It’s always a great time to encourage girls and boys to nurture their fascination with science. March offers some special opportunities: “CBS Colorado, in partnership with Girls Inc. of Metro Denver and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, is excited to present the 12th Annual Girls & Science.” The museum is hosting a March 6 event to “encourage girls and their families to learn more about careers in STEM.” CBS meteorologist Lauren Whitney is part of the effort.
Women in paleontology
My ten-year-old is active in local geology and fossil clubs, so, by extension, I’ve learned way more about paleontology and minerals than I ever did as a child. So I was already aware that several women help make Colorado a paleontological powerhouse.
Gussie Maccracken joined Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS) in 2024 as Assistant Curator of Paleobotany. She studies fossilized leaves and plants to shed light on ancient ecosystems. Prior to her current position, she interned at the Denver museum, and even participated in the important mammoth dig, before heading to the Smithsonian. Since returning to Colorado she’s participated in important research involving Corral Bluffs outside of Colorado Springs about the period immediately after the asteroid impact that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs.
Amy Atwater, formerly at the Museum of the Rockies in Montana, came to Dinosaur Ridge last year as Director of Paleontology. She also was elected president of the Colorado Scientific Society. My son loved her children’s book, “The Fossil Keeper’s Treasure.” Atwater also cohosts the Weird & Dead podcast, which she insists is not for children (there’s swearing), so of course my child loves that too. Atwater also used to run the “Mary Anning’s Revenge” web site, about the great English paleontologist (I recommend the book about Anning by Cheryl Blackford).
Karen Chin is Curator of Paleontology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She has a specialty that many children will appreciate: she studies coprolites, i.e. fossilized poop. If it’s not obvious to you why that would be scientifically interesting, listen to her 2021 podcast episode on Paleo Nerds.
Women in other STEM fields
Colorado has so many important women in science that I can’t possibly name them all here. Here I will mention only a few and leave readers to research others on their own. (If you like you can start with a list ChatGPT created for me.)
Temple Grandin is one of Colorado’s most famous scientists, known also for her perspectives on autism, focusing on animal science at CSU. I loved the film in which Claire Danes portrays Grandin.
Kristi Anseth is at CU Boulder’s Chemical and Biological Engineering department. The university summarizes: “Anseth is known for developing tissue substitutes that improve treatments for conditions like broken bones and heart valve disease. She recently made key discoveries about sex-based differences in cardiac treatment outcomes. Anseth is also among the few innovators elected to all three national academies: Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.”
Ana Maria Rey is another top scientist. Here’s a summary from the National Institute of Standards and Technology: “Rey is a theoretical physicist with NIST and JILA [originally named the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics], a joint research institute of NIST and the University of Colorado Boulder, and professor adjoint of physics at University of Colorado Boulder. . . . [She studies] the scientific interface between atomic, molecular, and optical physics, condensed matter physics, quantum information science, and developing new techniques for controlling quantum systems for applications ranging from quantum simulations/information to time and frequency standards.”
Jan Leach is a leader in agricultural science. Here’s CSU: “Research in the Leach group focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms of plant disease susceptibility and resistance, with a particular interest in quantitative traits for susceptibility and resistance.”
Girls and boys both need science
I’m happy about the effort to encourage girls to hone their interests in science and to seek out mentors. I will gently point out that many boys also need encouragement.
Recently my family attended the outstanding CU Wizards program with a focus on light. It was amazing, and I learned a lot about the physics of light and about our physiology that makes our perception of light possible. The longstanding program is run by the CU physics department.
Out of curiosity, and not to pick on CU, I glanced at the faculty page for CU physics, and indeed it is dominated by men. On the other hand, most of the faculty listed for Psychology and Neuroscience are women.
What struck me is that the real disparity seems not to involve sex or gender but economic status, something that is somewhat associated with minority status. The main problem is not that girls are not getting the boost they need in science (although any additional boost helps); the main problem is that often poor kids aren’t getting that boost.
This problem becomes obvious if you look at last year’s results from the Colorado Measures of Academic Success in science. The first thing you’ll notice is that Colorado kids overall are doing poorly in science. The percent of students who met or exceeded expectations is 39 (grade 5), 36.4 (grade 8), and 25 (grade 11). Those numbers aren’t exactly an encouraging sign of effective science education!
The scores do show boys doing somewhat better than girls overall. The percent of male to female students who met or exceeded expectations is 41.2 to 36.8 (grade 5), 37.5 to 35.3 (grade 8), and 27.2 to 22.4 (grade 11).
Far more dramatic are the differences based on race or ethnicity. I’ll just take grade 5. The percent of students who met or exceeded expectations is 50.4 (Asian), 52.7 (White), 20.7 (Black), and 19.8 (Hispanic).
Much of that difference can be explained in terms of economic status. The percent of students who met or exceeded expectations in grade 5 is 50.1 (not free or reduced lunch) to 20.8 (free or reduced lunch, which indicates financial hardship).
So, yes, let’s celebrate Colorado’s women scientists partly as a way to encourage children, and especially girls, to develop their interests in science. But let’s not forget that the kids who often need the most help are the poor kids and the minority kids, both girls and boys.
Ari Armstrong writes regularly for Complete Colorado and is the author of books about Ayn Rand, Harry Potter, and classical liberalism. He can be reached at ari at ariarmstrong dot com.
