On November 13 the Space and Engineering Academy (SEA) held SEA Girls Night. SEA English teacher Ms. Marna Bynum wanted to “show girls science is fun”, and the academy did just that by introducing the program, giving the groups a chance to create their own battery, and allowing the girls to make their own LED battery powered bracelets. The night exposed 8^th grade girls from Monte Vista, Art Freiler and Williams to what SEA is all about.

Ms. Bynum has noticed that in all three of her Academy English classes there are considerably more guys than girls. In her freshmen English 1 course only eight out thirty-one students are girls. A situation like this one is nothing new. SEA senior Alyssa Febre said she “looked around and realized we were the only two girls, we were used to male dominated classes.” This is the exact situation Girls Night was meant to remedy. Xitlaly Garcia, an 8^th grader from Art Freiler, thinks West High has Girls Night, “to attract more eighth graders to join the academy and to see overall girl power.” Other teachers and students in the academy have also noticed the girl deficit. Senior Jessica Huynh is the only female on the SEA council, and she has noted that there are only five girls in the 2016 SEA graduating class. She says,” In STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers stereotype is that is a men’s career, so we are trying to break that stereotype.” Engineering teacher Stephen Callahan offered another reason why the boys outweigh the girls in the academy. He said,”There are less girls in the academy because they are not presented with the opportunities to become an engineer that boys are. Girls Night is about making sure that as many girls as possible have the opportunity.”

Girls Night has included many different activities over the years such as making DNA necklaces, bath bombs and LED bracelets. Bynum said they set out to do one experiment in bioengineering and one in physics. The reason Bynum wants students to join the academy is not for all its fun experiments but also because it “helps students feel prepared and know things like WebAssign and Creo Parametric (CAD program) which is used by engineers and architects.” The SEA Girls Night efforts have been very promising and they hope to see many of the 8^th grade girls as part of the academy next year.