Science mentoring program empowers high school girls
Hands-on experience opens doors for young scientists and future engineers
Vancouver teenagers Ruini Xiong and Crystal Zheng have gone from being slightly intimated by science to empowered young women on their way to successful careers in bio-medical engineering.
The Grade 12 students at Templeton Secondary recently won a regional science fair for their work on developing a plastic substitute using material from shellfish and silkworms.
Their award-winning project was highlighted Thursday on International Women’s Day by Open Science Network, which aims to create a gender balance in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
Through the STEM Mentoring Cafe, which pairs high school students with professional role models in science, Xiong, 17, and Zheng, 18, have been working with neuroscientist Emily Fan to find a biological alternative to plastic.
With Fan, the teens learned how to manipulate the fibres from silk and chitosan, a material derived from the hard outer skeleton of shellfish, to make a film that is similar to plastic.
“Silk itself is actually quite brittle and chitosan is hard to manipulate, so we decided to use the silk to make a stable structure and use the chitosan to fill in those gaps to make an overall stronger product,” said Xiong, in an interview between classes Friday at Templeton.
When Xiong joined the STEM Mentoring Cafe three years ago, there were only four girls among the 30 students.
She found it slightly intimidating at first, but now feels confident, and recently signed up for a “girls in STEM program” to help younger girls get excited about science.
“The STEM program changed my life,” added Zheng. “Back in China, I feel like girls are more encouraged to go into humanities and business ... and I feel when I was there I wasn’t really confident in science or math. And then I got into the STEM program and it completely changed my mindset. I couldn’t believe I could achieve so much.”
The teens share a love for biology, but weren’t sure where to start or what to do with that passion. The STEM Mentoring Cafe helped them meet professionals who explained some options for their future, said Xiong.
Zheng said the program has really opened doors because they have received hands-on experience working in labs.
“This is something that is really hard for high school students to experience, and I think the skills we have learned from how to organize our time to do different tasks is so useful for students for the future,” said Zheng.
Xiong and Zheng are both interested in pursuing careers in biomedical engineering. Xiong is also interested in computer science, while Zheng also loves chemistry and would like to work in drug development.
Last Friday, the teens won first place at the Vancouver Regional Science Fair for their work.
They will now advance to the Greater Vancouver Regional Science Fair.