The single-sex classroom also reduces the hormonal distractions of the opposite sex, said Kennedy, 20, a junior physics major from Belleville, Ill.
"They're boy-crazy at this age," she said.
Dressed in stylish pink-and-black T-shirts, the 28 campers traipsed through the Rolla campus, absorbing the college experience while visiting the school's metal foundry, experimental mine and an assortment of labs.
They used liquid nitrogen to freeze marshmallows, ate the icy product of their chemical concoctions and otherwise learned to incinerate many of the well-trodden stereotypes about girls and science.
For Caroline Kopff, 13, a home-schooled student from St. Louis, the camp highlights were equally visceral. This is, after all, the place known decades ago as the Missouri School of Mines.
"We went into the mine yesterday and watched people blow stuff up," she said when asked to name her favorite activity.
Lindie Pierce, also 13, is a veteran of summer science camps, having attended two aerospace sessions at the university. Next year, she plans to visit a NASA space camp.
The aspiring robotics engineer from Springfield, the daughter of a mechanic and a school worker, said she has always been taught to aim high.
"For the longest time, women were told they should just be homemakers," Lindie said. "But we're just as smart as men."
On the Net:
University of Missouri-Rolla Women in Science and Engineering: http://www.wise.umr.edu
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
