Lynne Kiesling
I’m not one to see everything through the lens of gender, but this is pretty cool: for the first time in its nine-year history, girls have won all of the grand prizes at the Siemens math and science competition:
Siemens Foundation President James Whaley says the percentage of girls entering the competition has increased each year; this year, 48% of the contestants were female. Eighty percent of this year’s competitors were from public schools, and one team of finalists consisted of home-schooled girls. Many of the schools whose students were represented also have close ties to nearby universities or research labs. “There are very few [high] schools that have the resources or labs to support this high level of research,” Whaley notes.
Note the importance of the local university ties. Increasingly I meet new undergrads who have taken extensive advantage of local universities for exactly this sort of thing. Here’s a hypothesis: at the margin such ties are more likely to benefit girls than boys. Why? I could offer a host of reasons, largely based on my own personal experience.
In any case, this is pretty cool. HT to Instapundit for the link.