U.S. Campus Life Pathways '98 By MASAKO YAMADA	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
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。

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

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