  

“The numbers of women in architecture are still a very small percentage compared to the fact that women are supposed to be equal nowadays,” she noted. “That’s why I chose the workshop I’m giving today. To show girls architecture is a field women can enter and become successful.” 

Natalie Edelman, 11, a sixth grade student at Chadbourne Elementary School in Fremont, came with her mother, Jill Walker, an electrical engineer. While her daughter explored the solar system, mom attended a class on preparing parents for the financial burdens of college.  

“I learned a tremendous amount about how different things like savings can affect your (child’s) financial aid,” Walker said. “I learned that sometimes savings can hurt you. It was definitely worth my time.”  

Natty Siegel, 11, a sixth grade student from Berkeley, was eager to talk about her class on building robotic bugs  

“I did the electronic bugs and it was really fun,” Siegel said. “The first part of the class we learned all about the science of it, like the atoms and stuff. They taught us about circuits and it wasn’t super easy so it did challenge you.”  

For more information about Expanding Your Horizons and the schedule of programs available to for middle school girls search go to www.expandingyourhorizons.org.