Women in Science: Natalie Batalha: The Thrill of Discovery is a Gateway Drug to Becoming a Scientist

From Women in Science: Natalie Batalha: The Thrill of Discovery is a Gateway Drug to Becoming a Scientist: "Who knows how many potential astrophysicists there are out there who have never taken a physics class?"

I got asked about a week ago why we should bother with things like WICS (Women in Computing Science) or ChicTech (our outreach program for highschool girls). The argument against it went something like, 'girls don't like computing science, so that's why they don't get involved with it'. But this blog discusses exactly what I was trying to articulate then, and that is, what if they don't know they like it yet? There is still a lot of discouragement against girls taking science/computing/technology classes. But discouragement aside, girls still aren't taking science & tech classes at a younger age, before they get to university, in large numbers; just look at enrollment in classes like Technology versus Home Economics in highschool. How will they discover a love of science/tech/other nontraditional fields for female students if they aren't really exposed to it in any depth or detail?

The article points out another reason for low female involvement in these fields: university science classes can be intimidating to non-science majors, so it is unusual for non-science students to take them. I like what SFU has done in this area, with introductory Physics courses like, "Logarithms and Blues" and similar approaches in other departments. It's a step in the right direction, but it just goes to show we need to start earlier if we are really going to help open up great opportunities to people who otherwise wouldn't realize they were there.