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パスウェイズ98
雅子さんが在籍するボストン大学では、地元の女子高生にもっと理系の学部のことを知ってもらおうと、近隣の大学の協力も得て、春にイベントを開催します。物理学研究者の一人として参加した雅子さんが、そのイベントの様子を紹介してくれます。
Pathways '98
By MASAKO YAMADA
A relatively new spring tradition is well on its way to becoming established at Boston University (BU). For the past several years, BU has sponsored "Pathways," to which the university invites girls from local high schools to check out life in the sciences and in medicine. The event is offered to the local high schools as a service to the community. The girls are invited to explore and to have fun. Although they may eventually want to come to BU as a result of attending this event, no pressure is placed on them at all by the university. Rather, it is an open event in which various research groups show off their work. Although I'm sure the admissions office would love to see more young women scientists applying to BU, the chief goal of this event is to get girls interested in science, period.
Various research groups from BU and nearby Harvard Medical School put up posters explaining their work in a large public room — some groups even set up simple experiments and demos — and the girls walk from station to station to see what's going on. It's a very informal setup. There are smaller tours of the labs as well. One of the main draws of the event is the keynote speaker. This year, she was a NASA astronaut. She told the girls about the different dreamlike technical jobs that are open to women now, but she emphasized that it's not enough to dream: A lot of effort is necessary to make such dreams come true. I think the people who organized the demos also conveyed this message naturally. Science is exciting, but the professors and students sure don't look too glamorous.
One of my professors, Liz Simmons, is one of the chief coordinators of this event. I've always been amazed at the energy of Dr. Simmons. Not only does she lecture, do academic research and oversee grad students, she also coordinates the physics department lectures and plans other little things like the department picnic and lunch meetings for the women in the department. (She's also the mother of a young child.) However, this event made me respect her even more. This year, over 600 girls came to visit BU. Coordinating everything on the day of the event — taking attendance, setting up tour groups, managing lunch, keeping foot traffic under control — looked difficult enough, but obviously it was necessary to put in a lot of effort before and after the event itself. Contacting the local schools to invite the students and getting busy BU students and professors to participate, alone, are daunting tasks. After the event, I noticed that Dr. Simmons had been interviewed by the university paper. She also sent out e-mails to all the people at BU who had participated in the planning.
My ears always perk up when I hear the words "women in science." I think it's because science has, indeed, always been a very large part of my life. I think it's sad that although BU is a very large city school, the number of female physics students is very small. The male physicists were certainly invited to participate in Pathways — and, indeed, many did — but I felt a special responsibility to represent the department from a female perspective. I guess the coordinators wanted as many women to participate as possible, too: Everyone in my department got a request to participate, but I got an additional two requests specially because I'm a woman.
Unfortunately, my schedule prevented me from being able to do much. I was only able to stay at my exhibit for one hour. This still enabled me to talk to some girls and teachers, however. My exhibit was coordinated by Dr. Simmons. Rather than a research exhibit, it was an introductory exhibit. It had lots of physics toys that the girls could play with. One of the most popular toys created an optical illusion with a couple of spherical mirrors. The mirrors created the image of a very realistic 3-D pig, but when you tried to reach out to touch it, your fingers would go straight through the image. The girls got a real kick out of the pig. And I have to admit, it was my favorite toy, as well.
A relatively new spring tradition is well on its way to becoming established at Boston University (BU). For the past several years, BU has sponsored "Pathways," to which the university invites girls from local high schools to check out life in the sciences and in medicine. The event is offered to the local high schools as a service to the community. The girls are invited to explore and to have fun. Although they may eventually want to come to BU as a result of attending this event, no pressure is placed on them at all by the university. Rather, it is an open event in which various research groups show off their work. Although I'm sure the admissions office would love to see more young women scientists applying to BU, the chief goal of this event is to get girls interested in science, period.
Various research groups from BU and nearby Harvard Medical School put up posters explaining their work in a large public room — some groups even set up simple experiments and demos — and the girls walk from station to station to see what's going on. It's a very informal setup. There are smaller tours of the labs as well. One of the main draws of the event is the keynote speaker. This year, she was a NASA astronaut. She told the girls about the different dreamlike technical jobs that are open to women now, but she emphasized that it's not enough to dream: A lot of effort is necessary to make such dreams come true. I think the people who organized the demos also conveyed this message naturally. Science is exciting, but the professors and students sure don't look too glamorous.
One of my professors, Liz Simmons, is one of the chief coordinators of this event. I've always been amazed at the energy of Dr. Simmons. Not only does she lecture, do academic research and oversee grad students, she also coordinates the physics department lectures and plans other little things like the department picnic and lunch meetings for the women in the department. (She's also the mother of a young child.) However, this event made me respect her even more. This year, over 600 girls came to visit BU. Coordinating everything on the day of the event — taking attendance, setting up tour groups, managing lunch, keeping foot traffic under control — looked difficult enough, but obviously it was necessary to put in a lot of effort before and after the event itself. Contacting the local schools to invite the students and getting busy BU students and professors to participate, alone, are daunting tasks. After the event, I noticed that Dr. Simmons had been interviewed by the university paper. She also sent out e-mails to all the people at BU who had participated in the planning.
My ears always perk up when I hear the words "women in science." I think it's because science has, indeed, always been a very large part of my life. I think it's sad that although BU is a very large city school, the number of female physics students is very small. The male physicists were certainly invited to participate in Pathways — and, indeed, many did — but I felt a special responsibility to represent the department from a female perspective. I guess the coordinators wanted as many women to participate as possible, too: Everyone in my department got a request to participate, but I got an additional two requests specially because I'm a woman.
Unfortunately, my schedule prevented me from being able to do much. I was only able to stay at my exhibit for one hour. This still enabled me to talk to some girls and teachers, however. My exhibit was coordinated by Dr. Simmons. Rather than a research exhibit, it was an introductory exhibit. It had lots of physics toys that the girls could play with. One of the most popular toys created an optical illusion with a couple of spherical mirrors. The mirrors created the image of a very realistic 3-D pig, but when you tried to reach out to touch it, your fingers would go straight through the image. The girls got a real kick out of the pig. And I have to admit, it was my favorite toy, as well.
Shukan ST: May 8, 1998
(C) All rights reserved
- relatively
- 比較的
- is well on its way to becoming established
- 順調に根付きつつある
- has sponsored
- 主催してきた
- local
- 地元の
- check out
- じっくり見定める
- medicine
- 医学
- community
- 地域社会
- explore
- 探索する
- eventually
- 最終的に
- no pressure is placed on them at all by the university
- 大学が彼女たちに強制することはいっさいない
- various research groups
- いろいろな研究グループ
- show off
- お披露目する
- admissions office
- 入学課
- applying to 〜
- 〜 に出願する
- period
- それだけのことだ
- Harvard Medical School
- ハーバード大学医学部
- public room
- (外部の人も出入り自由の)ラウンジ
- experiments
- 実験
- demos
- 実演
- station
- ブース
- informal setup
- 形式ばらない企画
- labs
- 研究室
- draws
- 呼び物
- keynote speaker
- 基調講演者
- NASA astronaut
- 米航空宇宙局の宇宙飛行士
- dreamlike technical jobs
- 夢のような専門職
- emphasized
- 強調した
- make 〜 come true
- 〜 を実現させる
- organized
- 計画した
- conveyed
- 伝えた
- glamorous
- 華やかな
- coordinators
- 企画者
- (have)been amazed at 〜
- 〜 に驚いている
- lecture
- 講義をする
- academic
- 学問的な
- oversee
- 監督する
- grad students
- 大学院生
- physics department
- 物理学部の
- taking attendance
- 出席をとる
- managing lunch
- 昼食の手配をする
- keeping foot traffic under control
- 人の流れを整理する
- obviously
- 明らかに
- participate
- 参加する
- daunting tasks
- たじろぐようなたいへんな仕事
- university paper
- 大学新聞
- e-mails
- 電子メール
- perk up
- ピンと立つ
- indeed
- 確かに
- responsibility
- 責任
- represent
- 代表する
- from a female perspective
- 女性の視点から
- Unfortunately
- 不運にも
- 〜 prevented me from being able to 〜
- 〜 のせいで 〜 することができなかった
- exhibit
- 展示
- introductory
- 入門的な
- optical illusion
- 錯視をひき起こすもの
- spherical mirrors
- 球状の鏡
- 3-D pig
- 立体的なブタ
- reach out to touch it
- 触ろうと手を伸ばす
- go straight through 〜
- 〜 を通り抜けてしまう
- got a real kick out of 〜
- 〜 にとても喜んだ
- favorite
- 好きな