Registration ends soon for the 25th annual Tennessee Girls in STEM Math and Science Conference at MTSU, which will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 9.
The deadline to register is Sunday, March 20, event organizers said. The STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) conference will be held in-person. Masks and hand sanitizers will be provided and recommended, in light of the ongoing pandemic.
Participants attending a previous Tennessee Girls in STEM Conference at MTSU try to get their egg to drop without breaking in a September 2019 file photo. Egg drop will be one of the events during the 25th annual TGIS event at MTSU on Saturday, April 9. (Submitted photo by Nathan Wahl)
Middle school and high school girls — fifth through 12th graders — are welcome to participate There is a $20 registration fee, but financial assistance is available. To register and for more details, visit https://mtsu.edu/TGIS/. The fall 2021 conference was postponed because of COVID.
Dr. Judith Iriarte-Gross
Tennessee Girls in STEM, or TGIS, helps girls and young women investigate science and mathematics careers, hear from women in math and science, participate in science and math workshops and meet about other girls interested in STEM. For many years, it was known as the MTSU Expanding Your Horizons, or EYH, Conference.
“MTSU is providing for the future workforce in Tennessee, in the South and across the nation by introducing girls to STEM role models at our annual conference,” said chemistry professor Judith Iriarte-Gross, conference and WISTEM (Women in STEM) director.
“Twenty-five years of supporting girls and women in STEM is an amazing track record,” she added. “Thanks to MTSU for hosting Tennessee Girls in STEM.”
Alumna Andrea Eller, a biological anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., will be the keynote speaker for this year’s event.
“It is so exciting to be able to work at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum,” Eller said. “They have the most incredible collections of animals, plants, rocks, artifacts … even the attic has some amazing pieces of science in it. For a naturalist like me, it’s a dream come true.”
Andrea Eller, an MTSU alumna who recently earned her doctorate in biological anthropology and works at the Smithsonian Institution, will be the keynote speaker for the Saturday, April 9, Girls in Tennessee STEM conference at MTSU. (Submitted photo)
Related to her visit, Eller said when she was just starting in college, “I really had no idea what I was opening up for myself — the opportunities, the people, the travel. I feel very fortunate to have been able to follow my passions, and do scientific research for a living.
“And occasionally, I get to go somewhere to talk about it. Coming back to MTSU to talk about what I do now … I never would have expected to have this opportunity.”
Eller, who has earned her doctorate, is the daughter of Jackie Eller, professor emerita in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology now teaching in a post-retirement status and a former interim vice provost for research and dean of the College of Graduate Studies.
The conference is sponsored by the MTSU College of Basic and Applied Sciences, InfoWorks, Nissan, Schneider Electric, Texas Instruments and the Nashville local section of the American Chemical Society.
— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)
COMMENTS ARE OFF THIS POST