Here's the latest news from Middle Tennessee State University.
More than 125 middle school and high school girls from across the mid-state became teammates performing hands-on activities and learning about science, technology, engineering and math careers Saturday, Sept. 24, during the 26th annual Tennessee Girls in STEM Conference at MTSU.
Tennessee Girls in STEM focuses on helping girls and young women explore science and mathematics careers.
Girls built marble roller coasters, learned about “triggernometry” from Tennessee Bureau of Investigation firearms specialists Jasmine Johnson and Savannah Houk, explored “Physics Phun” with assistant professor Hanna Terletska and her physics students and discovered small animal veterinary medicine with Kevin Ragland of the Tennessee STEM Education Center and moon buggies from College of Basic and Applied Sciences associate dean and engineering professor Saeed Foroudastan, just to name a few.
The STEM conference was launched by Judith Iriarte-Gross, a chemistry professor and director of the Women in STEM Center at MTSU. Many students, faculty, staff, alumni and corporate partners volunteered to assist with the event.
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An MTSU School of Agriculture and Collegiate FFA annual event bringing 555 high school students to campus has expanded to include multiple university departments — and everyone’s noticing a trend of more young women attending the event with an underlying goal: recruiting future Blue Raiders.
MTSU ag faculty and students, along with various campus partners, recently conducted the fifth Raider Roundup — 20-plus activities for the students from East, Middle and West Tennessee to choose from during their field trip to the Tennessee Livestock Center and other facilities.
Activities included veterinary science, dairy cattle and horse evaluations, land and meats evaluations and floriculture, where that group had to name 50 plants in 30-second intervals.
“What makes this experience different is that students are placed in smaller groups, and they have an opportunity to interact with MTSU faculty to learn about academic programs and they also get interaction with multiple current MTSU students,” said Chaney Mosley, event coordinator and assistant professor.
College of Basic and Applied Sciences Dean Greg Van Patten said Raider Roundup, which has more than doubled in size, “is a wonderful event for learning, for making connections and to have a great time.”
He reminded the teenagers “there are people who do this for a living, and you can be one of them. You can do this, you can make a great living at it, and you can have a big, positive impact on the world around you doing it.”
Van Patten also talked about the university's more than 900 acres of farm facilities — dairy farm and plant and soil research area, swine and beef units and Horse Science Center — plus fermentation research and industry partnerships.
Numerous students also received plaques for winning or placing in contests held with each of the activities.
Reach reporter Nancy DeGennaro at degennaro@dnj.com.