====================================================================== LOS ALAMOS WOMEN IN SCIENCE Northern Chapter of the New Mexico Network for Women in Science and Engineering FEBRUARY 1997 NEWSLETTER ====================================================================== CONTENTS: --------- BOARD MEMBERS RETIRING PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE ACTING PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE REPORT FROM THE STATE BOARD MEETING LA COUNTY SCIENCE FAIR: AWARDS BY LAWIS, AND LESSONS LEARNED 1997 EXPANDING YOUR HORIZONS UPDATE SANTE FE AAUW CAREERS AND CURIOUSITY DAY: HELP NEEDED LAWIS LUNCHES STARTED MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Errors are the sole fault of the editor, J. Tinka Gammel, who can be contacted to complain at 667-9149, or jtg@lanl.gov. I am sending both electronic and hardcopy newsletters. Please let me know if you prefer to get it in only 1 format. When I make a joke it's a joke. When congress makes a joke it's the law. -- Will Rogers ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BOARD MEMBERS ------------- 1996-97 LAWIS board members: Acting President - Carol LaDelfe, cladelfe@lanl.gov Vice President - Margo Clark, jmclark@lanl.gov Secretary - Ginger Young, ginger@kc.trail.com Treasurer - Trish Wright, pwright@lanl.gov Newsletter Editor - Tinka Gammel, jtg@lanl.gov EYH Chair - Joyce Guzik, joy@lanl.gov Membership - Carol LaDelfe, cladelfe@lanl.gov Members-at-large - Diane Albert, dalbert@lanl.gov - Amy Anderson, aeanderson@lanl.gov - Libby Jones, jones_elizabeth_a@lanl.gov ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RETIRING PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE ---------------------------- I would like to thank the membership for allowing me to be the President of LAWIS for the last year. My term extended longer than a year but now is the time for it to end. I will be taking maternity leave in March and Carol LaDelfe has volunteered to step in as President until fall, when a new president will be elected. I hope that the membership will support Carol in her plans for future activities. Some of our future activities include luncheon speakers for the membership. This will provide a great opportunity for members to get to know each other better. I hope you will try it out. I look forward to joining in the fun when I return from my leave. Karen Schultz Paige ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ACTING PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE -------------------------- Greetings! I've not yet gotten used to the idea of being acting President, but Karen assures me "There's nothing to it!" We have a meeting next Tuesday, to hear Bev Larson tell us about "Anthropology as Science at LANL" and I hope to see many of you there. I hope we can look forward to a series of similarly enlightening topics to be shared in this way. Our big effort in the next month is the "Expanding Your Horizons" Conference to be held here at the Laboratory on March 20th. We can still use help, both Workshop presenters and "gofers." Call Joyce Guzik (7-8927) if you have or can make time to help. I'll need some help in doing this job. Be sure to let me know if you have issues that need attention, or if you have a problem that we might be able to look into. I will continue as Membership Chair, as that does not take a great deal of time. Thanks, and I look forward to continuing this year's activities that Karen has so ably set in motion. Carol LaDelfe, Acting President Fri, 14 Feb 1997 cladelfe@lanl.gov, 667-8474 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- REPORT FROM THE STATE BOARD MEETING ----------------------------------- The latest State Board meeting was held on February 8th at Debby Potter's house in Albuquerque. The Northern chapter had a number of representatives present including Lynda Towers, State President; Karen Schultz Paige, Northern Chapter President; Carol LaDelfe; State Newsletter editor; Deborah Kubicek, State Treasurer; and Jennifer Siders; State Secretary. Most of the discussion focussed on the Expanding Your Horizons conferences. For most chapters, the EYH conferences are approaching. The Southern chapter just recently finished their conference. It sounded like it was a very successful conference, well attended by young women, with lots of interesting workshops. As usual, we are all relieved when one of groups has a successful EYH conference. Yolanda Jones-King is the State Board's fundraising chairperson and has done a great job raising money for EYH on a state-wide level. After presenting our budget to the State Board, we received a $300 contribution from the State Board to put toward our EYH activities this year. That will help us as we gear up for our EYH conference in March. The Southern chapter discussed their plans for the Annual Meeting this fall. The meeting will be held in Las Cruces. The date has not yet been set, because they are still searching for a hotel or conference center. They have eliminated the weekends of Balloon Fiesta and the AAUW annual meeting. They are hoping that lots of members from across the state will be attending. The next State Board meeting will be April 5 in Socorro. Karen Schultz Paige ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LA COUNTY SCIENCE FAIR: AWARDS BY LAWIS, AND LESSONS LEARNED ------------------------------------------------------------ Three of us, Joyce Guzik, Tinka Gammel, and Ginger Young, judged the Los Alamos County Science Fair February 7-8, 1997, on behalf of LAWIS. We awarded $25, $15, and $10 Otowi Station gift certificates for 1st-3rd place to female participants. In addition, we awarded 10 honorable mention certificates including stickers saying "BACK OFF MAN! I'M A SCIENTIST", which Tinka purchased at discount from Otowi Station. The winners were: 1st Place: Joanna Mattis, 7th grade, The Shocking Truth of Magnetism 2nd Place: Rebecca Hammon, 8th grade, Electroplating Steel 3rd Place: Naomi Gilna (7th grade) and Kate Stroh (6th grade), Does Asthma Affect Heart Rate in Everyday Competitive Swimming? Honorable Mention: Karen Rand and Racheal Severinghaus, 6th grade, Biodegradability Liz Solano, 6th grade, Palindrome Patterns Jillian Erickson,7th grade, A Day in the Life of My Blood Pressure Leanne Juzaitis and Katy McGhee, 6th grade, Volcanos Monica Michelotti, 7th grade, Dendrochronology of Precipitation in Ponderosa Pine Leigh Schanfein, 8th grade, Manure: Which Will Give You the Greenest Thumb? Alexis Smith, 4th grade, Surfing the Science Fair S. Christensen, 5th grade, Drip-Drip Spill Kristin White, 5th grade, Riches from the Earth Shannon Matzke, 5th grade, Colored Rain Following are suggestions and information that we hope future judges will find useful for next year: 1) We started judging on Friday evening at 7 pm at the Pueblo complex. At this time the entrants are NOT present. The judges can also return Saturday morning, between 8 am and noon, when the 7th grade and older participants are required to be present to explain their projects and answer questions. 2) The names and grade levels of the entrants are on the BACK of the numbered cards in front of the displays (as veteran judge Ginger Young pointed out too late for me to take advantage of!). This is important to know to find out if the entrants are girls or boys, and judge the quality versus age. 3) It made a big difference in our decision to return on Saturday and interview prospective winners. This is also valuable to the participants, as we can encourage them and give them suggestions for improving their projects for the regional fair, or for next year. This requires that the judges allot approx. 2 hours Friday night, and another 2 hours or so on Saturday morning to do an adequate job. 4) We have set ourselves a difficult task by not limiting the awards to a topic or age level. It is difficult for all of the judges to look at all of the projects in a reasonable amount of time. We suggest having at least 3 judges, splitting the room into sections, and having each judge pick the best one or two entries from their section. 5) The Science Fair Officials present the awards Saturday afternoon at 4pm, in the Civic Auditorium. They call the winners to the stage in groups according to the first letter of their last name. Persons giving awards are invited to sit on the stage and give the awards to winners personally. This year Tinka and I sat on the stage, and Tinka presented the awards on our behalf. The science fair officials also make certificates to give to each winner, but we recommend that LAWIS also give certificates, because they can run short or inadvertently miss someone. (Tinka made beautiful certificates between noon and 4 pm on Saturday). 6) Members of the AAUW give out awards for Elementary School participants. They wanted to coordinate with us to avoid giving all of the awards to the same girls. This year we did not overlap in our decisions, but I don't know that overlap should necessarily be completely avoided. It really is a lot of fun to judge the science fair. We learned many interesting things, were impressed by creative ideas and persistence, and inspired by the enthusiasm of many of the girls as they explained their projects. It's nice to remember why we chose careers in science! Joyce Guzik, Science Fair 1997 Chair ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1997 EXPANDING YOUR HORIZONS UPDATE ----------------------------------- We are progressing well toward our next Expanding Your Horizons workshop for 8th-10th grade girls from around Northern New Mexico. This year's conference will be held Thursday, March 20, 1997, at the JR Oppenheimer Study center. We are excited about EYH being featured in the March issue of Reflections. Our committee chairs this year are: Co-coordinators: Joyce Guzik and Shirley Herrera Finance/Treasurer: Trish Wright Fundraising: Diane Albert Hand-outs and Prizes: Karen Schultz-Paige Refreshments and lunch: Shirley Herrera Workshop Presenters: Wendee Brunish and Karen Schultz-Paige Facilities: Shirley Herrera Recruiting: Ann Mauzy, with help from Tinka Gammel Registration: Carol LaDelfe Program Brochure: Deborah Kubicek Evaluations: Denise George Team Activity: Deborah Kubicek and Ginger Young Some program highlights: Guest Speaker (Dr. Kathleen Ramsay) Adult Program Gary Franklin and Pat Berger at Science Museum American Vacuum Society workshop by Bill Powell Team Activity: Egg Drop This year we decided to provide lunch to the participants and are having a "cookout" on-site We are still in need of volunteers, especially 1) Workshop presenters 2) "Gophers" to help workshop presenters 3) Help with activities during the day 4) Help assembling the registration packets on Friday, March 14. 5) Volunteers to help any of the committee chairs with their work. If you would be willing to help with any of these, please contact Joyce Guzik (joy@lanl.gov, 7-8927). Thank you to everyone who has pitched in to help so far! Joyce Guzik Expanding Your Horizons 1997 Chair ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SANTE FE AAUW CAREERS AND CURIOUSITY DAY: HELP NEEDED ----------------------------------------------------- The Sante Fe AAUW is holding a Careers and Curiousity Day at Gonzales Elementary 8:30-10:30AM February 28. Volunteer presenters are desperately needed! Please call me if you are able to help. Liz Branfeld, 984-0980 SF AAUW Careers and Curiosity Coordinator ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LAWIS LUNCHES STARTED --------------------- Bev Larson gave an excellent talk on "Anthropology as Science at LANL" (and I apologize for spelling her name wrong and misquoting her title in the previous mailing). Despite the small audience, I think it was an excellent kick-off to the "LAWIS Lunch-Time Talks". She described why LANL has an anthropologist, gave a brief description of the changing role of anthropology in light of the current societal weighting of gaining scientific information versus protecting the rights and beliefs of the living descendants, and showed slides of an excavation of a multiple-room pueblo done at L-site prior to the ruin being covered by a LANL structure. The next Lunch-Time Talk is scheduled for noon, Friday March 14, also in Otowi sideroom A, with the speaker not yet determined. I hope to see you there. Volunteers and suggestions for future speakers are welcome. Tinka Gammel, jtg@lanl.gov ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION ---------------------- The NMNWSE and LAWIS Membership Year is defined as from October 1 to September 30. LAWIS chapter dues are rebated from the state dues, so no separate dues are collected from LAWIS members. Wyona Turner is Membership Chair of NMNWSE, and a copy of the membership form is available on the web (in Adobe Acrobat format) at http://ladmac.lanl.gov/nmnwse/ in the "Membership in NMNWSE" section. If you are unable to access that, Carol LaDelfe, LAWIS Membership Chair (and new Acting President), cladelfe@lanl.gov, 667-8474, will be happy to put one in the mail to you. ======================================================================