FROM STAFF REPORTS

For the ninth year Chilton County has had a team of girls be selected to attend the Girls Engaged in Math and Science (GEMS) University Expo.

This year, four teams from three schools were selected with 165 female students from around the state at the GEMS-U Expo during the month of March. Each team was selected based on a project it had completed earlier in the year.

The CCHS Girls project was on Hydrogen Fuel Cells, Isabella on sports science, Jemison on kinetic vs potential energy of a roller coaster. The Isabella Elementary students project was on the human eye.

The event themed “From Space to Shining Sea” was held in two locations, the Huntsville U. S. Space and Rocket Center, Friday, March 3, and Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Friday, March 10.  One Elementary team from Isabella, and 3 high school teams from Isabella, Jemison, and CCHS spent the day at the Dauphin Island Sea Labs. Women in Marine Science from the Sea Lab worked with the girls in labs, in the Gulf of Mexica, and on the beach. The girls were part of a dolphin autopsy, learned how to collect specimens in the field, how to tag manatees (to locate them), and studied the species found in the beach zones.  They literally got their “feet wet.”   Chilton County educators Brooke Elliot, Jay and Nelda LeCroy, Donna Mayfield, Tammy Price, Wendy Smith, and Shannon Miller (school nurse), along with many parent volunteers accompanied the teams for the weekend of fun and learning.

GEMS-U is an educational program offered by the Alabama State Department of

Education. The GEMS-U program supports the national need to close the STEM gender gap, utilizing teaching strategies to encourage girls’ self-confidence and elevate interest in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math with female students.