On Tuesday, Dec. 8, 1998 the Hamilton (Ohio) Journal News
featured the Miami Student Section's Girl Scout Engineering
Day on the front page of the paper. The following is the text
of the article, copied from the website at
www.journal-news.com.  Too bad it doesn't include the photo
from the paper also. Congratulations to Dr. Karen Schmahl and
the Miami students for getting some press coverage of a great
event.


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Gearing toward engineering: Miami's Girl Scout program pushes
more female interest

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By Kelly Jones
Hamilton Journal-News

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OXFORD

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In 1997, 52 percent of the United States work force was
female. However, of all practicing engineers, only 7 percent
could make that claim.

"Engineering is the only professional field in which there are
still very few women," said Miami University professor Karen
Schmahl, who is the first and only woman on the school's
14-person engineering department staff.

In fact, she said only 17 percent of all engineering degrees
are awarded to women.

"We need to encourage more women to enter the field," she
said. "One way to do this is by sparking the interest of young
girls early in their education so they will be more likely to
keep up with their math and sciences and pursue that course of
study."

So, with the hope that its name no longer will be a
contradiction in terms, the Society of Women Engineers at
Miami recently hosted Girl Scout Engineering Day, a program
designed to acclimate fifth- and sixth-grade girls with the
field.

Focusing on engineering design activities and teamwork as well
as technology applications, Schmahl and a team of senior
students created Girl Scout Engineering Day through an
alliance with the Great Rivers Girl Scout Council in
Cincinnati.

In 1987, the Girl Scout Contemporary Issues Series published
"Into the World of Today and Tomorrow: Leading Girls to
Mathematics, Science and Technology." Since then, the Scout
Handbook and Badges and Signs book have been revised to
include more activities related to science and technology.

At Girl Scout Engineering Day, scouts earn their "Discovering
Technology Badge" by attending an assortment of workshops that
focus on various aspects of engineering.

Workshop topics include robots, paper-making, the Internet,
and plastics and recycling. Participants also may speak with
members of a professional engineers panel and visit a
computer-integrated manufacturing lab.

More than 120 scouts and leaders from Hamilton, Fairfield,
Oxford and throughout Greater Cincinnati attended the six-hour
event. According to Schmahl, only about half of those who
register are accepted.

"As the popularity of the event grows each year, it becomes
more and more competitive to get a spot," she said. "We have
to limit who we let in."

Schmahl attributes the popularity of the event to its fun and
hands-on approach to learning.

"Most of the girls don't even know what the word `engineering'
means at the beginning of the day," she said. "They end up
learning a lot about the field and have had a good time doing
it."

Brenda Houten, leader of one Fairfield troop, said her girls
"thoroughly enjoyed the day."

"They learned about engineering as one area they can go into
if they like math or science," she said. "Talking to the
panelists really gave them the idea that `this is something I
can be when I grow up, too."'
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