'SMART Girls' Event to Be Offered Nov. 5

Girls in seventh and eighth grades will get hands-on experience in science, mathematics and technology during a SMART Girls (Science and Math Applications in Real-World Technologies for Girls) event on Saturday, Nov. 5, at Pennsylvania College of Technology.

Penn College offers three SMART Girls events a year to help encourage girls to continue their math and science studies at an age when, according to studies, many girls lose interest or confidence in those subjects. When students choose not to take challenging math and science courses in high school, fewer careers in science, engineering and technology some of the highest-paying occupations remain open to them.

The Nov. 5 daylong event will offer three workshops for each girl, as well as lunch and refreshments. The cost for each student is $20.

Workshops include:

• Are you ready to weld? Make a flower to take home.
• Expect the unexpected Find out, hands-on, whether paramedics really do what you see on television.
• Cartoons with PowerPoint Start developing your skills for a possible career in computer-game animation or computer graphics.
• Seeing green Separate components of a mixture of plant pigments via chromatography and analyze the results.
• A day at the movies Edit a video clip and add special effects.
• Time to build the networks of the 21st century Build network cables and then use them to make a functioning network. Program routers to make them control the flow of data.
• Girl power: Conquering disability "How would I put on makeup with only one hand?" Explore and role-play a number of physical disabilities typically served by occupational-therapy practitioners.
• Dental hygiene: Straight from the mouth Perform a variety of activities and learn how math and science link to this profession.
• Adobe Photoshop Elements Edit and retouch photographs.
• Wash your Windows Learn how to remove spyware and other malicious programs from your computer's operating system.
• Travel back in time Collect fossils at a local fossil pit and identify your finds back at the lab.
• Visualizing mathematics Use a graphing calculator to graph lines and curves and to discover interesting properties about their graphs.
• Caution! Oxygen can be hazardous to your health The oxygen you breathe can naturally lead to byproducts, like hydrogen peroxide, that are damaging to your cells. See how fast your body's catalase enzyme breaks hydrogen peroxide into oxygen and water and investigate the effects of variables on its activity.
• Mystery at 123 Maple Use fingerprints, bloods, fibers and powders to work through the mystery and identify the suspect.
• Macromedia Flash Web savvy Explore ways to make a Web site interactive.

Sessions also are available for parents who would like to stay for the day. The activity, which runs from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., is open to 50 girls. Registration deadline is Oct. 28.

For more information, call (570) 327-4502, send e-mail or visit online.