Seneca Middle School girls take education field trip to Florida

Research shows that many girls turn away from the fields of math and science in the seventh and eighth grade, which means they close themselves off to the career opportunities in those fields.  Seneca Middle School sponsors a program called Women in Charge with the purpose to expose middle school girls to the diversity of careers in math and science.  At school, Ms. Belflower and Ms. Childress provide a regular curriculum and hosted guest speakers to acquaint the girls with a variety of once male-dominated career choices that they may choose. Last year the group hosted a female optometrist and professional fly fishing guide.  Recently the group visited science resources available in central Florida. Faculty sponsors Deborah Belflower and Delaine Childress accompanied 34 seventh and eighth graders to the Kennedy Space Center and EPCOT at Disney World. While at Kennedy, the participants toured the Saturn Five Center. They viewed a space shuttle and saw the memorials to astronauts who died in service to the space exploration program. Some of the girls spoke with astronauts and engineers. The trip help exposes the students to experiences that reinforced the purpose of encouraging the girls to consider careers in STEM-related fields.