ERIE, Pa. — The annual Math Options Career Day at Penn State Behrend is a tape and toilet paper tube-apalooza: Middle-school students from across Erie County are introduced to the basic principles of math and physics by building tiny bridges and dropping Barbie dolls from bungee cords.
The activities put “book math” in action, demonstrating how STEM learning — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — is applied in everyday life.
This year’s program brought approximately 170 students to Behrend. They were guided, in part, by Barb Anderson. She helped launch the program in 1995, when she was the office manager for the college’s Continuing Education team.
“I was good at math,” she said. “I wanted to go to business school, but girls weren’t encouraged in the same ways back then. We were expected to be a secretary, or maybe a teacher. Not many of us went into the science fields. We took some of those classes, but we weren’t encouraged in the same way the boys were.”
She took a part-time job at Behrend in 1976. She moved to full time in 1986. In 1995, when the Math Options program began, she worked in the Continuing Education office.
“We wanted to encourage girls to think about math and science in a different way,” she said.
She used to sit in on the workshops.
“There were activities with plastics and polymers, and the girls made their own Play-Doh,” she said. “It was all girls in the program then. They opened it to boys later.”
As she talked, groups of students moved to the next workshop. One group swatted rolled balls of tape with cardboard tennis rackets. Another soldered LED flowers.
“We always wanted the activities to be hands-on,” Anderson said. “That’s how you really experience and understand the concepts we are trying to teach here.”
She saw the benefits of the program at home as her own daughter grew up.
“My daughter was a real go-getter,” she said. “She was one of the first two students in the Excel program. That was Behrend’s original dual-enrollment program. She loved to learn. She came out of high school with 10 college credits.”
Her granddaughter just completed her first year at Behrend. Anderson has encouraged her to consider engineering.
With the morning’s workshops underway, the Reed Wintergarden quieted. Volunteers began to set up exhibits for the lunchtime STEM fair.
“I like to volunteer, so I enjoy coming back for this,” Anderson said. “We started this program, and it feels good to still be a part of it.
“I’ve only missed one year,” she said. “I bowled in the Women’s International Bowling Congress. For 40 years, we flew to those competitions, but one year, when we went to Syracuse, we decided to drive. I didn’t realize it was the same date as this program. When I did, it was just too late to make different arrangements.
“I felt really bad about that.”