GEM-SET


	March 2002 ======================================================================== GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 1, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ******** ANNOUNCEMENTS: ****** The votes are in for career-of-the-month. ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. For mentors who have archaeology training, please tell our mentees why you chose this career. For mentees interested in archaeology, learn more at <http://www.saa.org/>http://www.saa.org and tune into the archaeology discussions in this month's daily digests. ****** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: Can you name the site that Kathleen Kenyon, a famous woman archaeologist, excavated? ******** March is also WOMAN'S HISTORY MONTH. Learn more about women's place in history at http://www.greatwomen.org/>http://www.greatwomen.org ****** Q: FROM MENTEE LAUREL S. IN INDIANA I consider myself a bit of an environmentalist, and I am wondering what kind of jobs are out their in this field? A: FROM MENTOR AZURE DEE EMERLE, COASTAL ENGINEER, OCEAN AND COSTAL CONSULTANTS, INC. IN TRUMBULL, CT When I was in high school, I considered myself a bit of an environmentalist as well. I was also interested in science, design, and math, so I went to college for environmental engineering. Environmental engineering covers a wide range of topics including: air and water resources, wastewater engineering, geology and soils, chemistry, and Biology, among others. Most of the courses I have had included ways to protect the environment through technology such as design of recycling plants and waste management techniques, air and water pollution control devices, and the design of wastewater and drinking water treatment plants. I enjoyed my time studying these courses, but eventually I developed a love for the ocean and beaches and I went to graduate school for coastal engineering. Now I use technology to save our shorelines and beaches. At times, I thought environmental engineering was more about engineering and less about the environment. I went to Syracuse University which shares a corner of its campus with the State University of New York School of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF). I had some classes there as well and thought that they were a little more tuned to the "environmentalist". I invite you to check out their website http://www.esf.edu/>www.esf.edu http://www.esf.edu/>http://www.esf.edu/> and look at the courses and programs that might be of interest to you because the "environment" can be quite broad. Additionally, I found the websites http://www.eco.org/>http://www.eco.org/ and http://environmentalcareer.com/>http://environmentalcareer.com http://environmentalcareer.com/>http://environmentalcareer.com/> that offer a lot of information on environmental careers. I should also add that, although I did not further my career in the environmental engineering field (even though coastal engineering draws on a lot of the principles I learned), there are many jobs out there for this type of career. A: FROM MENTOR JOAN LUSK, ASSOCIATE DEAN, GRADUATE SCHOOL AT BROWN UNIVERSITY IN PROVIDENCE, RI I happen to have information on the employment of recent graduates of Brown's master's program in Environmental Studies. The emphasis of the program is on policy rather than on science, but many of the students come here after a bachelor's degree in science because they want to affect policy. Many had worked in environmental jobs before coming to graduate school, and now are ready for more responsibility. The list is too long, I know, but I'm proud of them! Nearly all are working in environmental fields. I've pasted all 53 here without any editing. 1 Environmental Policy Analyst for the New York Public Interest Research Group 2 Office of Strategic Planning and Policy, RI Department of Environmental Management 3 Analyst, Harris Miller Miller & Hanson Inc. (Noise and vibration consultants) 4 Energy analysts with the CADMUS consulting group working on Energy Star Programs 5 Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute, working with education/training and policy; affiliated with the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production 6 Computer consultants, Brown University 7 Director, Risk Management, Brown University, now Technical Director, of International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA), where she directs the voluntary standards setting activities of thirteen product groups and an Adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University 8 Worked for State of MA doing power plant siting reviews. Has recently moved to a private consulting firm, TRC Environmental Corporation, doing the same work from the applicants' side of the issue 9 Winrock International, working on providing photovolatics in Central America. 10 Fulbright to Morocco, then U.S. Peace Corps, Morocco, now Regional Educational Advising Coordinator, Middle East and North Africa, 11 Program Associate, Human Rights and Environment, Center for International Environmental Law 12 Program Coordinator at The Rockefeller Foundation, working with the Partnership for Strengthening African Universities 13 worked for Verizon through the fall of 2001, now on the job market 14 JD from the University of Pennsylvania 15 Assistant to the Director, Rhode Island DEM; last heard of working in public relations in Massachusetts 16 ICF consulting, then an independent consultant, now with NRDC, working as their climate change specialist. 17 Second year law student, Hastings Law School 18 Researcher for the Council on Economic Priorities; proprietor of a graphic design business. 19 Project Manager, Vermont Forum on Sprawl, Switzer Leadership Award (2001) 20 Project manager, North Carolina Division of Emergency Management; Environmental analyst, California Public Utilities Commission. 21 Manager, Emergency Management Services, Brown University 22 worked for Tellus in Boston for about two years doing both environmental and computing support work, after which he switched to a computer start 23 Project Manager, SWCA Inc. Environmental Consultants 24 Senior Representative Region 1, Environmental Health Scientist, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry 25 Kindergarten teacher in Seattle; organizing a film festival. 26 Air program officer in Seattle, then in CT. 27 Policy Analyst, Industrial Economics, Inc., Cambridge, MA 28 Media analyst, Washington, DC 29 Analyst, Synapse Energy Economics, Inc. 30 Worked for a consulting firm in NJ, now applying to doctoral programs. 31 Development Staff, Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM) 32 Public Health Epidemiology, Rhode Island Department of Health 33 Policy Director, Audubon Society of Rhode Island 34 Extraction Systems, Franklin, MA 35 Program Officer, Municipal Drinking Water Regulation, Massachusetts DEP 36 Recycling Program Assistant with the City of Palo Alto, City of Oakland as a Recycling Specialist, MIS Administrator, City of Oakland 37 Australian national climate change interests 38 Senior Research Assistant, Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University 39 Financial communications consultant, London and NYC. 40 South County Watershed Coordinator, Sustainable Watersheds Office of the RI Department of Environmental Management 41 JD degree from Vermont Law School in 2001; public defender in NYC 42 consultant in electricity for environmental groups and consumer advocates, now marketing for resistor/capacitor products 43 Teaching environmental journalism and environmental communication at Silliman University in the Philippines 44 Ph.D. in Education from the University of Rhode Island, High School Chemistry teacher in RI. 45 completed a post-graduate internship with Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratories in Washington DC, analyzing energy efficiency programs in Eastern European countries, and currently works for Battelle in Yerevan, Armenia, on regional energy and environment issues 46 PhD candidate, Department of Communications, Cornell 47 Staff Analyst, Public Works and the Environment, U.S. Senate 48 post-graduate internship with Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratories in Washington DC; now works for the Socio Ecological Union, a Russian NGO, on climate change and related environmental issues 49 Analyst on climate change for Jaakko Poyry, consulting firm in Finland; designed and taught a course in international environmental policy at the University of Helsinki; manager, International Institute for Sustainable Development Reporting Services, Geneva; editor of Linkages Journal. 50 Analyst, Abt Associates, Cambridge, MA 51 Wetlands biologist in Massachusetts. 52 Co-manager of NOAA's / NMFS's Marine Recreational Fishery Statistics Survey; Editor, Maximus' Center for Health Literacy and Communication Technologies 53 Doctoral Candidate, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, at the College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley ****** NEW QUESTIONS: ****** Q: FROM MENTEE ALISSA F. IN INDIANA Where can I receive scholarships for astronomy related subjects? ****** Q: FROM AMANDA T. IN MO While watching the Olympics I noticed that the skaters always turned to where they were facing backwards before they performed a jump. I was wondering if they ever jump facing forward and why they do most of their jumping backwards. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE KARA T. IN MN I am very interested in math and science, and I love being around kids. I really don't think I want to be a teacher or a doctor, do you have any other ideas? ****** Q: FROM MENTEE ERIN R. IN VA I'm a girl scout, and every year we have a camp out for the girls in 3rd grade and up. As a senior, we plan several activities that the girls can choose to participate in, but in the past, these activities have been lacking in the area of science. This year we hope to have one called "the Manhattan Project," and have several SAFE explosions, but I haven't really found anything that we could use. We are limited by the fact that we are in the woods so we have to bring any materials we need, which is fine, but we won't be able to make a fire or have a way to heat anything. Do you know of any good experiments that kids from 3rd grade to 6th grade would have fun doing, and doesn't require a lot of obscure stuff? Thanks a lot! ****** Q: FROM MENTEE KRISTEN K. IN NH I enjoy working with and helping people. Do you have any suggestions for a field for me to go into? I would like to work with people directly, and I don't want to be a doctor. _________ END ========================================================================= GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 4, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ****** ANNOUNCEMENTS: ****** The votes are in for career-of-the-month. ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. For mentors who have archaeology training, please tell our mentees why you chose this career. For mentees interested in archaeology, learn more at <http://www.saa.org/>http://www.saa.org and tune into the archaeology discussions in this month's daily digests. ****** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: Can you name the site that Kathleen Kenyon, a famous woman archaeologist, excavated? ******** March is also WOMAN'S HISTORY MONTH. Learn more about women's place in history at <http://www.greatwomen.org/>http://www.greatwomen.org ****** MENTOR CHANDRA INGLIS, ARCHAEOLOGIST FOR THE WEST VIRGINIA DIVISION OF HIGHWAYS TALKS ABOUT WHY SHE WENT INTO THE ARCHAEOLOGY FIELD: I first decided that I wanted to go into the field when I was 11-12 years old. I had an amazing passion during grade school about the Titanic. I wanted to be the person who rediscovered it's location on the depths of the icy ocean floor, and brought it's story back to the surface. I was crushed when I was beat to the chase, and had to settle for watching the TV special on the people who actually did do it. By High School I was still interested, so I took a sociology course, which was as close as I could get, or so I thought. I wasn't aware of all the opportunities that are out there for middle to high school age students to go to field schools, and summer classes in archaeology, and really get a hands on feel for what it is like. We didn't have the internet then, like we do now. Half of the people I entered college with in the field, changed their major within the first term or two. They were expecting Indiana Jones, or even the Discovery Channel, and the reality is not like that. 90% of what we do in the field is not very exciting, you don't always find something, unless you're digging in Greece. However that 10% is often really, really cool, and that is the 10% you often hear about. What I love most about my job is that it's ever changing, there is always something new to learn or see, and someone who can tell you about it. My job changes all the time, and so do I, as I get older and learn more, my specialties expand and change as well. I started out being able to dig a nice hole and document what came out of it. Now I can write a fully fleshed out report about the excavation process, what we found, how it relates in time and culture, all about the historic buildings and the history of the area. I can also identify and delineate wetlands, and write legal documents. Soon I will be able to fully utilize the ArcGIS program, which is a mapping program allowing you to do query's, and spatial mapping to name a few of it's highlights. So I guess when it comes down to it, my reason's for choosing and staying in the field are ever changing too. ****** MENTOR JOAN LUSK, ASSOCIATE DEAN OF GRADUATE SCHOOL AT BROWN UNIVERSITY IN PROVIDENCE RI, SUGGESTS INVESTIGATING SCIENCE MAGAZINE: There have been questions about astronomy and women in astronomy. The February 8 issue of Science magazine, which is available at lots of university and public libraries, has a profile of astronomer Vera Rubin. That's Science vol. 295 pp 960-961. Rubin did ground-breaking work on galaxies and raised 4 kids, all of whom are scientists. She's also been an activist for women in science, so the article might be useful for that question on activism. ****** Q: FROM AMANDA T. IN MO While watching the Olympics I noticed that the skaters always turned to where they were facing backwards before they performed a jump. I was wondering if they ever jump facing forward and why they do most of their jumping backwards. A: FROM MENTOR MARY JO MULLEN, CIVIL ENGINEER AT PATRICK ENGINEERING IN REGION V Amanda, all I can tell you is what I remember watching a couple Olympics ago, when the broadcasters went over all the jumps and explained what made a lutz different than a salchow (sp?)or an axel. I think this is back in '88, because they used Brian Boitano as the example. I am not by any means a skater but have grown up watching skating on TV, and am just amazed by it. The axel is the only jump that skaters face forward in their take off. This means that when a skater performs say a double axel, they are doing 2 1/2 revolutions, instead of just 2 revolutions of a backwards jump, because they always land backwards. In the axel, the takeoff is performed by swinging their free leg and pushing with the foot that is on the ice and using that momentum to lift themselves off the ice and rotate. In the backward jumps, skaters use the toe of their free leg and the skate that is on the ice to push off the ice to gain the height and rotation they need. Because of the differences in takeoff, the backward jumps can be much stronger (two feet pushing off is better than one!). I think this is also why women can perform some quad jumps (all backwards takeoffs) but generally can only do double axels. I don't think guys have moved into doing quadruple axels yet, I think all of their quads were backward jumps also. There are some very impressive physics involved with figure skating. I've found a few internet sites that describe the physics of the jumps and spins, some extremely technical, others easier to understand. Search for "physics in figure skating" and you should find some very interesting things! ****** Q: FROM MENTEE ERIN R. IN VA I'm a girl scout, and every year we have a camp out for the girls in 3rd grade and up. As a senior, we plan several activities that the girls can choose to participate in, but in the past, these activities have been lacking in the area of science. This year we hope to have one called "the Manhattan Project," and have several SAFE explosions, but I haven't really found anything that we could use. We are limited by the fact that we are in the woods so we have to bring any materials we need, which is fine, but we won't be able to make a fire or have a way to heat anything. Do you know of any good experiments that kids from 3rd grade to 6th grade would have fun doing, and doesn't require a lot of obscure stuff? Thanks a lot! A: FROM MENTEE KRISTEN K. IN NH The SWE has made some activities for kids that look pretty cool. Each lesson contains hands-on or interactive activities as well as explanations of the science and engineering. Some fields they target are: Civil, Chemical, Mechanical, Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering. Good Luck! GO TO http://www.swe.org/iac/LP/index.html A: FROM MENTOR SUZANNE FRANKS, PHD, DIRECTOR, WOMEN IN ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE PROGRAM, KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY IN MANHATTAN, KS Erin, how wonderful that you are involved in Girl Scouts and looking for ways to bring the excitement of science to young girls! There are a couple of good web sites to go to for information and resources on easy science experiments. www.tryscience.org has lots of experiments grouped by subject area; these are easy, fun, and require minimal materials. Also, look at the ZOOM Into Engineering web site, http://pbskids.org/zoom/too/engineering/ You can download activity sheets and order resource materials (you get a video and a booklet with activities and how to set them up and run them.) A: FROM MENTOR MARTY WOELFEL, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY, KENTUCKY STATE UNIVERSITY IN FRANKFORT, KY Hi Erin-- I have a return question for you: Are you only looking for explosive activities? If so, I can't help you much. If not, a science activity I have found useful with Girl Scouts of the grade levels you specify (i.e., mostly Junior Girl Scouts) is to work with batteries and flashlight bulbs to do a wide variety of exploratory activities on circuitry. You'd need to buy some flashlight bulbs, wire, tape, etc. Girls could use their own flashlight batteries if needed. Let "the list" if you are interested in pursuing this idea and I'll write some general descriptive information. Being a Girl Scout myself (yes, still. . . .I do outdoor trainings and am on our council's Board of Directors) and also a science teacher, I've used this one with older Brownies and younger Juniors some years ago. ****** NEW QUESTIONS: ****** Q: FROM MENTEE ALISSA F. IN INDIANA Where can I receive scholarships for astronomy related subjects? ****** Q: FROM MENTEE KRISTEN K. IN NH I enjoy working with and helping people. Do you have any suggestions for a field for me to go into? I would like to work with people directly, and I don't want to be a doctor. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE ISRRA A. IN PA I was wondering how much money do drafting engineers get paid in a year? What benefits are given to them? How many years of college are needed? ****** Q: FROM MENTEE LAUREN H. IN KY Would it be beneficial to take a foreign language in high school (say Spanish or Latin) for a career in the medical field? ****** Q: FROM MENTEE KARA T. IN MN I am very interested in math and science, and I love being around kids. I really don't think I want to be a teacher or a doctor, do you have any other ideas? _________ END ========================================================================= GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 5, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ****** ANNOUNCEMENTS: ****** The votes are in for career-of-the-month. ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. For mentors who have archaeology training, please tell our mentees why you chose this career. For mentees interested in archaeology, learn more at <http://www.saa.org/>http://www.saa.org and tune into the archaeology discussions in this month's daily digests. ****** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: Can you name the site that Kathleen Kenyon, a famous woman archaeologist, excavated? ******** March is also WOMAN'S HISTORY MONTH. Learn more about women's place in history at <http://www.greatwomen.org/>http://www.greatwomen.org ****** Q: FROM AMANDA T. IN MO While watching the Olympics I noticed that the skaters always turned to where they were facing backwards before they performed a jump. I was wondering if they ever jump facing forward and why they do most of their jumping backwards. A: FROM MENTOR WANDA RITCHIE, SENIOR OPERATION MANAGER, EASTMAN GELATINE CORP. IN PEABODY, MA Amanda, you are a keen observer. Many people who do not have experience with figure skating would not have made the observation you did. There is one jump that skaters take off from a forward position - the axel. This jump is unique in that the skater must rotate the body some number of complete turns PLUS one-half turn in order to land the jump while moving backwards. For example, to perform a triple axel, the skater must complete 3 1/2 revolutions in the air before landing. All jumps are landed with the skater moving backwards. I believe this is primarily due to the shape of the blade and the inertia/balance of the body. The skater will typically land with their weight toward the front (ball) of the foot and then settle their weight back on the blade as they contact the ice. I know (from personal experience) that coming out of a multi-revolution jump too soon and "landing forward" can be painful!!! (you usually end up falling forward........) ****** Q: FROM MENTEE KRISTEN K. IN NH I enjoy working with and helping people. Do you have any suggestions for a field for me to go into? I would like to work with people directly, and I don't want to be a doctor. A: FROM MENOTR WANDA RITCHIE, SENIOR OPERATION MANAGER, EASTMAN GELATINE CORP. IN PEABODY, MA Kristen, most of the science and technology professions provide significant opportunity to work with and help people, depending on your definition. The projects that most engineers and scientists work on these days are very complex and require significant amounts of teamwork and cooperation. One suggestion might be to think about what it is that you really enjoy about work with others and what "helping people" means to you. As a leader in virtually any profession, you will have opportunities to share ideas/challenges with your co-workers, as well as to help others see your vision, participate in success of projects and develop their own skills. Personally, as an engineer and manufacturing facility manager, nearly 100% of my time is spent leading teams of people dealing with business improvement opportunities, coaching teams and individuals to build capability and communicating with others on how their contribution is vital to the success of the company. I find this work very rewarding for me as I see others improve their own interpersonal skills, problem solving skills and understanding of our customers' needs. A: FROM MENTOR STACY WOOD, PROJECT DESIGNER, PORT AUTHORITY OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY IN PITTSBURGH, PA Hi Kristen, There are a lot of careers that involve working with and helping people in the medical field. I know that you don't want to be a doctor, but would you consider another position? Nursing and Physical Therapy are two careers that come to mind. A physical therapist works with people to rehabilitate physical conditions which may be caused by a stroke, an accident, or other injuries and illnesses. If you were to become a nurse you would be able to choose what area of nursing that you would most like to be. A pediatric nurse works with young children. A geriatric nurse works with older people. You could also choose to specialize in a particular area of treatment. Such as working with cancer patients, hearing impaired, blind, downs syndrome patients, and the list goes on. You could be a nurse at doctor's office, hospital, or even in a person's home. There are so many possibilities. Other careers that also come to mind are social worker, lawyer, and ministry. There are so many options for a person that wants to work with and help people. There are endless possibilities for you. I hope that some of the suggestions are helpful to you. Wanting to work with and help people is a very admirable trait. I wish you luck in your pursuit. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE ISRRA A. IN PA I was wondering how much money do drafting engineers get paid in a year? What benefits are given to them? How many years of college are needed? A: FROM MENTOR JACQUELYN JURGA, CABOT CORP. IN BOSTON, MA Hi Isrra- I can't answer for every company, but I am the manager of a design team and can show some light to your questions. Before I became a manager I was a mechanical 'design' engineer for a couple of companies. I hope I understand your question in as much as you are inquiring about an engineering career, not a drafting career? There is a difference. I do not know of a college that gives a degree in drafting engineering. Most would be more likely to offer a mechanical engineering degree (4 years), mechanical technologies degree (2 years)in which your career would require you to know and/or do drafting as part of your daily tasks. As you grow in a mechanical engineering field it is likely you would get a drafter assigned to work for you to give you a chance to do the engineering part of projects rather than the detailed drawings of it. It is my experience that young starting mechanical engineers make mid $40K and grow from there. My senior people make approx. $70-80K, and more if they continue their education. On the other hand, drafters here do not have 4 year college degrees and make less. A starting drafter makes approx. $35-40K and grows to senior level at approx. $50-57K. Here the drafters are paid hourly and get paid time and a half for over-time. It adds up to a pretty good paycheck. Engineers generally come up with the developmental ideas, do the math and figure out the results required by using modeling theories. The idea then gets to a drafting department for the drawings to be made and details dimensioned for fabricating them into actual things. The engineers know the products and what next generations will look like, cost and what kind of time is needed to get something from an idea to the market. Much thinking, going to meetings, a lot of figuring and quoting to do. Drafters take direction from engineers and put those ideas into drawing form, without all the added responsibilities. Benefits are different from company to company - but engineers generally get good medical, saving, and company stock benefits as well as the usual vacation, sick time, personal time compensations etc. I hope this helps. Whether you chose a career in mechanical engineering or as a drafter they are both good livings, challenging work and with the knowledge that you provide a vital and critical skill to the company you work for. Good Luck! ****** Q: FROM MENTEE LAUREN H. IN KY Would it be beneficial to take a foreign language in high school (say Spanish or Latin) for a career in the medical field? A: FROM MENTOR JOAN LUSK, ASSOCIATE DEAN, GRADUATE SCHOOL, BROWN UNIVERSITY IN PROVIDENCE, RI I think it's beneficial for everyone to take a foreign language, period. We're so deprived of language learning in the US, English is so dominant! It's true that a lot of medical terms are based in Latin, but there are medical dictionaries to help explain them and the range of vocabulary is rather limited - actually knowing enough Latin to read the language isn't _necessary_. Spanish is common enough here (do I contradict myself? yes. Ok) that a doctor in many locations will have Spanish-speaking patients and surely could communicate with them better - understand them as well as give them directions - if she knew Spanish. Let me contradict myself again: I've heard that in the Providence, RI, public schools the children speak some 90 different languages at home! No doctor is going to learn 90languages, but a second language like Spanish could well be useful. Even if you don't end up using a foreign language, learning it even to a slight degree gives you a look at how very differently language can be structured, how very different basic assumptions about the world and relationships can be between people who use different languages. Never experiencing that would be a loss. there's a heartbreaking book about the failure of US medicine to treat a Vietnamese/Hmong immigrant child : The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Ann Fadiman, 341 pp, $14 (paperback) - reviewed on a pediatric web site, http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/issues/v154n12/ffull/pbk1200-1.html Language was only the most superficial of all the cultural barriers to communication between the child's parents and doctors. It's not a technical book at all; I read it just for enjoyment, as a heartbreaking book can be enjoyed. It's being used in medical schools to educate doctors about cultural differences, and I recommend it to anyone thinking of being a doctor. A: FROM MENTOR SHARON ROSH, DVM, DOCTOR OF VETERINARY MEDICINE, EDGEBROOK ANIMAL HOSPITAL, EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ What a great question!!! I can tell you my own personal experience and hope that it will give you some insight. When I was in high school all my friends took Spanish, French, and German, but I took Latin. Granted I did not have modern language and conversation skills, but it helped me beyond my wildest imagination when it came to science, art, literature, and life. The ancient language of Latin and Greek are very important in all the sciences and literature. The modern Romance languages of French, Spanish, Italian, etc are all based on Latin. So, to answer your question, taking a foreign language is a really good idea in high school and in college and I think if you have the opportunity to take Latin then you will have a great advantage in all aspects of academia. Good luck. A: FROM MENTOR KRISTIN TAGHON, SOFTWARE ENGINEER AT LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES IN IL Hi Lauren, Yes, taking a foreign language is VERY helpful in the medical field. I have a friend who is a genetic counselor and is fluent in Spanish. She speaks with Spanish-speaking women almost every day. Not only does it make them feel more at ease, they also will fully understand what you are trying to tell them. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE KARA T. IN MN I am very interested in math and science, and I love being around kids. I really don't think I want to be a teacher or a doctor, do you have any other ideas? A: FROM MENTOR DEB MACKAY, PRODUCT MANAGER AT LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL IN LEXINGTON, KY Kara, It sounds like we have similar interests. I spend my days as an engineer and my evenings and weekends working with kids as a soccer coach, Sunday School teacher, and as a member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). Our section of SWE has several members who enjoy working with young people so we arrange events with local Girl Scout troops helping the scouts complete technology-based badges. We have had sessions on the Science in Action and the CyberGirlScout badges. My point is this: you can get involved in your community in a variety of ways to help kids, even if it is not your fulltime job. Another idea would be to be a design engineer at a company that designs toys or computer games. You would probably need to spend some time with children to find out how they react to your new toys and games. ****** NEW QUESTIONS: ****** Q: FROM MENTEE JEZRA B. IN NH I love earth sciences, such as biology and chemistry, and also love art. What are some careers and colleges that are good for these interests? preferably located in cities like Boston or Chicago. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE SANA A. IN CT Hi, My high school requires two years of U.S History. I am the first year as a sophomore. I think that next year I want to double up my sciences and take the second year of required history as a senior. The two science courses that I want to take are Physics and environmental science. Both of these are Honors courses and I really don't think that I will be able to handle history Honors in the same year. Is it a smart idea to save my second year of history till my senior year? ****** Q: FROM MENTEE LAUREN H. IN KY Is there any independent studying I can do/research at the high school and college level, to be a pediatrician? A: SEE RESPONSE FROM JOAN LUSK ABOVE CONCERNING A BOOK RECOMMENDATION FOR PHYSICIANS. THE BOOK IS CALLED The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Ann Fadiman. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE ALISSA F. IN INDIANA Where can I receive scholarships for astronomy related subjects? _________ END ========================================================================= GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 6, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ****** ANNOUNCEMENTS: ****** The votes are in for career-of-the-month. ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. For mentors who have archaeology training, please tell our mentees why you chose this career. For mentees interested in archaeology, learn more at <http://www.saa.org/>http://www.saa.org and tune into the archaeology discussions in this month's daily digests. ****** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: Can you name the site that Kathleen Kenyon, a famous woman archaeologist, excavated? ******** March is also WOMAN'S HISTORY MONTH. Learn more about women's place in history at <http://www.greatwomen.org/>http://www.greatwomen.org ****** Q: FROM MENTEE KARA T. IN MN I am very interested in math and science, and I love being around kids. I really don't think I want to be a teacher or a doctor, do you have any other ideas? Q: FROM MENTEE KRISTEN K. IN NH I enjoy working with and helping people. Do you have any suggestions for a field for me to go into? I would like to work with people directly, and I don't want to be a doctor. A: FROM MENTOR LISA SMITH, SOFTWARE ENGINEER AT COMPAQ COMPUTER IN NH This answer applies to both Kristen K.'s and Kara T.'s questions. One interesting way to apply math, science, engineering, and working with people is in the robotics and mechanical engineering fields. One idea is designing robots or objects to help the disabled. There is a lot of interesting work in the area of wheelchairs, artificial limbs/accessories to help people with disabilities live in ways never imagined 20 years ago - there has been so much progress in this field, but much more is still needed! To find out more about careers related to such work, you might try going to a local hospital to ask some questions. I don't even know what "section" of the hospital this would be in, but I'm sure after a bit of research (or asking a doctor you know?) you could figure it out. Kara, you could do similar work in pediatrics to work with kids. Another idea educational robots. Professor Illah R. Nourbakhsh, a Professor of Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University (my alma mater!), does some extremely interesting work in this area. One of his projects has the goal to produce cheap, reliable robots for the classroom, complete with curriculum for teaching a fusion of math, physics and computer science using the robot. Prof. Nourbakhsh is working with a company in California, Hyperbot (<http://www.hyperbot.com/>www.hyperbot.com), which has been in the educational market for years. Interestingly enough, when I went to the professor's web page (<http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~illah/%20-%20he%20is%20doing%20lots%20of%20interesting%20work! >http://www2.cs.cmu.edu/~illah/<HTTP:a~illa<www2.cs.cmu.eduh/%20%20he%20is%20doing%20lots%20of%20interesting%20work!> - he is doing lots of interesting work!), I also saw that he is teaching a high school course this summer in Robotic Autonomy! Students will build vision-based robots that use CMUcam and will take the robots home and keep them at the end of the summer. Sounds like a pretty neat way to see if robotics might be an interesting field for you (it is a bit pricey, but some scholarships are available)! Check out <http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~robocamp>http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~robocamp/ for more info. I'm sure there is an aspect to this field that works directly with how people use the robot that either of you might find right up your alley. A: FROM MENTOR TERESA ESSER IN CAMBRIDGE, MA Kristen, why don't you consider becoming a venture capitalist? Venture capitalists help people. Venture capitalists help entrepreneurs get the resources they need to turn their lifelong dreams into real, profitable businesses. Venture capitalists work with their partners at the VC firm, with representatives of pension plans and university endowments, with entrepreneurs who are looking for funding and with representatives of large corporations. Venture capitalists often spend their evenings going to entrepreneurial networking events and meeting new people. Venture capitalists work with healthy people! They don't have to cut up bodies or wipe away bodily fluids. Venture capitalists decide which entrepreneurs are going to get money. They have the freedom to invest in people they like. They can decide not to invest in a person if the person seems like a jerk. Venture capitalists exert a great deal of power by providing resources to worthy entrepreneurs. I believe that it would be good for our society if there were more female venture capitalists, since female VCs would probably invest in female-friendly high-tech companies. Some mentors on this list have indicated that some technology companies can be sexist. Why not go straight to the top and decide for yourself who you want to business with? If you're going to spend 8 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars educating yourself so that you can "help people," you may as well choose an enjoyable field. High-tech and biotech venture capitalists often have degrees in scientific areas like biology, computer science, and whatever else. They usually have to get a master's of business administration (MBA) from a top-tier business school before they can become a partner at their VC firm. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE JEZRA B. IN NH I love earth sciences, such as biology and chemistry, and also love art. What are some careers and colleges that are good for these interests? preferably located in cities like Boston or Chicago. A: FROM DR. ESTHER PEARSON OF MASSACHUSETTS Jezra, your love of the sciences and art appear to make you an excellent candidate for a "Medical Illustrator" career. This career will allow you to utilize your art skills and knowledge of biology and chemistry to make drawings of scientific research specimens and/or illustrations for medical books and medical procedure guidelines. Lastly, you may be able to combine computer drawing knowledge to create digitized drawings for making diagrams available over the medium of the Internet. Information about "Medical Illustrator" preparation can be located at the Internet address as follows. URL: http://www.naahp.org/NAAHPlinks.html#medill>http://www.naahp.org/NAAHPlinks.html#medill ****** Q: FROM MENTEE SANA A. IN CT Hi, My high school requires two years of U.S History. I am the first year as a sophomore. I think that next year I want to double up my sciences and take the second year of required history as a senior. The two science courses that I want to take are Physics and environmental science. Both of these are Honors courses and I really don't think that I will be able to handle history Honors in the same year. Is it a smart idea to save my second year of history till my senior year? A: FROM MENTOR DEIRDRE DANIELS, M.S., ASSOCIATE SCIENTIST, MIDWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE, KANSAS CITY, MO Sana, I think you are very wise to split up your honors courses and not take them all at once. There are a few things to consider though. It sounds like you are not planning to take any science courses at all your senior year, is this true or am I mistaken? If you are interested in pursuing science in college, I would recommend keeping science in your curriculum every year. Something else to consider is that your senior year, no matter how committed a student you are, you will begin to experience what many call "senioritis". I was very much like you, taking honors courses and very committed to my school work, but no matter how much I didn't want to believe it would happen to me, it did. I came down with "senioritis". The reason I mention this is that I would recommend taking classes your senior year that you enjoy. History is my least favorite subject, something I would not have wanted to take my senior year. If you enjoy History, by all means do what you have already planned. But if you would rather be taking a science course, take one honors science course and honors History your junior year, and the other honors science course your senior year. Just something to ponder. Best of luck in making your decision. A: FROM MENTOR CAROL TOMAN, DISTINGUISHED MEMBER OF TECHNICAL STAFF AT LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES, INC. IN IL Sana, you might want to consider leaving one of the honors science classes for your senior year and take a slightly lighter load in your junior year. Junior year is usually the time you take the ACT/SAT start looking for a college, and write college applications. This can be very time consuming. It might be wise to leave yourself a little slack junior year and load up a little more in senior year. Best of luck. A: FROM DANELL OLIVER-COLLINS RETAIL INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER HALLMARK CARDS, INC KC, MO I think it is always best to take advanced classes immediately following the primary course. It is easier to understand the advanced class if the information you learned from the primary course is still fresh in your mind. Also, taking 2 closely related courses may be difficult because the information you learn from them are so closely related that a person could become confused easily and you may become frustrated trying to keep the two courses information separate. But if you have other reasons for choosing the course layout you mentioned then I as long as you apply yourself there should be no problem. Keep the notes from your first history class available so you can refer to them during your second and try to study your physical and environmental science in different settings to keep them separate. A: FROM MENTOR TERESA ESSER IN CAMBRIDGE, MA I suggest that you take any Advanced Placement tests that you are going to take shortly after you learn the material. So, if you take your heavy science classes during your junior year, plan on taking your AP exams during your junior year as well, or shortly thereafter. Don't wait until the end of your senior year to get tested on material that you learned the year before. Other than that, I can't think of any reason why you shouldn't study what you want, when you want. You might consider doing some sort of part time job or internship related to a particular scientific area during your senior year, if you have time. If you've already taken the honors science early, maybe you could convince someone that you are serious about this area and you want some real-world experience. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE LAUREN H. IN KY Is there any independent studying I can do/research at the high school and college level, to be a pediatrician? A: SEE RESPONSE FROM JOAN LUSK ABOVE CONCERNING A BOOK RECOMMENDATION FOR PHYSICIANS. THE BOOK IS CALLED The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Ann Fadiman. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE ALISSA F. IN INDIANA Where can I receive scholarships for astronomy related subjects? A: FROM MENTOR JOAN LUSK, ASSOCIATE DEAN, GRADUATE SCHOOL, BROWN UNIVERSITY IN PROVIDENCE, RI This question has been posted for a while, so although I don't have specific answers I feel compelled to say something. A Google search on "astronomy scholarships" turns up pages of possibilities, at universities in the US and abroad (Tasmania, anyone?) At the college level, getting girls into science is often a priority that the admissions committee considers. When financial aid is need-based, the amount of aid that might be offered is independent of the field of study, but donors have often specified particular fields of study they want to support. Colleges may have scholarships available for women in science, and astronomy would count. Astronomy is often taught in physics departments and considered a branch of physics, so looking at opportunities for physicists makes sense. At the graduate school level, physics and astronomy departments are likely to offer full financial aid, fellowships or teaching assistantships or research assistantships, to incoming graduate students. NASA has a graduate fellowship program in which the graduate students spend a little time teaching in local public high schools. The sky's the limit! A: FROM MENTOR LISA S. AT COMPAQ COMPUTER IN NEW HAMSHIRE Hi Alissa, many colleges offer physics/astronomy scholarships to their students. I did a search on "astronomy scholarships" in Yahoo, and it came up with a huge list, the first few I've listed below. If you don't know where you want to go to school, and money is a real concern, you might want to start looking more closely at the scholarships any of these schools offer to see how likely it is that you can get one (and how much money they'll give you, if they are renewable, etc). University of Nebraska-Lincoln <http://www.unl.edu/physics/academic/undergraduate/UNLPhysScholarWeb.html >http://www.unl.edu/physics/academic/undergraduate/UNLPhysScholarWeb.html Appalachian State University - Boone, NC <http://www.physics.appstate.edu/scholarships.html> http://www.physics.appstate.edu/scholarships.html Sonoma State University - CA (near San Francisco) <http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/advisor/Scholarships.html> http://www.physastro.sonoma.edu/advisor/Scholarships.html <http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/> http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/ Mississippi State University <http://www.msstate.edu/dept/physics/admissions/scholarship.html> http://www.msstate.edu/dept/physics/admissions/scholarship.html Ball State University - Muncie, IN <http://www.bsu.edu/csh/physics/ad.htm>http://www.bsu.edu/csh/physics/ad.htm I am a recent graduate, and I needed scholarships in order to go to school 6 years ago. I searched high and low for scholarships, both local, national, hobby-specific -- ANYTHING, and ended up applying for 30 scholarships! It was a pain to fill out all those forms, but it was definitely worth it. I ended up with $10,000 in outside scholarships (not from my college), which ended up as lots of small-amount scholarships. One piece of info I can share is that applying for local scholarships (Rotary Club, Lion's Club, Knights of Columbus, etc) is how you have the best chance of getting money for college. National ones are usually for large sums of money, and have so many applicants, your chances are very low. If you can suffer thru a bit more paperwork, your chances are much greater if you apply for smaller-award scholarships (most people don't think it's worth the effort), and many of them. Beware of scholarships where you have to pay to get money -- I did a few of those, and didn't win any, and all the ones I did receive I didn't pay a dime (other than stamps!). Be forewarned that many outside scholarships are for HS seniors only, and are not renewable for the next 3-4 years while in college. Of the many I received, only 1 was renewable. But don't let that deter you - something is better than nothing! I also used FastWeb to search of scholarships, and it's gotten even better since I used it. You can search for particular hobbies you have, or scholarships for particular majors. This site is great for anyone looking for college money. <http://www.fastweb.com/>http://www.fastweb.com/ I found this site, too, but I'm not familiar with it: <http://www.finaid.org/scholarships>http://www.finaid.org/scholarships/ Good luck! A: FROM DANELL OLIVER-COLLINS RETAIL INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER HALLMARK CARDS, INC KC, MO I've looked all over, and your best bet is to look for scholarships outside the astronomy field and more into the women or academia fields. There are many scholarships out there available to women no matter what degree you pursue. And there are also scholarships available who look at your academic record. Try searching the internet for scholarships in general and you would be surprised how many sites will catalog scholarships for you. Good Luck! ****** NEW QUESTIONS: ****** Q: FROM MODERATOR SARAH SHIRK, UIC IN CHICAGO, IL If you could be present on any archaeological dig, past or present, where would it be and why? _________ END ========================================================================= GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 7, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ****** ANNOUNCEMENTS: ****** The votes are in for career-of-the-month. ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. For mentors who have archaeology training, please tell our mentees why you chose this career. For mentees interested in archaeology, learn more at <http://www.saa.org/>http://www.saa.org and tune into the archaeology discussions in this month's daily digests. ****** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: Can you name the site that Kathleen Kenyon, a famous woman archaeologist, excavated? ******** March is also WOMAN'S HISTORY MONTH. Learn more about women's place in history at <http://www.greatwomen.org/>http://www.greatwomen.org ****** Q: FROM MENTEE KRISTEN K. IN NH I enjoy working with and helping people. Do you have any suggestions for a field for me to go into? I would like to work with people directly, and I don't want to be a doctor. A: FROM MENTOR DESIREE BUTTER, M.D. IN PA Have you considered social work? From my perspective as a physician, social services workers provide invaluable services to the people that they help. Most of the people that they work with and are helping are at points in their lives that they truly need a lot of help. They are professionals that I admire and respect very much. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE SANA A. IN CT Hi, My high school requires two years of U.S History. I am the first year as a sophomore. I think that next year I want to double up my sciences and take the second year of required history as a senior. The two science courses that I want to take are Physics and environmental science. Both of these are Honors courses and I really don't think that I will be able to handle history Honors in the same year. Is it a smart idea to save my second year of history till my senior year? A: FROM MENTOR ANNE GERRIETTS, CIVIL ENGINEER, EAGLE POINT, DUBUQUE, IA I had a similar decision when I was in high school. I had to decide whether to take Physics my sophomore year the same time I took Biology. There were a couple of things that I considered. First, I had to make sure that it was still feasible with my schedule. You don't want to hurt yourself by scheduling problems because there are some classes you will have to take. Then the second decision is if the workload will be too much. To this I say if you are excited enough about the extra science class then the workload will probably not seem that bad. That was the case with me. I ended up taking some of my math classes out of order because of this change which put me in some classes with students who were not normally in my classes. It was actually a nice change to meet new people! And I think you might find the same thing true about the History class. But the final decision is really going to be can you handle all of the work at once or will you do better in the classes if you spread them out. But I definitely would recommend taking the science classes if you are interested in them. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE LAUREN H. IN KY Would it be beneficial to take a foreign language in high school (say Spanish or Latin) for a career in the medical field? A: FROM MENTOR DESIREE BUTTER, M.D. IN PA I feel that it would be very beneficial to take a foreign language, especially Spanish. There is an ever increasing Spanish speaking population in our country. Although translators are available, using them is cumbersome and time consuming. I feel that speaking a patient's native tongue significantly enhances the therapeutic relationship, no matter what level of health care provider you are. Latin is more helpful from an academic perspective. Most medical terminology was originally composed in Latin. The Latin names for disease processes, anatomy, etc. make intuitive sense if you understand Latin definitions well. ****** NEW QUESTIONS: ****** Q: FROM MODERATOR SARAH SHIRK, UIC IN CHICAGO, IL If you could be present on any archaeological dig, past or present, where would it be and why? ****** Q: FROM MENTEE JULIANA W. IN REGION V I have a very good friend who has had a migraine headache since the beginning of February. Do you have any suggestions for getting rid of her head aches? _________ END ========================================================================= GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 8, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ****** ANNOUNCEMENTS: ****** The votes are in for career-of-the-month. ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. For mentors who have archaeology training, please tell our mentees why you chose this career. For mentees interested in archaeology, learn more at <http://www.saa.org/>http://www.saa.org and tune into the archaeology discussions in this month's daily digests. ****** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori (1896 - 1957)Nobel Prize winner for Physiology and Medicine and First American woman to receive the Prize in science is famous for what scientific discovery? ******** March is also WOMAN'S HISTORY MONTH. Learn more about women's place in history at <http://www.greatwomen.org/>http://www.greatwomen.org ****** Q: FROM MENTEE JULIANA W. IN REGION V I have a very good friend who has had a migraine headache since the begging of February. Do you have any suggestions for getting rid of her head aches? A: FROM MENTOR SUZANNE FRANKS, PHD, DIRECTOR, WOMEN IN ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE PROGRAM AT KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY IN MANHATTAN, KS Juliana, if your friend has had a migraine for that long, she needs to see a doctor immediately. If your friend has been experiencing frequent bad headaches, she still needs to see a doctor immediately. If it is truly a migraine, there are many new kinds of treatments that can be effective at stopping migraines and/or reducing pain and other symptoms. Persistent headaches can be signs of other problems, such as stress or some other kind of biological disorder that need treatment. In any case - urge your friend to see a doctor as soon as possible! ****** NEW QUESTIONS: ****** Q: FROM MENTEE ANNA M. IN MI Next year for my Senior year I'm trying to decide if I should take Statistics or Calculus. I'm in Pre-Calc now, and don't enjoy it basically because I'm really confused, but I think I would be able to understand it if I had a teacher who taught well. I was wondering if it would be more beneficial to take statistics next year because I have heard that it is something that is needed for any degree basically or to continue with the Calculus stuff. I have no idea what kind of career I'm interested in. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE MAGGIE O. IN MN Where can I find information about the best science colleges in the U.S.? ****** Q: FOR MENTEES FROM MODERATOR SARAH SHIRK, UIC IN CHICAGO, IL If you could be present on any archaeological dig, past or present, where would it be and why? _________ END ========================================================================= GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 11, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ****** ANNOUNCEMENTS: ****** The votes are in for career-of-the-month. ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. For mentors who have archaeology training, please tell our mentees why you chose this career. For mentees interested in archaeology, learn more at <http://www.saa.org/>http://www.saa.org and tune into the archaeology discussions in this month's daily digests. ****** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori, (1896 - 1957), Nobel Prize winner for Physiology and Medicine and first American woman to receive the Nobel Prize in science, is famous for what scientific discovery? ******** March is also WOMAN'S HISTORY MONTH. Learn more about women's place in history at <http://www.greatwomen.org/>http://www.greatwomen.org ****** Q: FROM MENTEE ANNA M. IN MI Next year for my Senior year I'm trying to decide if I should take Statistics or Calculus. I'm in Pre-Calc now, and don't enjoy it basically because I'm really confused, but I think I would be able to understand it if I had a teacher who taught well. I was wondering if it would be more beneficial to take statistics next year because I have heard that it is something that is needed for any degree basically or to continue with the Calculus stuff. I have no idea what kind of career I'm interested in. A: FROM MENTOR DANELL OLIVER-COLLINS RETAIL INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER HALLMARK CARDS KC, MO Take calculus while you are still in high school. You will need calculus for almost any degree you pursue, and it will be much harder to understand if you try to learn it in college than in high school. If you are having problems understanding calculus get a tutor or spend some time after school with a math teacher. You will definitely be better off tackling calculus in high school. From my own experience I had to take calculus twice before I could fully grasp it, and I excel at mathematics. Calculus is such a different type of math that it is difficult to change the basic 1 + 1 = 2 thinking to derivatives and unknowns. I wish I had gotten a tutor. A: FROM MENTOR JOAN LUSK, ASSOCIATE DEAN, GRADUATE SCHOOL, BROWN UNIVERSITY IN PROVIDENCE, RI If you have any choice of teacher, why don't you take the course that has the better teacher? Either or both courses could be useful. Calculus is more important for college chem and physics, but statistics is good to have too - it's probably less important for the early college science years, though. Ask around among students in the year(s) just ahead of you, about the teachers. And do you study with other students? If pre-calculus is confusing, chances are that you are not the only student confused. Getting together, you can pool the parts that some of you understand until all of you understand; and if nobody understands, you have a firm basis to go together to ask the teacher questions. A: FROM MENTOR MINI V. OF STEMCELL IN MARYLAND Statistics is vital for everything. I am still sorry to this day that I did not take statistics. Take the statistics now and take calculus in college instead. Information from science to policy rely on statistics. A lot of people are fooled by this statement: as ice cream sales increase, the crime rate also increases. The statement is true, but there is no direct cause and effect between the two items. If someone fed you this line and you didn't know anything statistics, you might think ice cream fed violence. A: FROM MENTOR DEB GRUBBE, CHEMICAL ENGINEER, AT DUPONT IN WILMINGTON, DE Anna, you raise a good question. If you are going to major in science or engineering or architecture in college, I would take the calculus. Knowing that your background is a bit weak, and knowing that math courses have been building on each other for the past 12 years, and they will continue to, I would do this: 1) Get another math teacher who has taught pre-calc to give you some private lessons to fill in the spots that you do not understand. You will have to pay for them; however, it will give you peace of mind that you understand the pre-calc fundamentals. If you are a good reader, you may want to study the course book over the summer, too. 2) Sign up for calculus for your senior year. Calculus builds on itself, and there are different types, too. However, that is now getting into more college stuff! ****** Q: FOR MENTEES FROM MODERATOR SARAH SHIRK, UIC IN CHICAGO, IL If you could be present on any archaeological dig, past or present, where would it be and why? A: FROM MENOTR JOAN LUSK, ASSOCIATE DEAN, GRADUATE SCHOOL, BROWN UNIVERSITY IN PROVIDENCE, RI It's hard to choose. Being with Schliemann when he discovered Troy would have been wonderful - <http://www.iit.edu/~agunsal/truva/schlie.html>http://www.iit.edu/~agunsal/truva/schlie.html. His second wife, a Greek who knew classical Greek, helped him greatly with the excavation. For a future project, I'd like to discover the definitive evidence on who came first to the Americas, how they came, how often, and when. Learning more about human response to the last ice age would be exciting. I've heard it said that we had to become intelligent to cope with the climate change - but lots of animal species survived without becoming as intelligent. Those big species died - mammoths, saber-toothed tigers - and it would be great to have more evidence on what caused their extinction; to what extent did humans hunt them too much, or was climate definitive, or something else? The disappearance of the Anazasi people from the Southwest is also a tempting mystery. Finding something to reveal what happened to them would be a coup. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE KARA T. IN MN I am very interested in math and science, and I love being around kids. I really don't think I want to be a teacher or a doctor, do you have any other ideas? A: FROM MENTOR KRISTIN TAGHON, SOFTWARE ENGINEER AT LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES IN IL Kara, I spoke to my friend who is a genetic counselor and asked for a description of what she does. I also asked her for some other ideas for careers. Following is her answer: "As a genetic counselor, I talk to couples regarding any high risks to a pregnancy, what kinds of testing is available and the risks and limitations of the testing, help them decide whether to have testing or not, and if they have testing I give them their results and discuss their options and what the child is expected to be like after birth. There are also genetic counselors in pediatrics that are presented with a child who is learning delayed and/or funny looking and Mom and Dad want to know what the child has and what are the chances of it happening again and what the child is going to be like in the future. Other genetic counselors work in adult onset conditions and cancer. Helping people with family histories of something like cancer decide if they want testing to know if they are going to get cancer. They arrange for the testing and give results. "Other fields in the medical field would be a nurse, a physician's assistant, social worker, dietician. "Genetic counselors still have to take all the pre-med classes and statistics and psychology classes in undergrad." ****** NEW QUESTIONS ******* Q: FROM MENTEE MAGGIE O. IN MN Where can I find information about the best science colleges in the U.S.? ****** Q: FROM MENTEE STEPHANIE H. IN REGION I I am choosing classes for my junior year, and this year I took 2 honors classes, and am thinking of taking another honors course that my teacher recommended me for. However, I know that colleges pay close attention to grades in the junior year, and I was wondering if it is a good idea to take the extra honors class next year or to stick with a lower level and get a better grade? _________ END ========================================================================= GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 12, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ****** ANNOUNCEMENTS: ****** ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. Mentees: If you have not yet voted for your favorite careers, it is not too late to vote. Go to <http://www.gem-set.org/>http://www.gem-set.org to place your vote today! ****** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori, (1896 - 1957), Nobel Prize winner for Physiology and Medicine and first American woman to receive the Nobel Prize in science, is famous for what scientific discovery? Send your answer to gem-set@uic.edu. ******** March is also WOMAN'S HISTORY MONTH. Learn more about women's place in history at the National Women's History Project, <http://www.nwhp.org/>http://www.nwhp.org ****** Q: FROM MENTEE ANNA M. IN MI Next year for my Senior year I'm trying to decide if I should take Statistics or Calculus. I'm in Pre-Calc now, and don't enjoy it basically because I'm really confused, but I think I would be able to understand it if I had a teacher who taught well. I was wondering if it would be more beneficial to take statistics next year because I have heard that it is something that is needed for any degree basically or to continue with the Calculus stuff. I have no idea what kind of career I'm interested in. A: FROM MODERATOR DENISE HARBERT Hi Anna! I think that question is really hard to answer without knowing more about you, your school curriculum, and your school's teachers. I majored in both math and statistics in college and, at different times, taught both statistics and calculus to college students. (So I know both subjects VERY well!) The first course in calculus is generally believed to be harder than the first course in statistics, so consider your course load and schedule when you decide to take one or the other. Also consider the reputations of the teachers. Either class can seem extremely hard or very easy depending on the teacher. My first calculus teacher was outstanding and my first statistics teacher was horrible, so I actually thought calculus was easier. (I might be the only one, though!) You should also think about your future needs. Both calculus and statistics are HIGHLY valuable subjects to know, regardless of what career you end up with. Calculus is required for almost every SET college degree. Statistics is required for almost every college degree (SET or not) that would involve research. Statistics is also a valuable life skill. A basic understanding of statistics will allow you to interpret and critique the research you hear about on television, on the radio, in magazines, etc. It will make you less gullible and less likely to believe research that is based on poor assumptions. Finally, you should think about your college plans. At a large university, the first course in both calculus and statistics is usually taught in a large lecture hall with 200-500 students who watch a professor write on a chalkboard at the front of the room 3 hours a week. This is combined with a smaller "lab" of 25-35 students that meets 1-2 hours a week and is led by a graduate student who is teaching in order to pay for her/his Ph.D. in math or statistics. Professors and grad students can have teaching skills that range from excellent to horrible, but in any case, you will have to aggressively pursue them when you don't understand something. They simply have too many students to ask all of them if they need help. If you have a hard time asking for help when you need it and you're going to a big university, you may want to try taking calculus in high school and leave statistics for college (because most people think calculus is harder). At a smaller college, you would more likely be in a classroom like your high school classes where you would get more individual attention and your teachers might pursue you if they see you're not doing well. One important thing to know about calculus is that many students take it in high school and retake it in college to give them a better edge against their college classmates. This makes college calculus even more difficult for students who didn't take it in high school because the "grading curve" is steeper. Don't let your confusion in Pre-Calc stop you from pursuing calculus. I did excellent in algebra, geometry, and algebra 2, then didn't understand a thing in Pre-Calc, then did outstanding in calculus. All because I had a really bad teacher for Pre-Calc and had really good ones for the other classes. (Incidentally, I'd suggest that you find another teacher or tutor or someone else to help you in Pre-Calc right now. Your grades need to be good enough so you can move on without having to retake it!) See the Q&A below about "What is calculus? What is statistics?" ****** Q: FROM MODERATOR DENISE HARBERT What is calculus? What is statistics? A: FROM MODERATOR DENISE HARBERT Calculus is used as the foundation for all kinds of practical problems. Calculus is mainly used to compute areas, volumes, changes in variables, maximum and minimum values, and slopes of lines drawn tangent to curves. It has direct applications to subjects like engineering and drafting. It is also the math used to prove why various formulas work in biology, physics, chemistry, statistics, etc. The math in calculus is more similar to high school algebra and algebra 2 than it is to high school geometry. (My geometry class required writing in complete English sentences in order to "prove" that, for example, two triangles had the same angles.) Calculus tends to focus more on manipulating formulas like y=5(x-squared) -10x +7 + (x-1)/(x-squared +7). The second class in calculus does involve a lot of trigonometry as well, so understanding sin(x), cos(x), tan(x), sec(x), etc. is very helpful. (Check out a movie about a group of poor "going nowhere fast" high school kids whose teacher believed in them enough to teach them calculus and change their lives - TRUE STORY - "Stand and Deliver" made in the late '80s.)Statistics is essential to research because it is the field of math used to find and interpret patterns in data (numbers) and to determine which patterns exist by random chance and which ones exist because there is something causing them to be that way. Statistics are used when it is not possible to know the perfect, mathematical solution to a problem. For example, assume that you have a brother who is insecure about his height (5 foot 9) because he thinks most girls are taller than he is. You know he's wrong, so you decide to prove that he is taller than the average height of all high school girls in the state where he lives (say, Michigan). In order to find the exact, mathematical average, you would have to measure every high school girl in the state. This would be impossible because the "population" is constantly changing. By the time you finished measuring the girls in one school, your numbers would be wrong. Some girls would have moved out of Michigan, some in, some would have grown taller, and some might even have dropped out or graduated. All you can do is take a smaller "sample" of girls, measure them, and use that as your estimate of the average height of girls in the entire state. You'd then find that the average height is 6 foot 1. Oops! What happened? Oh, you only measured the girls on an all-star basketball team for Detroit public high schools. That's not a very representative sample of all girls in the state. These girls excel in a sport where being tall is an advantage and they're mostly African American Seniors who are 17 years old or older. In order to get a representative sample, you need to include girls of all ages, races, geographical areas, academic and sporting interests, etc, and include them in the sample in the same proportions that they appear in the state at large. You then find that the average height of girls in the sample is 5 foot 5. That sounds more reasonable, but are all girls really shorter, on average, than 5 foot 9 or did the sample simply contain all the short girls by random chance? Well, the math behind statistics can attach a probability (or likelihood) to this result called a p-value. If the real average height of all high school girls in Michigan is 5 foot 9 like your brother, then the chance that a randomly selected sample would contain girls that are 5 foot 5 or shorter is 1 in 2 million (p-value=1/2,000,000= 0.0000005). That's pretty unlikely, so you can then go to your brother and tell him that you have pretty convincing evidence to suggest that he's taller than the average high school girl in Michigan. That's how statistics works. Another statistics example is this: A research Psychologist noticed that it seemed like men interrupt women more often during conversation than the other way around. A research study was done in a laboratory, women and men were put into groups, and the number of times each person interrupted another was recorded. Statistical methods were used to prove that men really do interrupt women more often than the other way around. For a while, researchers speculated about why this might be true. Perhaps men are more rude and women are more polite? This was a popular theory (probably because it followed a stereotype) until another research Psychologist with a background in Women's Studies came along and disagreed. Historically, women have had less power than men. Perhaps the difference in interrupting behavior is not a difference between men and women, but a difference between people who have more unspoken social power over others who have less. A research experiment was done in a laboratory, women and men were randomly assigned to lead a group of people in a task, and the number of times each person interrupted another was recorded. Statistical methods were used to prove that the person who was selected to be the leader was the one who interrupted the most, regardless of whether that person was a man or a woman. The visible difference in the interrupting behavior of men and women was proven to be caused by something other than the obvious difference in gender!!!This phenomenon of a "hidden" cause is common. Especially when it comes to differences in people of different genders, races, religions, etc. Because different groups are raised with different incomes, educations, role models, social expectations, experiences, and peer pressures, any differences between them could easily be caused by something other than the obvious. That's why many people get frustrated when they hear conflicting research results and say, "You can prove anything with statistics." That statement is actually false. Statistics usually show what is there - the problem is in how people interpret the statistics. It is very easy to find differences and assume that they are "caused" by a stereotype. It is very difficult, and sometimes impossible, to truly prove the real cause. That's why understanding what statistics can and cannot do makes you less likely to believe poorly interpreted results. There are many times when I hear news reports that claim things that are impossible to prove because the only way to prove them would be unethical or illegal or against the laws of physics. I walk away mad at the researchers for pumping false information into the media and other people walk away believing that there is scientific evidence proving that a stereotype is true. In a quick comparison, calculus is a form of math that involves computing exact amounts like areas, volumes, maximums, minimums, and slopes. Statistics is a field of math that involves looking at a group of numbers and computing how likely it is that those numbers occurred by random chance. Statistics is not an exact science. It is the math of how to deal with imperfection. Anyone who continues to pursue college courses in statistics will eventually have to also learn calculus. Calculus is the foundation language that is required to prove why the formulas in statistics work the way they do. Hope this helps!!! ****** Q: FROM MENTEE STEPHANIE H. IN REGION I I am choosing classes for my junior year, and this year I took 2 honors classes, and am thinking of taking another honors course that my teacher recommended me for. However, I know that colleges pay close attention to grades in the junior year, and I was wondering if it is a good idea to take the extra honors class next year or to stick with a lower level and get a better grade? A: FROM MENTOR MARY JO MULLEN, CIVIL ENGINEER AT PATRICK ENGINEERING IN REGION V I am a big fan of challenging yourself rather than taking the easier way out. If you think you can do well in the honors classes, go for it. I have always been told that honors classes look great on transcripts. Getting a B in an Honor's class may be more interesting to the college than an A in a normal class because you took the extra step and worked harder than you "had" to. And it will be more valuable to you because you won't get bored or lose interest in a class that doesn't challenge you, and you will probably get more out of it. A: FROM MENTOR JOAN LUSK, ASSOCIATE DEAN OF GRADUATE SCHOOL, BROWN UNIVERSITY IN PROVIDENCE, RI College admission committees take into account the greater difficulty of honors classes. The fact that you are willing to take on challenges is in itself a plus. And don't you find it more stimulating to be in an honors class than in a regular class? If you were just scraping by I doubt that your teacher would have recommended that you take another honors class. I say go for it! ****** Q: FROM MENTEE MAGGIE O. IN MN Where can I find information about the best science colleges in the U.S.? ****** NEW QUESTIONS ******* A & Q FROM MENTEE Wendy B. in MN I first wanted to give some advice to Maggie O. in MN. I have been doing the college search thing myself (it can be overwhelming, but don't give up). One great site I have found is <http://www.usnews.com/>http://www.usnews.com once there you can click on education on the left side and then college. You can search for certain majors, different locations, and many other criteria. It is from 2000 though, so if anyone else knows of another place to check out, we'd all love to know about it I'm sure! Hope this helps a little! Now, for some of the mentors, I was wondering if anyone knew what to look for most in a nursing school, and how they picked what college to attend. Was it just one of those feelings people say they get while on campus or something different? Thanks for any input! ****** Q: FROM MENTEE CHRISTINE B. IN REGION I Where is the money in science these days? I've heard so many horror stories about doctors not being able to pay off student loans because of insurance companies. What fields can ensure that I'll be making a good income? ****** Q: FROM MENTEE AMY N. IN MN I love music and have been involved in it pretty much all my life. I am in band, choir, and have been participating in musical theater since 5th grade. I also am very interested in chemistry. I was wondering if there are any careers that put these interests together. If not, if any mentor wants to tell me about their careers in chemistry, please do! ****** Q: FROM MENTEE KARA T. IN MN Hi I would like to know more about what a genetic counselor does. How many years you have to go to school, how much you get paid, and how many openings are in this field? thank you. _________ END ========================================================================= GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 13, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ****** ANNOUNCEMENTS: ****** ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. Mentees: If you have not yet voted for your favorite careers, it is not too late to vote. Go to <http://www.gem-set.org/>http://www.gem-set.org to place your vote today! ****** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori, (1896 - 1957), Nobel Prize winner for Physiology and Medicine and first American woman to receive the Nobel Prize in science, is famous for what scientific discovery? Send your answer to gem-set@uic.edu. PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TO GEM-SET STUDENTS IN EACH REGION WHO ANSWER THE MOST QUIZ QUESTIONS CORRECTLY! ******** March is also WOMAN'S HISTORY MONTH. Learn more about women's place in history at the National Women's History Project, <http://www.nwhp.org/>http://www.nwhp.org ****** Q: FROM MENTEE ANNA M. IN MI Next year for my Senior year I'm trying to decide if I should take Statistics or Calculus. I'm in Pre-Calc now, and don't enjoy it basically because I'm really confused, but I think I would be able to understand it if I had a teacher who taught well. I was wondering if it would be more beneficial to take statistics next year because I have heard that it is something that is needed for any degree basically or to continue with the Calculus stuff. I have no idea what kind of career I'm interested in. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE Wendy B. in MN Now, for some of the mentors, I was wondering if anyone knew what to look for most in a nursing school, and how they picked what college to attend. Was it just one of those feelings people say they get while on campus or something different? Thanks for any input! A: FROM MENOTR JULIA HOCHBERG, MECHANICAL ENGINEER AT MOTOROLA IN IL After picking a school twice (I toured, interviewed, and applied at both private schools for high school and colleges), I am not sure that there is a perfect way to pick a school! After figuring out the most important things to you (location, school/class size, quality of your program, resources, etc.), you will be able to narrow down a list of schools. You can also detect a "personality" of a school through a campus tour (which is a must!). Granted, your opinion of a school can be greatly affected by rainy weather, whether or not you woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning, or overhearing a strange conversation between current students. Still, a campus tour is very beneficial and gives you the chance to "picture" yourself as a student there and whether you might enjoy it. It's important to look at the library and think, "is this someplace I will enjoy studying?" or looking at the dining facilities and ask, "will I mind eating the majority of my meals here?" or the dorm rooms and say, "could I live here?" and even the people and ask, "might these people be fun and interesting to befriend?" I'm not sure I had that "special feeling," but rather I felt comfortable at my chosen schools and my visits left me with a good feeling. In the end, its a tough choice, and I don't believe that there is just one school that is a perfect fit for every individual. Like many people have said, "it's what YOU make of it!" ****** Q: FROM MENTEE CHRISTINE B. IN REGION I Where is the money in science these days? I've heard so many horror stories about doctors not being able to pay off student loans because of insurance companies. What fields can ensure that I'll be making a good income? A: FROM MENTOR VAUGHAN ADKINS, PE, STRUCTURAL DEPARTMENT AT MASON & HANGER GROUP, INC. IN LEXINGTON, KY >From the National Academy of Engineers website - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) <http://www.nae.edu/nae/cwe/cwemain.nsf>http://www.nae.edu/nae/cwe/cwemain.nsf How much money do engineers make? Salaries for engineers depend on what type of engineer they are, what kind of company they work for, how many years of experience they have. In the spring of 2000, the starting salary for many engineers with bachelors degrees was over $40,000 a year. Some engineers just starting out earn more than $50,000 a year! How long do you have to go to school? You can start working as an engineer with a 4-year college degree. Many engineers go on to earn masters degrees (usually in another 2 to 3 years), and some get a Ph.D. (4 to 6 years beyond the bachelors degree). Christine, Please be cautious. Money is nice but it isn't everything. Be sure to pick a career that you can get up every morning for. Engineering is challenging and is usually never boring. You can make a good income and pay off your student loads in a reasonable amount of time. Check it out. Be sure explore your own interests. Do you like working with people one on one, or do you like working with things - figuring out how things work? ****** Q: FROM MENTEE AMY N. IN MN I love music and have been involved in it pretty much all my life. I am in band, choir, and have been participating in musical theater since 5th grade. I also am very interested in chemistry. I was wondering if there are any careers that put these interests together. If not, if any mentor wants to tell me about their careers in chemistry, please do! A: FROM MENTOR JULIA HOCHBERG, MECHANICAL ENGINEER AT MOTOROLA IN IL Another option is to enter a career in SET but also maintain your musical interests as a hobby. My co-worker had to choose whether or not to go to music school (trumpet) or engineering school his senior year (he was accepted into excellent programs in each). He choose engineering but he plays his trumpet almost everyday in a practice room at a music center, occasionally teaches trumpet lessons, and plays in several community bands. So, there is a way to do both! A: FROM ANNALIESE BRATCHER, INFO TECH TRAINER, U. KENTUCKY Amy, I was excited to read about your interest in science and music. Some of the world's best scientists have shared your enthusiasm for music. Albert Einstein played violin throughout his life. One area ripe for scientific exploration that combines music and chemistry is research on how music enhances wellness. Scientists are analyzing the brain and body chemistry of people who are making music or just enjoying music. Here are titles of a few recent studies in this area: -Music Therapy Increases Serum Melatonin Levels In Patients With Alzheimer's Disease -Scientific Findings Show That Music Making Increases Human Growth Hormone Among Active Older Americans -Group Drumming Boosts Cancer-Killer Cells in Study -History of Music-Brain and Wellness Research You can find links to these articles and more at the following website: http://www.amc-music.com/well.html ****** NEW QUESTIONS: ****** Q: FROM MENTEE KARA T. IN MN Hi I would like to know more about what a genetic counselor does. How many years you have to go to school, how much you get paid, and how many openings are in this field? thank you. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE JESSICA M. IN VT I was wondering why it is that when a person is awarded federal student aid that their parents have to take out a loan for some of the cost of college? When a person gets aid doesn't that mean that they didn't have the money to pay for all of the cost in the first place. When someone asks for aid doesn't that mean they didn't have the money to send their child to college in the first place? ****** Q: FROM MENTEE AMANDA T. IN MO How long does it take a drop of rain water that fell in the Rocky Mountains to travel the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers to the Gulf of Mexico? _________ END ========================================================================= GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 14, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ****** ANNOUNCEMENTS: ****** ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. Mentees: If you have not yet voted for your favorite careers, it is not too late to vote. Go to <http://www.gem-set.org/>http://www.gem-set.org to place your vote today! ****** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori, (1896 - 1957), Nobel Prize winner for Physiology and Medicine and first American woman to receive the Nobel Prize in science, is famous for what scientific discovery? Send your answer to gem-set@uic.edu. PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TO GEM-SET STUDENTS IN EACH REGION WHO ANSWER THE MOST QUIZ QUESTIONS CORRECTLY! ******** March is also WOMAN'S HISTORY MONTH. Learn more about women's place in history at the National Women's History Project, <http://www.nwhp.org/>http://www.nwhp.org ****** Q: FROM MENTEE JESSICA M. IN VT I was wondering why it is that when a person is awarded federal student aid that their parents have to take out a loan for some of the cost of college? When a person gets aid doesn't that mean that they didn't have the money to pay for all of the cost in the first place. When someone asks for aid doesn't that mean they didn't have the money to send their child to college in the first place? A: FROM MENTOR TERESA ESSER, WRITER IN MA I was intrigued by your question. Where do you suppose a government gets the money it uses to pay for a student's financial aid? Right, through taxes. Some governments tax heavily, while other governments tax very little. The governments that provide free college tuition, free health care, free dental care and an extremely generous "dole" for people who can't find work pay for these services by taxing their citizens extremely heavily. Here in the United States we have a different system. We are not taxed in the way that people are taxed in socialist or communist nations. Here in the U.S., if you want the government to help you out with college, you can go to a state school in your home state. You won't get free tuition, but you will get a break. If you want free tuition for your own future children, you could consider relocating to a socialist or communist nation. Of course, these systems have their own problems. When governments pay for college, they make decisions about who gets to attend these colleges. In some countries you get put into a tracking system at an early age depending on how you do on certain standardized tests. If you get funneled into the non-University track, you'll have a hard time getting into college. If you are allowed to take college prep classes in high school, but you don't make the government's college cutoff -- say, the top 25 percent -- you're not going to college either, unless you pay to attend school somewhere else. Some socialist nations give all the 18 year olds a test and run the results in the newspapers. That way, all of the neighbors can see which of the neighborhood kids is going to have the chance to obtain a university degree with the community's shared tax dollars. Fail the test? Sorry, no Uni for you. It's quite interesting to read Australian newspapers around this time of year. Some governments admit students into university based on their race. Yes, their race. Their ethnic identity. The nationality of their ancestors. If you happen to be a foreigner, or a racial minority, good luck getting into college in Malaysia. Are your parents really going to take out a loan to cover the costs of your college education? Mine didn't. My financial aid package included a collection of loans that I took out myself, and that I paid for myself. There was a time when I was paying more toward student loans than I was paying in rent. Luckily, this time is behind me. My experience was that if you needed to take out more loans, you could usually get more loans, but you'd still have to find some way to pay them off when college was over. A: FROM MENTOR MARY JO MULLEN, CIVIL ENGINEER AT PATRICK ENGINEERING IN REGION V Jessica- I got through school with a ton of help from my school and government aid. The federal government program that provides loans and grants to college students has its own formulas for determining what a students family can contribute. I knew one girl in high school who didn't qualify for as much government aid because her parents had set aside money in HER name which the government took into consideration differently than if it was just her parents savings account and dropped her down a notch in aid qualification. I'm not sure exactly how they determine your aid based on what they figure you can contribute. ITs probably something like they take the average cost of college, subtract what they think your parents can contribute and offer you the rest in loans and grants - usually loans. There are also maximum amounts for their loans. I maxed out my loans all 4 years (2 different federal loans), and still needed an additional $7500 to go to school each year. Luckily, my school gave me that in scholarship. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE KARA T. IN MN Hi I would like to know more about what a genetic counselor does. How many years you have to go to school, how much you get paid, and how many openings are in this field? thank you. A: FROM MENTOR SUZANNE FRANKS, DIRECTOR, WOMEN IN ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE PROGRAM, KANSAS STATE UNIVERSTIY IN MANHATTAN, KS Kara, you can learn more about genetic counselors at the web site of Arcadia University (<http://www.arcadia.edu/>www.arcadia.edu) They have a master's degree program in genetic counseling. <http://www.arcadia.edu/default.asp?t=1&m=74:528&pmid=1&pid=1036>http://wwwarcadia.edu/default.asp?t=1&m=74:528&pmid=1&pid=106 According to their web site, the mean starting salary is $35,000. You would have to have your bachelor's degree before doing this program, so if your B.S. takes four years, and the master's takes two, it would take you a total of six years to become a genetic counselor. The Arcadia web page says that "recent data suggest sufficient positions available for new graduates in the field." Arcadia says their program includes a mix of scientific, medical, psychological, and clinical courses and experiences. Here is a quote from the Arcadia site about what genetic counselors do: "The majority of graduates work in major medical centers, primarily in obstetrics and gynecology. The range of positions open to genetic counselors continues to expand and now includes: general genetics services (pediatric and adult), clinical services devoted to one diagnosis (a "specialty clinic"), community support organizations, public health departments and services, administration, research, commercial laboratories and private practice." A: FROM MENTEE BRYNN S. IN IA Hi this is for KaraT.'s question about becoming a genetic counselor. I am a junior and am also interested in becoming a genetic counselor. I have done a lot of research on it and have found out that you need to get your master's degree in G.C. and as for an undergrad degree basically anything science related, I was looking toward human genetics/psychology, but you could also do biology, any health related area. I found out there are only about 30 schools that are certified in the genetic counseling program. If you know anything more please let me know, I am very interested in learning more about this area. Q: FROM BRYNN S. IN IA I also have a question for the mentors...as I said I was a junior and getting very busy with looking into different schools. I also want to become a genetic counselor. I found a site that gave me the list of certified schools for G.C. but for my undergrad degree of human genetics/psychology I have no idea where to start looking. How do I even find out what schools have a human genetics program and a good one at that? I just don't know where to start. What do you suggest about finding the best school for what I want to go into? Thanks, Brynn ****** NEW QUESTIONS: ****** Q: FROM MENTEE BRYNN S. IN IA Hi,I'm in an Honors Advanced Biology class and right now we are learning about blood, and as we came across one of the blood disorders, hemophiliac, a question came to us that we were all stumped on. We were wondering what the percentage of female hemophiliacs was and how long they survived. Our teacher said that they usually won't make it past adolescence because of their menstrual cycles, but she didn't know too much about it and we were all wondering more about this and what happened to female hemophiliacs. Thanks! Brynn. ****** Q: FROM MENTEELAUREN S. IN CT I love writing short stories, poems and novels. Is there a way or ways that I could combine writing with science as a future job or career? ****** Q: FROM MENTEE AMANDA T. IN MO How long does it take a drop of rain water that fell in the Rocky Mountains to travel the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers to the Gulf of Mexico? _________ END ========================================================================= GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 15, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ****** ANNOUNCEMENTS: ****** ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. Mentees: If you have not yet voted for your favorite careers, it is not too late to vote. Go to <http://www.gem-set.org/>http://www.gem-set.org to place your vote today! ****** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: Who was considered to be the first computer programmer? (Hint: She lived during the 1800's, and you can find her biography at http://www.astr.ua.edu/4000ws/ Send your answer to gem-set@uic.edu. PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TO GEM-SET STUDENTS IN EACH REGION WHO ANSWER THE MOST QUIZ QUESTIONS CORRECTLY! ******** March is also WOMAN'S HISTORY MONTH. Learn more about women's place in history at the National Women's History Project, http://www.astr.ua.edu/4000ws/ ****** Q: FROM MENTEE JESSICA M. IN VT I was wondering why it is that when a person is awarded federal student aid that their parents have to take out a loan for some of the cost of college? When a person gets aid doesn't that mean that they didn't have the money to pay for all of the cost in the first place. When someone asks for aid doesn't that mean they didn't have the money to send their child to college in the first place? A: FROM MENTOR CAROL TOMAN AT LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES IN IL Almost every school in the country requires that you submit the FAFSA form (visit www.fafsa.ed.gov for information) if you apply for financial aid. Once a school has decided that they want to admit you, they also determine how badly they want you. If you have stellar grades, a specialty they want (music or sports, etc.), or that special sparkle in your application, they'll want you enough to put together a financial package to attract you. The FAFSA form computes how much your family is expected to pay each year for your college (you re-file every year because things change). The actual college you go to is irrelevant -- this is based entirely on the amount of money the family has saved and how much you, the student, has saved, and your expenses (such as having a sibling in college at the same time). Certain assets are excluded, like the value of your house and life insurance annuities. Then they compute that parents are expected to contribute a percentage of their assets (I think it's around 5%) toward college and the student is expected to contribute a much higher percentage of their assets (around 35%, I think) toward paying for college. When all this is computed, the bottom line is your family's expected contribution. The college will then attempt to make up the difference between your expected family contribution and the cost to go to their college. They will make up this package from a combination of scholarships, loans, grants, and work (e.g., serving meals in the cafeteria). They more they want you, the harder they'll work to get you a good package. Pay close attention: if your family's expected contribution say is $10000 per year, and both Yale and Uof I want you badly and come up with great packages for you, then whether you go to Yale or Uof I, you'll pay $10000 out of your pocket for college. I'll say it again: if they really want you, they will come up with great packages and you'll pay the same amount whether you choose Uof I or Yale. So, what can you do so you can increase you odds of going to Yale for free? Two things: make yourself attractive to the college by doing all the things we've discussed in this forum. Second: check out what the FAFSA form computes and do things early to move assets into categories that are not counted or are counted at a lower rate. You want to minimize your family's expected contribution. There are agencies that you can hire to look at your assets for you and to fill out your FAFSA form so as to minimize your family's expected contribution but that will cost you money. Good luck. A: FROM MENTOR ANNALIESE BRATCHER, INFO TECH TRAINER, U. KENTUCKY Jessica, I was in a situation similar to yours. I qualified for student financial aid with a small amount of "free" money in scholarships and a large amount of loan money that could be used to finance college. Perhaps, in an ideal world, motivated, academically qualified students such as yourself would face college without needing to become financially savvy. Becoming financially knowledgeable is, however, a great thing that will serve you for the rest of your life. So I encourage you to see the bright side in your situation and learn everything you can about finance options for education. Here are some pointers. 1) There are a few totally free colleges and a lot of people who would like to get into them. One such college is Berea College in Kentucky which requires various things such as a very low total income of the student's family. They also require that students work in the campus gift stores, restaurants, etc. to contribute back to the school. 2) You may decide that a college close to your home is a good money saver -- room and board expenses at college can be a huge part of your total cost. 3) Financial advisors suggest that you use only the amount of money in offered loans that you really need. 4) Almost every college or university offers some type of work -- Work Study student jobs, free tuition for fulltime regular employees, etc. The more research you do, the more questions you ask, the more options you will discover. I have attended classes at Universities for approximately 9 years (I'm about to finish a PhD!) and have accepted student loans during 3 of those years. The Work Study and internship jobs that I held were more than just money to pay my way, they were the doors to my career. Jessica, please don't interpret your financial situation as a reflection on you! I know people who are members of Mensa (the society for high IQ) who had to pay their way through college. Many people hold a mistaken idea that there is some magic scholarship for students with 4.0 GPAs or high IQs. You might encounter that kind of thinking: Don't let it become an obstacle for you. There are very few full scholarships for people in any category. Jessica, I wish you the best of luck! Whatever you do, don't let this discourage you from pursuing a higher education! ****** Q: FROM MENTEE BRYNN S. IN IA Hi, I'm in an Honors Advanced Biology class and right now we are learning about blood, and as we came across one of the blood disorders, hemophiliac, a question came to us that we were all stumped on. We were wondering what the percentage of female hemophiliacs was and how long they survived. Our teacher said that they usually won't make it past adolescence because of their menstrual cycles, but she didn't know too much about it and we were all wondering more about this and what happened to female hemophiliacs. Thanks! Brynn. A:FROM MENTOR DESIREE BUTTER, MD IN PA The percentage of female hemophiliacs is much lower than male because of the way that it is inherited. Every person has two sex chromosomes, women have two XX chromosomes and men have an X and a Y, the Y is what makes them male. The hemophilia gene is carried on the X chromosome. So if a woman has the genetic mutation that gives them hemophilia, the other X chromosome can make up for it and produce normal clotting factors. However, men only have one X chromosome, so if they have the mutation, the Y chromosome can not make the normal proteins and compensate. There are also varying severities of hemophilia based on the specific genetic defect present. You can find more information at the following web site: <http://www.wfh.org/>http://www.wfh.org ****** Q: FROM MENTEELAUREN S. IN CT I love writing short stories, poems and novels. Is there a way or ways that I could combine writing with science as a future job or career? A: FROM MENTOR ANNALIESE BRATCHER, INFO TECH TRAINER, U. KENTUCKY Lauren, you are in luck! Every branch of science, engineering, and technology needs good writers. The branches with the most writing jobs are the computer and medical fields. I suggest that you pursue both writing and science and leave yourself open to being a scientist who writes well to support her career in academic, industrial or research settings and/or a writer who writes knowledgeably about scientific topics. Regardless of which is primary (science or writing) having skills in both areas is a fantastic combination for a wide range of careers. A: FROM MENTOR MOLLY WILLIAMS, Ph.D., P.E., ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR RESEARCH AND GRADUATE PROGRAMS AT THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCES AT WESTERN MI UNIVERSITY IN KALAMAZOO, MI There's a great need for people who know science and who can make it interesting and understandable for those who don't. There have been a few authors who can write credible science fiction based on known science, extended with some plausible speculation. People like H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Carl Sagan come to mind. There's room for creative writing based on good science for both children's and adult literature. Being in school yourself, you probably have an opinion on the quality of the science textbooks that are supposed to be communicating the current knowledge of science. Often, they have a lot of facts, but not always a lot of enthusiasm. There's plenty of room for improvement in both formal science education (textbooks) and in communication to the general public through museums or through science articles in the newspapers, magazines, radio, and television. You might consider getting a broad science education with additional emphasis on both oral and written communication. There's a great need for knowledgeable people who are also creative communicators. A: FROM MENTOR WANDA RITCHIE, SENIOR OPERATIONS MANAGER, EASTMAN GELATINE CORPORATION, IN PEABODY, MA Hi Lauren. Certainly writing science fiction novels would be an option for you. Most of the literature has a basis in sound scientific principles. In addition, I would imagine that there would be opportunities for excellent writers trained in the sciences to work for magazine and newspaper publishers. Writing for television networks specializing in science programming (i.e. Discovery channel, various public television stations) may be an option for you to explore. Science museum across the country would likely utilize writers to prepare materials for their special exhibits as well. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE AMANDA T. IN MO How long does it take a drop of rain water that fell in the Rocky Mountains to travel the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers to the Gulf of Mexico? A: FROM MENTOR MARY JO MULLEN, CIVIL ENGINEER AT PATRICK ENGINEERING IN REGION V Wow, Amanda, that is a pretty tough question to answer. There are just a bunch of factors involved. I'll talk a little about the factors since I couldn't even pretend to give you an accurate answer. Rain water has many places to go when it strikes the ground. When it hits a pervious surface like woods, grasses, bare earth, about half of the rain water can be lost. The ground absorbs a good deal of it. Plants absorb and use water (transpiration). And some water is lost to evaporation. On impervious surfaces, maybe only 5% of the rainwater is lost to these things because there is little or no absorption.. Any water that isn't lost is called runoff. This runoff is what you seen flowing down streets or over open land and into storm sewers. In really bad rains this runoff collects in low spots and ponds there. This is the theory behind detention ponds. The excess rain collects in these ponds and its travel time to the nearest ditch, creek or river is slowed down. These ponds have a controlled release rate over time. So instead of all this water just rushing to the nearest waterway, it is stopped and controlled along the way. This helps prevent flooding - if you talk to the right people. This also hurts some flood prone people because since the water is collected and discharged over a period of days, instead of rushing straight to the river in a few hours, some people close to the rivers are kept flooded for longer. Anyway, back to your question! The runoff can sit in ponds for days until it can make its way to a small creek or river. If you have ever seen maps of the areas surrounding the Missouri and the Mississippi, then you know that hundreds of little tributaries flow into the massive rivers. And most of those tributaries can have dozens of their own tributaries. So now you are looking at the time it takes to flow through all of these waterways and finally get to the Mississippi or Missouri. There can also be intermediate ponds and dams that impede the flow through these waterways. Then it has to flow the many miles down to the Gulf. Flow time through the tributaries and rivers depends on how high and fast the river is flowing at that time, like if there was a big storm recently or if its late spring and it is raining everyday. So because of all of those factors, it is really tough for me to predict. But you can certainly see why it would take a really long time for rain water that far away from the Rivers to reach them, if that rainwater gets there at all! ****** NEW QUESTIONS: ****** Q: FROM MENTEE ERIN M. IN MN This is probably one of the strangest queries you'll ever receive, but... I am fond of cephalopods (Octopods, Cuttlefish, Squids). I don't want a career that involves causing harm to any subjects, but I'd rather observe and record their behavior. Is it possible that I could find a job involving these animals? ****** Q: FROM BRYNN S. IN IA I also have a question for the mentors...as I said I was a junior and getting very busy with looking into different schools. I also want to become a genetic counselor. I found a site that gave me the list of certified schools for G.C. but for my undergrad degree of human genetics/psychology I have no idea where to start looking. How do I even find out what schools have a human genetics program and a good one at that? I just don't know where to start. What do you suggest about finding the best school for what I want to go into? Thanks, Brynn _________ END ========================================================================= GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 18, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ****** ANNOUNCEMENTS: ****** ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. Mentees: If you have not yet voted for your favorite careers, it is not too late to vote. Go to <http://www.gem-set.org/>http://www.gem-set.org to place your vote today! ****** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: Who was considered to be the first computer programmer? (Hint: She lived during the 1800's, and you can find her biography at http://www.astr.ua.edu/4000ws/ Send your answer to gem-set@uic.edu. PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TO GEM-SET STUDENTS IN EACH REGION WHO ANSWER THE MOST QUIZ QUESTIONS CORRECTLY! ******** Q: FROM MENTEE ERIN M. IN MN This is probably one of the strangest queries you'll ever receive, but... I am fond of cephalopods (Octopods, Cuttlefish, Squids). I don't want a career that involves causing harm to any subjects, but I'd rather observe and record their behavior. Is it possible that I could find a job involving these animals? A: FROM MENTOR HALEY MURPHY, DOCTOR OF VETERINARY MEDICINE, AT ZOO NEW ENGLAND IN BOSTON, MA Yes- here are plenty of careers where behavioral sciences come into play with marine creatures. Marine science, aquatic animal medicine, aquaculture, marine biology are but a few of them. I would recommend calling a local aquarium and talking to research scientists or marine biologist there for further advice. Woods Hole on Cape Cod is also an excellent reference point to start and they offer several levels of educational programs throughout the year. A: FROM MENTOR DR. ESTHER PEARSON IN MASSACHUSETTS It would be a good idea for you to investigate Marine Biology. This is an area that involves the life processes of water creatures (cephalopods...). If specializing in Marine Biology, I would suggest considering research and even marine biology photography. This would give you the opportunity to observe and report on cephalopods without being intrusive. A: FROM MENTOR KRISTIN TAGHON, SOFTWARE ENGINEER AT LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES IN IL Erin, Is there an aquarium in your area? You could probably find some volunteer opportunities there and learn a lot about what kind of career options are available to you. And you may even find some more career options! ****** NEW QUESTIONS: ****** Q: FROM BRYNN S. IN IA I also have a question for the mentors...as I said I was a junior and getting very busy with looking into different schools. I also want to become a genetic counselor. I found a site that gave me the list of certified schools for G.C. but for my undergrad degree of human genetics/psychology I have no idea where to start looking. How do I even find out what schools have a human genetics program and a good one at that? I just don't know where to start. What do you suggest about finding the best school for what I want to go into? Thanks, Brynn ****** Q:FROM MENTEE MARIA H. IN REGION V How much on average does a social worker make, and what kind of classes are good to take? Also, would it be a good idea to go into both Law and social work? ***** Q: FROM MENTEE KATIE A. IN WI This question has been bothering me: Teachers are wonderful people. They educate "our future," as people call kids. They are the ones who help us to understand things and get us started on the right path towards making great medical discoveries or developing scientific theories. Athletes are fun to watch, but other than that, what good do they do us? Now, if one were to take the salary of the sports player and swap it with that of the teacher, what would be wrong with that? More people would want to become teachers because of the high salary and so we'd have a more educated society in general, and teachers can spend money and can be philanthropists. So, why isn't this happening? What would be the result? Isn't it just a simple mathematical problem? _______ END ========================================================================= GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 19, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ****** ANNOUNCEMENTS: ****** NOW IS THE TIME TO OFFER FEEDBACK ON HOW TO IMPROVE THE GEM-SET PROGRAM! TO COMPLETE A PROGRAM EVALUATION SURVEY, CLICK ON: <http://www.uic.edu/orgs/gem-set/evaluation>http://www.uic.edu/orgs/gem-set/evaluation ****** ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. Mentees: If you have not yet voted for your favorite careers, it is not too late to vote. Go to <http://www.gem-set.org/>http://www.gem-set.org to place your vote today! ****** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: Who was considered to be the first computer programmer? (Hint: She lived during the 1800's, and you can find her biography at http://www.astr.ua.edu/4000ws/ Send your answer to gem-set@uic.edu. PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TO GEM-SET STUDENTS IN EACH REGION WHO ANSWER THE MOST QUIZ QUESTIONS CORRECTLY! ****** Q: FROM MENTEE KATIE A. IN WI This question has been bothering me: Teachers are wonderful people. They educate "our future," as people call kids. They are the ones who help us to understand things and get us started on the right path towards making great medical discoveries or developing scientific theories. Athletes are fun to watch, but other than that, what good do they do us? Now, if one were to take the salary of the sports player and swap it with that of the teacher, what would be wrong with that? More people would want to become teachers because of the high salary and so we'd have a more educated society in general, and teachers can spend money and can be philanthropists. So, why isn't this happening? What would be the result? Isn't it just a simple mathematical problem? A: FROM MENTOR CARYN PRUDENTE, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MAINE IN PORTLAND, ME Dear Katie, Being a teacher - I really like the way you think!! Unfortunately your observation is a sad testament of the values of our society - entertainment, instant gratification and marketing power are all more valued than information, knowledge and education. I would argue the same problem exists in the field of nursing as well. Nurses are continually overworked and underpaid, yet the media and others marvel over why people are leaving the nursing field in droves, and in many cases to take a job such as a waitress because the money and work environment are better! That's a depressing thought. I continually read articles how our country is facing a tremendous shortage of people pursing careers in education, especially math and science education, and nursing. I try not to dwell on the fact that the coach of our intramural lacrosse team gets paid more than I do, I do not even want to know what the basketball coach gets paid! At larger universities the coaches of NCAA teams often get paid six figures - I will never even come close to that in my career as an educator. Though I admire athletes and enjoy sports (I was on athletic teams all through out HS and College, and still am an avid athlete at 40!), I do believe that what I do should be more valued and is more important to our society. Basically what a lot of this comes down to is that good sports teams draw a lot of money, from sponsors, ticket sales, and as I said the whole marketing business. The NCAA is a business, and like all business they are looking at tremendous amounts of profit dollars. So that's the negative side - I must also tell you that I really enjoy being a teacher. There really is no price you can put on the personnel satisfaction I gain from working with, teaching and helping students. I came into this field knowing full well that no one is a teacher for the money (again, same is true for nursing). People who are educators are genuine people, who see and gain more value in helping others and being needed by others and this motivates them at a deep personnel level, vs. the more superficial monetary level. It sounds like you have had wonderful teachers who you admire, and I would bet that when these teachers think about what they enjoy most about their profession, they would answer "mentoring students like you". A: FROM MENTOR MARTY WOELFEL, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY AT KENTUCKY STATE UNIVERSITY IN FRANKFORT, KY Dear Katie: You are not the only one this question bothers! I wish I had my magic wand and could make your proposal happen for, say, a good 20 years. I think we'd really have a different world--hopefully a better one. Funny how the same people willing to pay $50 to see a professional athletic team are sometimes unwilling to support teachers and schools financially or in other ways. Unfortunately, teaching has been consistently devalued not only in terms of salary but also in terms of respect) for a long time. It's hard to say why . . . . Historically, teaching has been a "woman's career"--one that could be blended with responsibilities of motherhood, since the school day and year was similar for both mom and her children. Teaching also historically has been a way to advance out of lower socioeconomic groups. In both cases, although teacher salary was low, it was better than the alternative. So there was a good pool of smart, bright (although sometimes disadvantaged) people who found teaching an attractive profession. However, now that there is less discrimination in our society, people in groups who historically entered teaching now can (and often do) enter other fields, where salaries are more attractive. I have never been able to figure out why athletes can get lots of money and lots of respect when teachers get so little of both. I think sometimes we devalue what seems familiar. All of us got taught by someone. . . and to a student, a lot of time teaching looks easy. Hah! I wish those who think teaching is easy would really look at the job demands! I personally love to teach and would not change careers for lots of money, but I do worry--a lot--about what our society will be like in the future if we don't start doing a better job of getting and keeping great teachers. A: FROM MENTOR KRISTIN TAGHON, SOFTWARE ENGINEER AT LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES IN IL What great concepts and questions you bring up!! I think the problem is that people need to put their money where their mouth is!! You hit the nail on the head, Katie. One reason why athletes get paid so much is that people will pay a lot to go see them. They will pay to be entertained by sports. Athletics bring money to the community in a more direct way than education does. Teachers are paid by the district they are in. To pay teachers more, the people who live there will have to pay more taxes. Often, those who have better educations, understand the need more than those who do not. That is why in affluent communities, you will usually see better education. The taxpayers can afford it and have agreed to pay higher taxes for better education. Still, teachers do not get paid as much as they should, do they? Teachers often spend 60+ hours a week preparing, teaching, attending school activities, etc and do not come ANYWHERE near the amount athletes may get paid for the "work" they do. Wouldn't it be great if a percentage of money from athletics would go to education? It's possible this already happens in some communities. Have you thought of going into politics? :-) A: FROM MENTOR MARY JO MULLEN, CIVIL ENGINEER AT PATRICK ENGINEERING IN IL Katie, you would be the hero of most teachers, I promise you. Its a matter of funding. Public schools only have the money available from the tax dollars. If you tried to convince someone that raising their taxes by 10% for a cause as noble as this, they would still never go for it. Not to mention schools have to fight with all the other agencies that receive tax money in order to get their fair share. However, since that same person who won't pay more taxes will pay outrageous ticket prices to see a basketball or baseball game, the club owners of these teams can afford to pay such enormous salaries. That's what happens with supply and demand. People will pay to see these people, the stars demand more money, team owners raise prices, people will pay that new amount and it ends up a vicious cycle. The only way to break it is for people to stop buying those tickets. It is a great plan, but as unfair as it is, just not feasible. You sound like a great crusader, though! Ever consider politics and lobbying? ****** Q:FROM MENTEE MARIA H. IN REGION V How much on average does a social worker make, and what kind of classes are good to take? Also, would it be a good idea to go into both Law and social work? A: FROM MENTOR KRIS MOODY, MIXED SIGNAL IC DESIGN ENGINEER AND COMPANY VICE PRESIDENT AT ORION DESIGN TECHNOLOGIES IN LEE, NH Someone else may want to comment on salaries and classes. I can tell you, from my experience with friends who are either lawyers or social workers and as a very active volunteer, there are many areas in which these 2 very different professions are tied very closely together. Take for example domestic violence, or elderly or homeless issues. The better a lawyer truly understands social issues and the basics of working as an advocate for people in need of social work, the better that lawyer can help. Similarly, a social worker could really benefit from understanding the law, and how the law works. In addition, every year our state legislatures change laws that affect people's lives and change the way the social system works. A social worker who is adept at the law might be more prepared to participate in the process. As you can see, I think these two professions can really compliment each other. But it is true, you will probably do different work and serve people in a different way, depending on whether you are a social worker or a lawyer. ****** NEW QUESTIONS: ****** Q: FROM BRYNN S. IN IA I also have a question for the mentors...as I said I was a junior and getting very busy with looking into different schools. I also want to become a genetic counselor. I found a site that gave me the list of certified schools for G.C. but for my undergrad degree of human genetics/psychology I have no idea where to start looking. How do I even find out what schools have a human genetics program and a good one at that? I just don't know where to start. What do you suggest about finding the best school for what I want to go into? Thanks, Brynn ***** Q: FROM MENTEE JEZRA B. IN REGION I I was wondering if it is better to take the AP exam when I am a senior. I am a junior right now and I am going to take the SAT's in may.. my guidance counselor says that I should save the AP's for next year. What do colleges like better? ****** ATTENTION ALL CHEMISTS!!!!! Q: FROM MENTEE AMY N. IN MN For careers class we have to look up info on 2 jobs, and then also interview people. I have chosen a chemist for one of them. We have to ask questions off our sheets, whichever ones we want to know. So, for all you chemists out there, here's a few questions. What do you think some work values of your job are? What are some of the duties of a chemist? What are some of the fringe benefits? What classes should you take in high school or college to become a chemist? and finally, What are some of the personality traits someone should have if they want to be a chemist? It's fine if you only answer a few of these. Thanks!! _______ END ========================================================================= GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 20, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ****** ANNOUNCEMENTS: ****** NOW IS THE TIME TO OFFER FEEDBACK ON HOW TO IMPROVE THE GEM-SET PROGRAM! TO COMPLETE A PROGRAM EVALUATION SURVEY, CLICK ON: <http://www.uic.edu/orgs/gem-set/evaluation>http://www.uic.edu/orgs/gem-set/evaluation ****** ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. Mentees: If you have not yet voted for your favorite careers, it is not too late to vote. Go to <http://www.gem-set.org/>http://www.gem-set.org to place your vote today! ****** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: Who was considered to be the first computer programmer? (Hint: She lived during the 1800's, and you can find her biography at http://www.astr.ua.edu/4000ws/ Send your answer to gem-set@uic.edu. PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TO GEM-SET STUDENTS IN EACH REGION WHO ANSWER THE MOST QUIZ QUESTIONS CORRECTLY! ***** Q: FROM MENTEE JEZRA B. IN REGION I I was wondering if it is better to take the AP exam when I am a senior. I am a junior right now and I am going to take the SAT's in may.. my guidance counselor says that I should save the AP's for next year. What do colleges like better? A: FROM MENTOR CAROL TOMAN AT LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES IN IL AP exams and the SAT serve very different purposes. The basic SAT, called SAT I, is a comprehensive test that colleges use for admission. The ACT is a similar test. Some colleges prefer the SAT, others prefer the ACT. You might want to take both and you might want to take them more than once. Ask your counselor about the rules for submitting your best score to the colleges you are applying to. There is also a set of subject-matter tests called the SAT IIs that cover areas like languages, biology, math, etc. and some colleges require that you submit your scores on some of these tests with your admission application as well as the score from the SAT I. Check the rules for the colleges you're interested in attending. If you decide to take some SAT II tests, then you can choose which ones you submit to the colleges. You obviously want to submit strong scores, but you also want to demonstrate competency in several areas so send scores from subjects related to your major (if you know yet) and also from a complementary area like math and composition, or French and biology. AP exams are "advance placement" exams -- receiving a good score on these exams will earn you actual college credit in the subject area of the exam. For instance, getting a good score on an AP English exam will earn you English credit toward your general education requirements and toward the total credits needed for graduation. Colleges each set the limits for the scores that they will award credit for so a score that might earn credit at a local junior college might not get credit from a fancy, ivy-league school. You need to take the SAT I or ACT junior year in order to have the scores to send when you apply to colleges. It's ordinarily best to take the AP exams in senior year after you've had another year of classes behind you. The best time to take an SAT II test is after you've complete all the courses you intend to take in a subject area. For example, if you take biology freshman year and advanced bio sophomore year, then the best time to take the SAT II in biology would be early in junior year. By the way, every test will cost money. None of the fees are terribly high by themselves (about $30 or $50 per test) but if you start taking the SAT I and the ACT, maybe more than once, and a half-dozen SAT IIs, and a few AP exams, they really add up. I have no idea if any financial aid is available to help cover these costs. Ask your counselor. Good luck. A: FROM MENTOR MEG WILLIAMS, TECHNICAL MANAGER, TRU64 UNIX & INTERNET SECURITY AT COMPAQ COMPUTER CORPORATION IN NASHUA, Jezra, My advice would be to take your AP exams as soon as possible after you finish the course work for that subject. For example if you just finished Chemistry then take the Chemistry AP exam now. You are more likely to do better on the exam with the information fresh in your mind. I don't believe that colleges look at when you took the exam, but more look at your score on the exam. A: FROM MENTOR ELYSSA MARGOLIS, PHD CANDIDATE, UCSF/UC BERKELEY IN BERKELEY CA In general, I suggest taking AP exams as close to your finishing the course material as possible. If you wait, you will invariably forget a lot of the material and have a harder time studying. However, if you plan on studying hard for the SAT and are worried about getting overly stressed by taking multiple exams, it may be to your advantage to focus on the SAT this year. ****** ATTENTION ALL CHEMISTS!!!!! Q: FROM MENTEE AMY N. IN MN For careers class we have to look up info on 2 jobs, and then also interview people. I have chosen a chemist for one of them. We have to ask questions off our sheets, whichever ones we want to know. So, for all you chemists out there, here's a few questions. What do you think some work values of your job are? What are some of the duties of a chemist? What are some of the fringe benefits? What classes should you take in high school or college to become a chemist? and finally, What are some of the personality traits someone should have if they want to be a chemist? It's fine if you only answer a few of these. Thanks!! A: FROM RAMONA GRAY, STAFF CHEMIST AT MERCK IN NEW JERSEY Amy, depending on what kind of chemist you are will determine what your duties are. I'm an organic chemist and I work at a major pharmaceutical company. I scale up smaller reactions done by medicinal chemist. On any given day I would be responsible for doing the following: working out the calculations for a reaction, setting up the glassware, ordering reagents, setting up and monitoring the reaction, purifying the product, running spectroscopic instruments and then analyzing the data, registering the compound on my company's data base, keeping up to date by reading journals/articles, etc. As for fringe benefits, I don't know that there are any except the satisfaction you get from being a part of the drug discovery process. I also think it's neat that I can explain things to my friends that happen on an everyday basis as a function of chemistry. I was always interested in science, so I took them all: biology, physics, and chemistry. Most chemists I know are action oriented, they like to work with their hands, are creative, analytical, some can be type A (high strung) and some can be very down to earth (like me).......Hope this helps out. A: FROM MENTOR DANELL OLIVER-COLLINS RETAIL INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER HALLMARK CARDS KC, MO I worked for many years as a chemist so I will try to answer your questions. "What do you think some work values of your job are?" I have worked as an environmental chemist and chemical certification chemist. As an environmental chemist I analyzed ground water, soil, drinking water, and gasses to determine if there were any contaminates that could cause harm to human life. As a chemical certification chemist I analyzed chemicals that were being used in various plants to produce items that are used by consumers, again humans. Human life is the most valuable thing there is and knowing you can make life safer for someone is irreplaceable. "What are some of the duties of a chemist?" Analyzing samples with mechanical and physical instruments. A chemist must also ensure that all quality control procedures are followed. Quality Control ensures that the instruments and the chemists are operating correctly. That way when a chemist gets a reading that seems a little abnormal you can check the quality control data to ensure everything was functioning properly and the abnormal value is probably correct. Which brings me to another point, a chemist must be able to recognize when data is out of the ordinary. This is a very valuable talent that can help you earn respect from your peers and prevent errors in the data. "What are some of the fringe benefits?" Sometimes a chemist will get a sample that will be different than any thing you have encountered before. It is a chance to challenge yourself, to use your smarts, and it is thrilling when you succeed. "What classes should you take in high school or college to become a chemist?" Inorganic and organic chemistry, mathematics, statistics, a writing course (because you write lab reports), and biology. "What are some of the personality traits someone should have if they want to be a chemist?" Patience, perseverance, attention to detail, cautiousness, and more patience. ****** NEW QUESTIONS ON GENETIC COUNSELING: ****** Q: FROM BRYNN S. IN IA I also have a question for the mentors...as I said I was a junior and getting very busy with looking into different schools. I also want to become a genetic counselor. I found a site that gave me the list of certified schools for G.C. but for my undergrad degree of human genetics/psychology I have no idea where to start looking. How do I even find out what schools have a human genetics program and a good one at that? I just don't know where to start. What do you suggest about finding the best school for what I want to go into? Thanks, Brynn ****** Q: FROM MENTEE KARA T. Hi this is Kara T. again trying to find some more information about being a genetic counselor. I am very interested in this field. I would like to know what schooling you need, what you make , and how many job openings there are. thank you _______ END ========================================================================= GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 21, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ****** ANNOUNCEMENTS ***** NOW IS THE TIME TO OFFER FEEDBACK ON HOW TO IMPROVE THE GEM-SET PROGRAM! TO COMPLETE A PROGRAM EVALUATION SURVEY, CLICK ON: <http://www.uic.edu/orgs/gem-set/evaluation>http://www.uic.edu/orgs/gem-set /evaluation **** ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. Mentees: If you have not yet voted for your favorite careers, it is not too late to vote. Go to <http://www.gem-set.org/>http://www.gem-set.org to place your vote today! **** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: Who was considered to be the first computer programmer? (Hint: She lived during the 1800's, and you can find her biography at http://www.astr.ua.edu/4000ws/ Send your answer to gem-set@uic.edu. PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TO GEM-SET STUDENTS IN EACH REGION WHO ANSWER THE MOST QUIZ QUESTIONS CORRECTLY! ***** QUESTIONS ON GENETIC COUNSELING ***** Q: FROM BRYNN S. IN IA I also have a question for the mentors...as I said I was a junior and getting very busy with looking into different schools. I also want to become a genetic counselor. I found a site that gave me the list of certified schools for G.C. but for my undergrad degree of human genetics/psychology I have no idea where to start looking. How do I even find out what schools have a human genetics program and a good one at that? I just don't know where to start. What do you suggest about finding the best school for what I want to go into? Thanks, Brynn A: See answer to Kara's question below> **** Q: FROM MENTEE KARA T. Hi this is Kara T. again trying to find some more information about being a genetic counselor. I am very interested in this field. I would like to know what schooling you need, what you make, and how many job openings there are. thank you. A: FROM MENTOR JOAN LUSK, ASSOCIATE DEAN, GRADUATE SCHOOL, BROWN UNIVERSITY IN PROVIDENCE, RI On genetic counseling-http://www.csun.edu/~hcbio033/schools.html has a list of programs in genetic counseling. The google search on "genetic counseling university" also turned up links to many specific graduate programs. I think you could approach that career from the counseling/psychology side or from the basic science/medical side-you'll need the people skills and the scientific understanding. The more we learn how to use the information we have about the human genome the more important counseling will become, so this is probably a growth area. ***** NEW QUESTION ***** Q: FROM MENTEE AUTUMN N. IN REGION VII What do you ladies think about the Navy?? or what do you think about attending DeVry, or just taking little foundation classes at my nearby community college? I am becoming stressed out and I need tons of opinions to figure out what other people think. I am very interested in all of the above just DeVry is about $40,000 for a Bachelors Degree. Help...... thank you _____ END ========================================================================= GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 22, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ****** ANNOUNCEMENTS ***** NOW IS THE TIME TO OFFER FEEDBACK ON HOW TO IMPROVE THE GEM-SET PROGRAM! TO COMPLETE A PROGRAM EVALUATION SURVEY, CLICK ON: <http://www.uic.edu/orgs/gem-set/evaluation>http://www.uic.edu/orgs/gem-set/evaluation **** ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. Mentees: If you have not yet voted for your favorite careers, it is not too late to vote. Go to <http://www.gem-set.org/>http://www.gem-set.org to place your vote today! **** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: What is Maria Mitchel's claim to astronomical fame? PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TO GEM-SET STUDENTS IN EACH REGION WHO ANSWER THE MOST QUIZ QUESTIONS CORRECTLY! ****** Q: FROM MENTEE AUTUMN N. IN REGION VII What do you ladies think about the Navy?? or what do you think about attending DeVry, or just taking little foundation classes at my nearby community college? I am becoming stressed out and I need tons of opinions to figure out what other people think. I am very interested in all of the above just DeVry is about $40,000 for a Bachelors Degree. Help...... thank you A: FROM MENTOR KRISTIN TAGHON, SOFTWARE ENGINEER AT LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES IN IL Autumn, I'm sorry to hear you are stressed out. Take one thing at a time. I think that taking classes at a community college is a GREAT idea. You can learn the same things at a cheaper college. Foundation classes like English, History, Liberal Arts classes are often really good at a community college (Junior college). Calculus and Stats is also good to take there. Also, you can get more individual attention because the classes are smaller. I think it's a very good idea to start out at the Junior college, as long as those credits will transfer. I would call other colleges you may transfer to, and ask them if your credits from the junior college will transfer. And ask if the grade point will too. This last point is very important. I went to a junior college and got the easy classes out of the way. When I transferred, my credits transferred (in other words, my classes counted towards the requisites for a degree) but my grade point did not. So, I basically started over on the grade point scale. I was taking 300 and 400 level classes (higher level) and was not able to average in my good grade point from taking the easier foundation classes! A: FROM MENTOR MARSHA SEGEBARTH, BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN INDIANA Autumn, I think the idea of attending a community college for a year - possibly two - is a very good one IF you choose your courses very carefully. I have taught at both a community college and a four-year state university. There are plusses to each. If you really are feeling stressed - and if money is an issue - I encourage you to explore the possibility of a community college. The one I taught at (as I am sure most) had excellent instructors. Another plus is the size of the classes. Normally, community college classes are smaller than those at larger schools. This allows more one-on-one interaction. I would encourage you to approach your education with a "master plan" - i.e., what would you eventually like to earn a major in. I would also encourage you to have an idea of which larger institution you would like to eventually transfer to and contact them before enrolling in community college classes to determine which cc classes would apply to their programs. It would be a shame to invest many hours, much energy, and a fair amount of money in courses which will only transfer as electives. If you have spoken to someone in the Registrar's office of the larger school and chosen cc courses which will transfer, I think you can expect a much lower level of stress. I like to think of community colleges as good choices for 1/2 steps - sort of like a weaning between high school and college. Good luck! A: FROM MENTOR CHARLENE CASSIDY, P.E., ENGINEER II, PARSONS BRINCKERHOFFE QUADE 7 DOUGLAS, INC. IN PITTSBURGH,PA Autumn, trying to figure out what you want to do with your life at 17 or 18 can be very overwhelming and I understand why you are feeling stressed out. All of the options you have mentioned are very good ones. You have to decide what your true goals are and only then will you get an idea of what is right for you, unfortunately no one else can tell you. Here are some things you should think about. Enlisting in the Navy would not preclude you from going to college, either while you are enlisted or after. The Navy would also be an excellent way to earn money to help you pay for college through the GI Bill. You would also be able to get training and experience in a field you are interested in, plus it will give you the opportunity to see a little more of the world. Talking to a recruiter will help to decide what the Navy and offer you and what time commitment you would have to give. You may also want to consider an ROTC(Reserve Officer Training Corps) program at DeVry (if there is one). This will help you to pay for college. When you graduate you will be an officer and are usually obligated to serve 4 years in the military to "repay" the Navy for helping you pay for college. It may be longer or shorter, I'm not sure. You should begin looking very seriously at what types of financial aid you are eligible for and looking into applying for scholarships. Taking classes at the local community college is a good idea and a less expensive way to get some of the required general courses out of the way before entering your degree program. You will need to find out what credits will transfer the program you are interested in at DeVry before taking classes, so that you will not need to re-take classes once you transfer. I hope this is helpful and not more overwhelming. A: FROM MENTOR TERESA ESSER, WRITER IN CAMBRIDGE, MA If you are interested in wars and conflicts, why don't you become a mediator? There is a great picture on the front cover of the Sunday, March 17 New York Times that shows Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, the American mediator, with Yasir Arafat. Mr. Arafat is smiling really broadly, happy to be having his picture taken next to the mediator. I think it's much better to learn how to prevent wars than to learn how to fight wars. Lots of conflicts occur because people don't have enough of the things they need to survive, and they don't know how to get those things without stealing them from someone else. You might consider getting a degree in political science and joining the United Nations. You might consider getting a degree in environmental engineering and figuring out how to use desalinated ocean water to properly irrigate large stretches of the desert. In my opinion, this would be much more useful than going into the Navy and learning how to fight wars. They call it "defense." Why not learn the fine art of conflict resolution. Why not learn how to give people what they need without stealing it from someone else? If I were you I would go to the best college I could get into and worry about paying for it later. There is nothing wrong with starting at a community college, if that's what you want to do. You will probably learn more outside the classroom than you will learn inside the classroom. This means that you will learn lots of things from your fellow students, such as how to think about your career, how to think about money, how to dress, how to build things, what professional organizations to join, etc. As you go through life, people will judge you by your friends. What kind of friends do you want to have? It's a good idea to spend time on the various campuses that you are thinking of going to so you can get a sense of the kind of people who are already there. Do you want to be influenced by the people that you see in the common areas? In my opinion, you're better off going to your preferred college as soon as possible, so that you can bond with the other nervous freshmen. Freshman year is a time for intense bonding. Everyone is going through the anxiety of being separated from their families. The friends you make during this time will be helpful later. ***** NEW QUESTIONS ***** Q: FROM MENTEE AMANDA T. IN MO According to theory gravity and energy are 1 or balanced and the universe has been created out of nothing. How can matter be created out of nothing just because gravity and mass are balanced? ****** Q: FROM MENTEE AMANDA T. IN MO How come in Chemistry salts aren't considered compounds since they are made of two different substances? ****** Q: FROM MENTEE KRIS L. IN REGION V What kind of jobs are available to women in the archeology field? _____ END ========================================================================= GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 25, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ****** ANNOUNCEMENTS ***** In honor of women's history month, don't forget to read the history of each of our dedicated GEM-SET mentors. You will find individual biographies at the GEM-SET web site: <http://www.gem-set.org/>http://www.gem-set.org ****** NOW IS THE TIME TO OFFER FEEDBACK ON HOW TO IMPROVE THE GEM-SET PROGRAM! TO COMPLETE A PROGRAM EVALUATION SURVEY, CLICK ON: <http://www.uic.edu/orgs/gem-set/evaluation>http://www.uic.edu/orgs/gem-set/evaluation **** ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. Mentees: If you have not yet voted for your favorite careers, it is not too late to vote. Go to <http://www.gem-set.org/>http://www.gem-set.org to place your vote today! **** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: What is Maria Mitchel's claim to astronomical fame? PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TO GEM-SET STUDENTS IN EACH REGION WHO ANSWER THE MOST QUIZ QUESTIONS CORRECTLY! ***** Q: FROM MENTEE AMANDA T. IN MO According to theory gravity and energy are 1 or balanced and the universe has been created out of nothing. How can matter be created out of nothing just because gravity and mass are balanced? A: FROM MENTOR JUDY MCGOOGAN, RETIRED SYSTEMS ARCHITECT, LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES For some insights into this, go to your local library and look for the April, 2002, edition of Discover Magazine. It has an article about Alan Guth's theory that the universe "began in an era of quantum gravity, a time when all four forces of the universe - gravity, electro-magnetism, the strong (nuclear) and weak forces - may have been unified. Energy boiling out of this unstable stew grew during the brief inflationary period at an ever-doubling rate, then decayed into an electron-quark soup as those forces began splitting apart. The soup's fundamental particles combined into ever-more complex forms as the universe cooled and expanded." The cover of the magazine shows a sphere about 3/4" in diameter which represents the actual size of the universe at 10 to the -34th power seconds. This is an exciting time to be involved in science. We're getting closer and closer to answering some of the fundamental questions. Theories like Alan Guth's are intriguing, and it's going to take a lot of hard scientific effort to explore these theories and find out whether or not they hold water!!! Join the fun, Amanda!! ****** Q: FROM MENTEE AMANDA T. IN MO How come in Chemistry salts aren't considered compounds since they are made of two different substances? A: FROM MENTOR JOAN LUSK, ASSOCIATE DEAN GRADUATE SCHOOL, BROWN UNIVERSITY IN PROVIDENCE, RI The ions in salts are not _covalently_ bonded to each other - they don't share electrons between them to a significant degree. A dictionary definition of "compound" is "a distinct substance formed by chemical union of two or more ingredients in definite proportion by weight." In excluding salts, we must be thinking of "chemical union" as covalent bonding, since each salt is a distinct substance formed of two or more ingredients in definite proportion. Restricting the meaning of "compound" is just one of those linguistic choices - it gives us a word to distinguish covalently bonded substances from ionic ones, salts. Actually, there are substances in which the proportions of different ions are not so definite - for example, if two cations have the same charge and nearly the same size they can sometimes substitute for each other in a crystal lattice. So we get non-stoichiometric materials. I don't know much at all about these but one of my colleagues worked on them... most that I've heard of are inorganic solids. An example is (Ba,Sr)TiO3 where barium and strontium ions can equally well fill lattice positions with TiO3 as the anion, but the ratio of Ba/Sr can vary. Sorry about the digression... it took very bright 19th century chemists to figure out how stoichiometry works, and it takes bright 20-21st century chemists to figure out how to cope when the rules of stoichiometry break down. One of the arts of being a good scientist is figuring out when to ignore the exceptions to a rule in order to understand the basics and when those exceptions demand an explanation! In high school you're better off ignoring exceptions to stoichimetry. ***** NEW QUESTIONS ***** Q: FROM MENTEE KRIS L. IN REGION V What kind of jobs are available to women in the archeology field? ****** Q: FROM MENTEE CHARLIVIA J. IN MASSACHUSETTS: What is technology and Is it easy to do technology? ****** Q: FROM MENTEE LAUREL S. IN INDIANA I am just wondering how easy it is to find a good job in the field of Environmental Science. I know its a pretty broad field, but I am most interesting in conservation, eliminating habitat destruction, pollution reduction etc. Thanks! ****** Q: FROM MENTEE LAUREN P. IN CT I'm interested in volunteering on the weekends and in the summer, but I don't have many ideas. Are there any math/science or animal-related places that a 15-year-old can volunteer at? Thanks! ****** Q: FROM MENTEE ISRRA A. IN PENNSYLVANIA My Mom wants me to become a doctor or pharmacists, or any other job in the medical field. I would like to learn more about jobs in this field and what they have to offer (benefits, salary, and education). _____ END ========================================================================= GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 26, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ****** ANNOUNCEMENTS ***** In honor of women's history month, don't forget to read the history of each of our dedicated GEM-SET mentors. You will find individual biographies at the GEM-SET web site: <http://www.gem-set.org/>http://www.gem-set.org ****** NOW IS THE TIME TO OFFER FEEDBACK ON HOW TO IMPROVE THE GEM-SET PROGRAM! TO COMPLETE A PROGRAM EVALUATION SURVEY, CLICK ON: <http://www.uic.edu/orgs/gem-set/evaluation>http://www.uic.edu/orgs/gem-set/evaluation **** ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. Mentees: If you have not yet voted for your favorite careers, it is not too late to vote. Go to <http://www.gem-set.org/>http://www.gem-set.org to place your vote today! **** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: What is Maria Mitchel's claim to astronomical fame? PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TO GEM-SET STUDENTS IN EACH REGION WHO ANSWER THE MOST QUIZ QUESTIONS CORRECTLY! ****** Q: FROM MENTEE CHARLIVIA J. IN MASSACHUSETTS: What is technology and Is it easy to do technology? A: FROM MENTOR KRIS MOODY, MIXED SIGNAL IC DESIGN ENGINEER AND COMPANY VICE PRESIDENT, ORION DESIGN TECHNOLOGIES IN LEE, NH "Technology" is not a science in itself, but is the practical application of science. Technology, or the application of science, can take many forms and lead one to work in many different areas. I think maybe you are talking about engineering or computer science, where the word "technology" is often used to promote new electronic products. Engineering is the act of taking scientific theory and using it to create something tangible, like an electronic gadget or a bridge or a car. Whether working in technical careers is easy or not depends on what you are doing, how much you enjoy it, how much you challenge yourself and whether you have a propensity for that particular kind of work, as with anything else. If you think that engineering or computer science might appeal to you, you should give it a try. As someone who has worked for 20 years in electronics, I can tell you that I myself really enjoy the work, although sometimes it seems easy and other times it seems hard. Remember, something doesn't have to be easy to give you great satisfaction and make you happy. A: FROM MENTOR DANELL OLIVER-COLLINS RETAIL INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER HALLMARK CARDS IN KC, MO Technology is what is discovered or invented which has made life easier. There is the technology of the light bulb, phonograph, telegraph, telephone, computer, world wide web, automobiles, etc. If you want to think of technology on a career level you can separate it this way, technology vs. design. Designers use a computer (technological device) and paper and pencil to draw something they want. Then the designers hand their design over to the engineers who use technology to make the drawings comes to life. At which time the people in manufacturing build the parts, using technological machines, the engineers have specified to make the drawings come to life. To be a designer you must be familiar enough with technology to know what you can and cannot design. To be an engineer you have to know how the technological machines operate, their capabilities and limitations. To be in manufacturing you have to know how the machines operate and be able to manipulate the parameters to achieve the desired finished product, and you must be able to read and interpret drawings. If you want to think of technology on a college level look at it this way. Engineering design classes will focus on physics, and math, and chemistry. Technology driven classes will focus on applied physics and applied math as it relates to capabilities of manufacturing equipment. I enjoyed the technology driven classes because I was able to use what I learned in the design classes which made learning so much easier. So I would say yes it is easy to do technology because you are allowed to practice what you have learned. Think of the last time you tried to learn something. Was it easier when you were told/shown what to do or allowed to do it yourself? A: FROM MENTOR JACQUELYN JURGA, MECHANICAL DESIGN/FABRICATION MANAGER, CABOT CORP., MASSACHUSETTS: Hello Charlivia- That's an interesting question. One not so easy to explain, but I will try. I can answer for my experience regarding technology, but I am sure there are many explanations. Technology is derived from the word technique. It can be many different things, but uses scientific/mathematical theories. Sort of a formal creativity, if that makes any sense. It is the specialized practical, mechanical or industrial art or combination of those to solve or create a solution to a problem or need. I am a mechanical engineer and I use many methods of technology to do my job. Example : Think of your computer. It is a practical use of technology and mechanics that we use every day... but it is a technology that didn't exist not so long ago. What theories were developed and used to prove it valuable, and how it was integrated with mechanics to produce a product is all considered technology. Is it easy to do technology? Well, I think you have to break the larger picture of technology down to smaller applications. In my job, (using the example of the computer), I would probably be involved with making the metal parts that go inside the keyboard or terminal. I would not say it is exactly easy... but would describe it to be a fun and challenging task. I would use technology to make sure those metal parts all fit together properly (like a puzzle) and that they moved or stayed stationary to function in the way the designer needed them to do, to make the computer work as it should. I hope that helps a little bit. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE LAUREL S. IN INDIANA I am just wondering how easy it is to find a good job in the field of Environmental Science. I know its a pretty broad field, but I am most interesting in conservation, eliminating habitat destruction, pollution reduction etc. Thanks! A: FROM MENTOR MARY JO MULLEN, CIVIL ENGINEER AT PATRICK ENGINEERING IN IL Laurel, you sound like you would make an excellent wetland scientist! Wetlands are generally associated with depressions in flat areas with a little standing water or along rivers and streams. They have a distinct plant and animal community, many endangered or threatened species find homes in wetlands. Wetlands also provide a great water quality benefit. Wetlands are often destroyed for development, but wetland scientists have seen to it that there are laws and restrictions about destroying wetlands and creating new ones. A wetland scientist would spend time in the field determining what is and what is not part of the wetland and determine its quality based on animals and plants that are present. If the wetland is to be destroyed, often a new one must be built. A wetland scientist would design the size, shape, and plants of the replacement wetland. In the Chicago area, there is a great demand for wetland scientists because there are many laws specific to the counties around here. If wetlands are a hot topic where you live, there is likely many firms who specialize in just this as well. A great way to learn more would be to find a nature preserve in your area. They would have a lot of material about wetlands and other natural habitats and probably a few environmental scientists on staff that could tell you more about what they do. A: FROM MENTOR JULIA S. HOCHBERG, MECHANICAL ENGINEER, MOTOROLA, IN ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL Here is a reply from one of my best friends from college: My name is Kristy McDonnell and currently I am an energy engineer for Pace Global Energy Services, which is an energy consulting firm in Virginia. I have received two degrees from The George Washington University (GW), a bachelors degree in civil/environmental engineering and a masters degree in environmental and energy management. I chose to major in environmental engineering while I was in high school because I liked math and science and I had a strong interest in environmental issues. While I was an undergraduate student at GW I worked part-time for an environmental engineering firm that designed and built waste water treatment plants. This was a very interesting experience, but ultimately I realized that was not what I wanted to do so I decided to go to graduate school. While I was in graduate school at GW I worked for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in their environmental division and I also worked for a research consulting firm where I wrote a paper on renewable energy in the US. These two experiences were also very interesting and helped me realize that the energy industry (specifically renewable energy) was where I really wanted to work. The energy industry offers a lot of opportunity to work on environmental issues such as air pollution, climate change, and renewable energy. This why I decided to work for the company I am currently with. Several projects I have been involved with focused on how companies can reduce emissions of greenhouse gases or how they can work with environmental regulations to build cleaner power plants. I hope that my story helped you to see that there are a lot of different things you can do with a background in environmental science or engineering. There are a variety of careers that focus on environmental issues available today including ones that would focus more on the issues you are interested in. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE LAUREN P. IN CT I'm interested in volunteering on the weekends and in the summer, but I don't have many ideas. Are there any math/science or animal-related places that a 15-year-old can volunteer at? Thanks! A: FROM MENTOR MARY JO MULLEN, CIVIL ENGINEER AT PATRICK ENGINEERING IN IL I'm not familiar with Connecticut, but I can give you an idea of what I know about around me and there should be some groups that do similar things around you! There are several state run agencies (Department of Natural Resources, for example) and environmental groups around here that do some projects, especially over the summer, where they ask for the help of volunteers. These projects may be clean up projects of rivers, woods or wetlands. Sometimes they are looking for help in studies that involve counting species of fish or insects in rivers. Nature Preserves often count on help from volunteers. This could be a great learning experience about plants and animals. Maybe a local veterinarian could use some office help, this could expose you to lots of animals while you earn a little money. Similarly a kennel or animal shelter may appreciate some volunteer help. A good contact might be the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. A: FROM MENTOR KELLY BROWN, PHD, PRINCIPAL BIOLOGIST, MIDWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE IN KANSAS CITY, MO One place you could volunteer would be a veterinarian's office. You could start out by volunteering to help clean out cages, etc. and then ask to move on to additional things as they get to know you. This will place you in a great environment, because you could ask to watch procedures and learn in this way as well. A similar idea would be to be a Red Cross volunteer at an emergency room for a local hospital. Again, you would have your volunteer duties, but could pull away to watch various procedures. A: FROM MENTOR KRISTIN TAGHON, SOFTWARE ENGINEER AT LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES IN IL Lauren, I believe most zoos and aquariums will want you as a volunteer. You could check those out around your home. You probably have some research centers in your area that may allow you to volunteer. Not knowing where you are in Connecticut, I can't really help you out with that. If you know of any companies that develop medical instruments or have labs, you should call their employment office and ask. If your high school, or one nearby has classes in the summer, you could probably help out at their science labs. Maybe even the colleges would allow you to help out there. These are just suggestions off the top of my head. A: FROM MENTOR CASSIE FENOSEFF, DESIGN RELEASE ENGINEER AT GM NORTH AMERICAN IN REGION V Try the following website: http://www.volunteermatch.com. You just type in your zip code and it will list volunteer opportunities in your area based on how faraway you are willing to go. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE ISRRA A. IN PENNSYLVANIA My Mom wants me to become a doctor or pharmacists, or any other job in the medical field. I would like to learn more about jobs in this field and what they have to offer (benefits, salary, and education). A: FROM MENTOR DESIREE BUTTER, MD IN PA There is a very nice website designed for women in medicine, from pre-meds all the way through practicing physicians. You may find it very helpful. http://www.mommd.com/ ***** NEW QUESTIONS ***** Q: FROM MENTEE BRITTANEE K. IN MN What exactly is a Mechanical Engineer and what are the pros and cons of this job? ***** Q: FROM MENTEE KRIS L. IN REGION V What kind of jobs are available to women in the archaeology field? ****** Q: FROM ALEXIS K. IN REGION III I was in the car with my mom and sister the other day. I noticed a car about eight car lengths ahead of us that had a strong, opaque plastic covering taped to where the back glass should have been. What was interesting was that the plastic was concave and not convex. It just seems that the plastic should bulge out in the back, which of course would mean that it would not withstand the force from the air current at 60 miles per hour and would rip right off, and there would be no plastic to bulge out or otherwise! I guessed that the people in the car could not open the windows in the car or this is exactly what would happen. But if they wanted any air current they would have to use the air vent and wouldn't this make the plastic give way? (I know if I were in that car I would be tempted to open the window just to see how to make a plastic kite! But that would lead to grounding and that would not be my idea of fun, well, except the Nintendo's in my room, heh-heh) But that is not my question. Mine is, what physics principles are at work to make the plastic curve inward and not bulge out and rip off? _____ END ========================================================================= GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 27, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ****** ANNOUNCEMENTS ***** In honor of women's history month, don't forget to read the history of each of our dedicated GEM-SET mentors. You will find individual biographies at the GEM-SET web site: <http://www.gem-set.org/>http://www.gem-set.org ****** NOW IS THE TIME TO OFFER FEEDBACK ON HOW TO IMPROVE THE GEM-SET PROGRAM! TO COMPLETE A PROGRAM EVALUATION SURVEY, CLICK ON: <http://www.uic.edu/orgs/gem-set/evaluation>http://www.uic.edu/orgs/gem-set/evaluation **** ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. Mentees: If you have not yet voted for your favorite careers, it is not too late to vote. Go to <http://www.gem-set.org/>http://www.gem-set.org to place your vote today! **** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: What is Maria Mitchel's claim to astronomical fame? PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TO GEM-SET STUDENTS IN EACH REGION WHO ANSWER THE MOST QUIZ QUESTIONS CORRECTLY! ****** Q: FROM MENTEE KRIS L. IN REGION V What kind of jobs are available to women in the archaeology field? A: FROM MENTOR CHANDRA INGLIS, ARCHAEOLOGIST,WVDOH, IN WEST VIRGINIA Kris, I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to your question, but I was out in the field and hadn't checked my email! In short ANY job in the field of archaeology is open to women. You can work anywhere in the world, except of course, countries that are currently unsafe to work in. Archaeologists investigate everything from historic times to as far back as there is any kind of archaeological remains -sometimes that can be millions to billions of years old! There is nothing in this field that a woman can't do, and usually can't do better! I recommend the book: GRIT-TEMPERED: Early Women Archaeologists in the Southeastern United States. Edited by Nancy Marie White, Lynne P. Sullivan and Rochelle A. Marrinan. It talks all about the early women who "blazed the trails" for all of us currently involved in the field. The ones who got us out of the lab and into the field, publishing papers, running firms and chairing academic departments. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE ISRRA A. IN PENNSYLVANIA My Mom wants me to become a doctor or pharmacists, or any other job in the medical field. I would like to learn more about jobs in this field and what they have to offer (benefits, salary, and education). A: FROM MODERATOR DENISE HARBERT AT UIC Hi Isrra. The way you began your question really concerns me. The phrase "My mom wants me to become..." makes me wonder if what your mom wants is different from what you want. I may be reading something between the lines that isn't there, but let me tell you a story just in case it helps you or other girls on the GEM-SET Daily Digest list... When I was teaching calculus, I had a student who worked his brains out in my class just to get a low C. He was simply not gifted at advanced math. One day, I asked him why he was taking my class. He responded that it was a requirement for his mechanical engineering program. I asked him why he was majoring in mechanical engineering and he said, "Because my dad wants me to." That was the only reason he could come up with. I asked him if he had ever had a class that he really loved. His whole face lit up and he began talking non-stop about environmental science and how he wished he could join Green Peace or some other environmental group and save the whales or something. After hours of counseling and my promise that I would go with him when he told his dad, I managed to convince him to switch majors. As it turns out, the father had dropped out of high school and had worked very hard labor in a factory for his entire life. He had struggled desperately to provide for his family and loved his son so much that he wanted him to have a better life. The people who he saw in his factory who made a lot of money and had a lot of respect were mechanical engineers. Hence, the reason why he wanted his son to be one. He really didn't even understand what mechanical engineering is and was surprised when we told him that his son hated it and was terrible at it. He was equally surprised that his son was interested in a science that he had never heard of before. "Can he make any money at it?" he asked me. I managed to convince him that his son would be happy, successful, and financially stable if he pursued something he loved. Success and money were what the father really wanted for his son, and that didn't necessarily have anything to do with mechanical engineering. My student switched his major to applied environmental science and his grade point average immediately went from a 2.1 to a 3.8 ("C" average to "A" average). He didn't have to study as hard, so he had time to volunteer at a local animal shelter, then did some summer internships with non-profit environmental groups. When he graduated, he accepted a position in an oil company working in a department that identifies and "fixes" bad practices that endanger the environment. (After the Exxon Valdise oil spill, many companies have realized that it is far more costly to clean up an oil spill than it is to prevent it.) He works with engineers, but handles the "soft" side of the department's work. He loves his job and is making more money as an outstanding environmental scientist than he ever would have as a lousy mechanical engineer. His father is extremely proud of him. The moral to the story: You need to have a better reason for pursuing a medical career than your mom's desire for you to do it. If you really like biology or chemistry (science) AND working with people, then definitely look at medicine as a possible career. But if you have a passion for something else, you need to do what your gut tells you. Parents always want more for their children than what they had for themselves. I'm sure your mom sincerely loves you and wants the absolute best for you. Doctors and lawyers tend to be the most visible of the highly paid professions in our society. But sometimes the most prestigious job with the highest average salary is not the best choice for everyone. In today's world, you can make a lot of money and gain tremendous respect in hundreds of fields, especially if they are SET related and you care deeply about the area you are pursuing. Good luck! ****** Q: FROM MENTEE BRITTANEE K. IN MN What exactly is a Mechanical Engineer and what are the pros and cons of this job? A: FROM MENTOR MICHELLE MOENSSENS, MANUFACTURING ENGINEER AT GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION Brittanee-- I am a mechanical engineer (by schooling) but I don't really do mechanical engineering "work". The wonderful world of ME (Mechanical Engineering) is endless. In my opinion it is the most well rounded engineering because you take classes in electrical engineering, chemical engineering, industrial engineering and even computer engineering. The possibilities of a career with an ME degree is almost endless. A lot of ME's go into design. I work for General Motors and a lot of the Design Responsible Engineers have ME degrees. You calculate stresses, tolerances, force, where something is going to break...etc. Or if that doesn't interest you, you can do something like consulting work for a consulting firm in something as broad as contracting to a business. I work at an assembly plant as a supervisor with anticipation of getting into Manufacturing Engineering (I need this experience first). I have friends that I graduated with that are applications engineers. Basically what they do is find new applications for products that their companies make. The possibilities are almost endless. An engineering degree teaches you how to think and solve problems. That's really it. The key points that the degree teaches you are time management, how to handle stress and problem solution. These are three key points that employers look for in an employee. When I went into engineering and the first year was hard and stressful I didn't think that I wanted to be an engineer. After looking at other majors (like math) I realized that it is a good degree to get because if I don't want to do research or testing or design there are still a lot of opportunities elsewhere. So to answer your question: What is an ME? Whatever you want it to be. Pros and Cons? Pros (I listed in the paragraph above...you can do almost anything with the degree (one of my friends even works for National City Bank) and cons...there are more men than women in the field. I wouldn't let that bother you because that just means that there are more opportunities for you in the workplace! A: FROM MENTOR HEATHER SULLIVAN, PRODUCT ENGINEER AT DAIMLER CHRYSLER IN REGION V Brittanee, Mechanical engineering is a branch of engineering that deals with energy and forces and their effect on matter. There are several disciplines within this field, such as biomechanics (deals with artificial joints, etc.), fluid dynamics (understanding how fluids behave), heat transfer (understanding how heat travels through matter), dynamics (understanding how things move), and aerodynamics (understanding how air moves). Many people like mechanical engineering because it is more "hands on" than other fields such as computer, electrical, or chemical engineering. I work in the automotive industry, and most of the disciplines mentioned above are used when designing a car. Some parts of the car, such as the suspension, are mechanisms - links attached together that cause the wheel to move in a specific path up and down relative to the car body. In other areas of automotive engineering, people need to understand dynamics to help understand how the car will behave when turning, stopping, and going over bumps. Heat transfer and fluid dynamics are important to the people who design engines. Aerodynamics is important to understand how easily the air travels over the car, which affects the fuel economy. Mechanical engineering is a broad field that will allow you to pursue many career paths. A: FROM MENTOR MOLLY WILLIAMS, , Ph.D., P.E., ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR RESEARCH AND GRADUATE PROGRAMS, COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCES, WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY IN KALAMAZOO, MI Mechanical engineers work in two broad areas - (1) solid mechanics and machine design and (2) thermal, fluid, and energy systems. On the mechanics side, they figure out what stresses occur within a system when it's subjected to motion and external loads, and they select materials and geometries so the components will survive those situations. In the thermal and energy systems side, they work with liquids or gases and with temperature differences. They design heating, refrigeration, air conditioning, and environmental control systems. These might be entire power plants or the heating/cooling system for an automobile or space craft. Mechanical engineers might design consumer products (cars, washing machines, toys, furniture, refrigerators) or the production equipment that makes those things (stamping or molding presses, packaging equipment, conveyer systems, pumps, air compressors). Manufacturing plants have mechanical engineers involved in designing the final product and the manufacturing processes that produce it. Also, most large commercial buildings (including service environments like schools, hospitals, and shopping malls) have mechanical engineers designing and maintaining the facility's mechanical systems. Because the field of mechanical engineering is so broad, there are employment opportunities in most urban areas, and you could move among different kinds of industry fairly easily. This contrasts more specialized areas like aeronautical engineering, where there is a much smaller choice of employers and locations. Pay rates are comparable to most other engineering fields, with starting salaries between $45,000 and $50,000. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers website has a section on pre-college education that you might find interesting: <http://www.asme.org/education/precollege/index.htm>http://www.asme.org/education/precollege/index.htm ****** Q: FROM ALEXIS K. IN REGION III I was in the car with my mom and sister the other day. I noticed a car about eight car lengths ahead of us that had a strong, opaque plastic covering taped to where the back glass should have been. What was interesting was that the plastic was concave and not convex. It just seems that the plastic should bulge out in the back, which of course would mean that it would not withstand the force from the air current at 60 miles per hour and would rip right off, and there would be no plastic to bulge out or otherwise! I guessed that the people in the car could not open the windows in the car or this is exactly what would happen. But if they wanted any air current they would have to use the air vent and wouldn't this make the plastic give way? (I know if I were in that car I would be tempted to open the window just to see how to make a plastic kite! But that would lead to grounding and that would not be my idea of fun, well, except the Nintendo's in my room, heh-heh) But that is not my question. Mine is, what physics principles are at work to make the plastic curve inward and not bulge out and rip off? A: FROM MENTOR JOAN LUSK, ASSOCIATE DEAN OF GRADUATE SCHOOL, BROWN UNIVERSITY IN PROVIDENCE, RI You're very observant! This is a problem in fluid dynamics; you could study it in a wind tunnel. When fluids (air) flow around obstacles (a moving car), there are frequently eddies in which the fluid flows in the opposite direction after it passes the obstacle. (I hope it's not too confusing to think of the fluid as flowing around a stationary obstacle - what matters is the relative motion of the air and the car.) One sign that air can flow towards the back window is that a car's back window often gets very dirty from muddy water and dust being sprayed up behind the car - it's particularly a problem with station wagons, whose back surfaces tends to be flat. You also find that long hair will be blown forward around your face when you ride in a convertible, in the eddy behind the windshield. You can also see eddies on the downstream side of bridge piers. Airplane wings and boat keels taper toward the rear to allow smooth flow of the air or water past them, minimizing the tendency of a back-flowing eddy to form. The creation of eddies takes energy and slows the vehicle down. Differential calculus can model these motions. It's still an active area of research, because it's still a problem to optimize the efficiency of vehicles moving through air and water. ***** NEW QUESTIONS ***** Q: FROM MENTEE SBH IN NH I am interested in becoming a lawyer, but I also enjoy sports. What kind of law field could I go into dealing with sports and law? _____ END ========================================================================= GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 28, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ****** ANNOUNCEMENTS ***** In honor of women's history month, don't forget to read the history of each of our dedicated GEM-SET mentors. You will find individual biographies at the GEM-SET web site: <http://www.gem-set.org/>http://www.gem-set.org ****** NOW IS THE TIME TO OFFER FEEDBACK ON HOW TO IMPROVE THE GEM-SET PROGRAM! TO COMPLETE A PROGRAM EVALUATION SURVEY, CLICK ON: <http://www.uic.edu/orgs/gem-set/evaluation>http://www.uic.edu/orgs/gem-set/evaluation **** ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. Mentees: If you have not yet voted for your favorite careers, it is not too late to vote. Go to <http://www.gem-set.org/>http://www.gem-set.org to place your vote today! **** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: What is Maria Mitchel's claim to astronomical fame? PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TO GEM-SET STUDENTS IN EACH REGION WHO ANSWER THE MOST QUIZ QUESTIONS CORRECTLY! ****** ANNOUNCEMENT FROM ALEXIS K. IN REGION 3 Check this out: "What do scotch guard, windshield wipers, bullet-resistant Kevlar fabric and glow-in-the-dark paper have in common? All were invented by females. (Becky Schroeder's patent for the glo-sheet prompted NASA to ask if she was an ex-employee, because the space agency was working on a similar project. Nope, in fact she was just 12.) Now, for National Women's History Month, these and other inventions are described in the paperback Girls Think of Everything (Houghton Mifflin; $7). This was taken from Parade Magazine from March 10th and although I haven't read it, it looks pretty interesting. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE BRITTANEE K. IN MN What exactly is a Mechanical Engineer and what are the pros and cons of this job? A: FROM MENTOR JULIA HOCHBERG, MECHANICAL ENGINEER, MOTOROLA IN REGION V I know that there will be lots of good answers on this topic so here is my two cents!: An ME has helped work on every man-made, physical thing on Earth. For example, a computer monitor- an ME probably designed the assembly of all the internal components and how they fit together with what screws, snaps, and adhesives using a CAD program and designed the connectors and type of cables that connect the circuit boards and electronics inside and choose the button size and shape on the controls and designed the plastic frame and housing that all the monitor components fit into so that it can sit on your desk and helped to design the rotating system at the base of a monitor that allows you to reposition it to your height and run temperature tests and decided where to put vents and fans to keep the electronics cool and decided what kind of testing will prove the monitor strong (drop testing, electric surge, water intrusion) and helped the assembly line develop the best, quickest, cheapest, most reliable way to manufacture the monitor, to name a few. Maybe one of many simple explanations is that an ME helps physical things get designed and manufactured. But, its never that simple. An ME can choose to focus on human factors (how a person interacts with physical objects, i.e. how you hold a pen, how you sit in a chair, how you use a toothbrush) or electronics (they work in conjunction with electrical engineers and help design the shape and size of circuit boards or the type, length, and specifications of internal cables or go into aerospace (and work on rocket engines or airplane wings) or study vibration (and how various materials and designs react to vibration and learn software to create computer models to predict the damage of vibration) or become and expert on materials (to help a company be able to choose the best material for the design that will perform well and be cheapest) or sales (be a sales engineer so that you can intelligently convince a customer that they need your products and help them design your product in) or many other specialties including advancing into management. The pros and cons require a whole other dissertation. In an effort to be brief, good things: you get to design real things, you help manufacture real products, you engage your brain everyday, you keep up on technology and processes, you get to be creative, you are always learning, you usually don't bring home work with you (all the software systems are at the office computers), and you make good money. Bad things: well, I haven't thought of any, yet. I hope this helps! ****** Q: FROM MENTEE SBH IN NH I am interested in becoming a lawyer, but I also enjoy sports. What kind of law field could I go into dealing with sports and law? A: FROM MENTOR LESLEY DENNY, DIRECTOR OF CLIENT SERVICES AT SEA CHANGE SYSTEMS, INC. IN PEABODY, MA One of the most exciting careers that you could go into with a law degree that involves sports is to become a sports agent. These are the people who represent the athletes when they are negotiating their contracts. There is a whole organization that's main focus is Sports Law (http://www.sportslaw.org/index.html). Another option is to go work for a professional sports organization. Because the organizations must negotiate with the Sports Agents, they also have lawyers on their staff. Another option is to go to law school and focus on negotiating. With this focus, you could be involved on either side when the athlete goes to negotiate their contract. This combination of sports and law is very popular. I would suggest that you start getting involved in sports organizations by volunteering so that you can see what goes on in the business side. I don't know where you are in NH but if you could get to Mass to volunteer, a great place to do it is the Bay State Games. http://www.baystategames.org/. These games go on during both the summer and the winter. If you could volunteer in the office during the summer, you would learn a lot about what goes on in a sports business. ****** NEW QUESTIONS ***** Q; FROM MENTEE DANIELLE R. IN WI I was wondering if there are any jobs out there that use both public speaking/acting and science, besides becoming a teacher. If so, what kind of courses should I take in my high school? thanks! ****** Q: FROM MENTEE TABIA S. AND KARISTAN W. IN REGION III Hi it is me again do lawyers really use computers a lot? ****** Q: FROM MENTEE EMILY A. in ?? How are you? What is your job like? IT is probably much more fun than school right? ****** Q: FROM MENTEE JEZRA B. IN NH I am very interested in astronomy and have a fantasy to live on the space station and explore the evolution of the universe. If I want to become an astronaut in the future, should the air force be a necessity? _____ END ========================================================================= GEM-SET Daily Digest for March 29, 2002 Send all questions AND answers for mentors OR mentees to GEM-SET@uic.edu. We will try our best to answer your questions within 2-3 days. ****** ANNOUNCEMENTS ***** In honor of women's history month, don't forget to read the history of each of our dedicated GEM-SET mentors. You will find individual biographies at the GEM-SET web site: <http://www.gem-set.org/>http://www.gem-set.org ****** NOW IS THE TIME TO OFFER FEEDBACK ON HOW TO IMPROVE THE GEM-SET PROGRAM! TO COMPLETE A PROGRAM EVALUATION SURVEY, CLICK ON: <http://www.uic.edu/orgs/gem-set/evaluation>http://www.uic.edu/orgs/gem-set/evaluation **** ARCHAEOLOGY will be the GEM-SET career-of-the-month during March. Mentees: If you have not yet voted for your favorite careers, it is not too late to vote. Go to <http://www.gem-set.org/>http://www.gem-set.org to place your vote today! **** THE QUIZ QUESTION FOR THIS WEEK IS: In 1962 a significant book written by environmentalist Rachel Carson was published. What was the name of the book and what hazardous chemical did it expose? ****** ANNOUNCEMENT FROM ALEXIS K. IN REGION 3 Check this out: "What do scotch guard, windshield wipers, bullet-resistant Kevlar fabric and glow-in-the-dark paper have in common? All were invented by females. (Becky Schroeder's patent for the glo-sheet prompted NASA to ask if she was an ex-employee, because the space agency was working on a similar project. Nope, in fact she was just 12.) Now, for National Women's History Month, these and other inventions are described in the paperback Girls Think of Everything (Houghton Mifflin; $7). This was taken from Parade Magazine from March 10th and although I haven't read it, it looks pretty interesting. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE DANIELLE R. IN WI I was wondering if there are any jobs out there that use both public speaking/acting and science, besides becoming a teacher. If so, what kind of courses should I take in my high school? thanks! A: FROM MENTOR MOLLY WILLIAMS, PHD, PE, ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR RESEARCH AND GRADUATE PROGRAMS AT THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCES, WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY IN KALAMAZOO, MI How about being like Bill Nye the Science Guy! Radio and television stations and science museums employ people who are good performers and also understand their message that science is fun and important and it affects almost everything we do. While you're still in high school, besides taking all the science courses you can, you should also participate in drama and public speaking opportunities. Some schools and communities also have a small radio station or public access television station that needs volunteers. Good luck. We need people who can make science interesting, entertaining, and accessible to everyone. ****** Q: FROM MENTEE EMILY A. in ?? How are you? What is your job like? IT is probably much more fun than school right? A: FROM MENTOR TERESA ESSER, WRITER IN MA Hi Emily. I'm doing well, thanks. You asked an interesting question. In school, most of the fun that I had involved sharing understandings with people who had gone through exactly what I had gone through. My friends and I had understandings about every aspect of our lives. We laughed a lot at inside jokes. Now, I deal with many more people than I ever knew in high school. I don't know people well enough to have that complete level of intimacy. So I don't have the same kinds of fun, but I have the freedom to do many more kinds of things than simply shuffle from class to class. My job involves promoting the book that I've written. I am presently on a "morning drive radio tour," which means that I have paid a public relations agency to book me on radio stations across the country. This morning I thought I was scheduled to go on the radio at 6:00 a.m. Boston time to speak to radio listeners in Denver. At 4:45 I woke up, rode my exercise bicycle for twenty minutes, took a shower and prepared myself a glass of iced tea. I arranged my index cards with pre-planned questions and answers on the coffee table in front of me. I read over my cheat sheet of additional questions and answers. Then I waited for the phone to ring. The radio station did not call at exactly 6:00 a.m., so I called them. The deejay said he was confused, because the radio host I was supposed to speak with does not work on Fridays. "What book did you write?" the deejay asked. "The Venture Cafe," I said. "Oh, that sounds familiar," he said. "I think you're on for Monday morning. Monday morning is when we talk about money." Turns out that my publicist got the day wrong. So I have just sent my publicist an e-mail asking her to check whether I might be scheduled for some upcoming Monday. Now I'm thinking about going back to bed, but I'm too wired from the iced tea. When I was in school I never had to get up this early. What I'm doing now is sort of a combination of English class, physics class, typing, economics, and contemporary world affairs. I write things and I give short speeches, but I talk about things related to technology, business, and the flow of money. When I was in school if I had to make a presentation, I would make the presentation in front of a group of people I knew well. Now, when I go on the radio, I have no idea who I am addressing. I have no idea what kinds of questions I will get from the folks who call in. You can certainly find a job where you only deal with a small group of people who are located inside your office, but I have not gravitated toward these jobs. The big difference between school and work for me is the uncertainty. When I was in school I always slept through the night. Things happened during set intervals, and I knew when vacation was coming. Now I have to make my own decisions about what I am willing to do when. If I fly for work, I have to decide which flight I want to take, how much I'm willing to pay for the flight, whether I'm willing to deal with annoying layovers, and whether I want to cover any parts of the trip by driving. In school these decisions were made for me, and I always returned to school at the end of the day. Outside of school anything can happen at any time. You have to make decisions about what you are willing to put up with, what your rewards will be, and how badly you want to achieve your goals. ****** NEW QUESTIONS ***** Q: FROM MENTEE JEWEL C. FROM MASSACHUSETTS: I have many questions in science, for it is may favorite subject in school, but I will give you 2 today. 1.Can gold conduct electricity? 2.What chemical mixture can be used to break through a crystal? Thank you! ****** Q: FROM MENTEE JEZRA B. IN NH I'm going to take the SAT in May and my guidance counselor said I should take the SAT II's as well. do colleges like to see SAT II in all subjects or just the main ones? OR do they like to see SAT II in the area of your major in college? ****** Q: FROM MENTEE TABIA S. AND KARISTAN W. IN REGION III Hi it is me again do lawyers really use computers a lot? ******** Q: FROM MENTEE JEZRA B. IN NH I am very interested in astronomy and have a fantasy to live on the space station and explore the evolution of the universe. If I want to become an astronaut in the future, should the air force be a necessity? _____ END Home \| Welcome \| Mentors \| Partners \| Calendar of Events Daily Digest Archive \| Regional Contacts \| Links \| FAQs This site uses WebTrends traffic tracking. Copyright © 2002