For girls only: Middle school club helps students shine in STEM subjects

While teaching science in middle school the past 10 years, Melissa Niemi became increasingly frustrated each time she saw another smart girl lack the confidence to persevere through a rigorous subject.

Too often, Niemi said, female students who excel in other academic areas are afraid to explore the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math, especially when they don’t have a rigid set of directions to follow.

“They’re not used to failing at anything,” said Niemi, who had taught at Arnold Magnet Academy before moving to Richards Middle School last summer. “When I started teaching here, I had tons of kids crying because, when we do projects, there’s no right answer. They couldn’t get it figured out. But once we started doing it more and more and more, they then sought out those opportunities. It really kind of fueled their creative and their industry.”

Seeing the math and science clubs dominated by male students, Niemi sought a comfortable environment for girls, where they could shine by collaborating instead of competing, where they could focus on learning while having fun.

“Doing it because you want to do it is a whole lot different than doing it because you have to do it,” Niemi said.

So she created the club called GEMS: Girls in Engineering, Math and Science.

Two months since GEMS launched in January, the club now has 13 members, meeting one hour per week at Richards — and making boys envious.

“It’s been interesting to watch that play out,” Niemi said with a smile. “Now, they’re jealous of what’s going on.”

Here’s what was going on at the GEMS club during the Ledger-Enquirer’s visit this month. The girls worked on:

▪ Making a Rube Goldberg machine, a deliberately complex contraption designed to accomplish a simple task.

▪ Analyzing blood under a microscope.

▪ Solving a “crime” scene.

▪ Determining how close a “scrambler” can roll to a designated point.

▪ Building a roller coaster for a marble and towers out of balsa wood and PVC pipe.

▪ Oh, and yes, Legos were involved.

Niemi has limited the club to eighth-graders this first year because “it’s a lot easier to do things with a smaller group, and this being the first year, I didn’t want it to get out of control. … I initially asked girls I thought already would be interested, and, once other girls heard about it, many more came to me.”

The GEMS club members are Meg Burnett, Sumerlyn Dawson, Ragan Faircloth, Cassidy Fine, Kate Harbison, Emily Harkness, Laura Kate Holden, Peyton Murphy, Cadie Parker, Taytum Rogers, Hannah Roberts, Libby Storey and Lyric Thomas.

“I am beyond happy,” Niemi said. “It’s really taken off more than I expected. I really thought I was going to have to drag them in kicking in screaming.”

Laura Kate, who said she’s been the only girl on the school’s math and Academic Bowl teams, already has felt the positive impact the GEMS club has made.

“Girls are expected to be pretty, and they’re not supposed to get their hands dirty and go in and do things like build this or that,” said Laura Kate, who wants to be a mechanical engineer. “Seeing all these beautiful ladies around me shows me that I’m not the only one.”

She called Niemi a role model.

“Most teachers just try to teach you the material so you can get a good grade on a test, but she tries to learn about you and affects you long-term and in life, not just knowing what the quadratic formula is but how to be a good person,” Laura Kate said. “She has a very different teaching style.”

That style requires to students learn science through hands-on projects, not just listening to lectures. Laura Kate, who has had only one other female science teacher, is in Niemi’s pre-AP physical science class, earning high school credit in middle school.

“I was a little bit skeptical and nervous, especially with a new teacher,” Laura Kate said. “The first project we had, we had to make a balloon car, and I thought I was going to be on the edge of tears, because I’d never done this before. But it taught me the momentum, the velocity, the force, Newton’s Law, and I got to build something and feel accomplished.”

And the GEMS club gives her even more freedom to experiment.

“You don’t feel as much pressure, and you’re not on a time crunch, but you get a sense of accomplishment,” Laura Kate said. “You’re not working for something; you’re just working for yourself. … If your project breaks or something breaks, you just try it again until it works. There’s no intimidation. Something you wouldn’t see yourself doing, you can do it, because there’s nothing on the line.”

Niemi relates to that perspective. While going to school at St. Anne-Pacelli and Columbus State University, she didn’t have a female science teacher.

“They were great teachers,” she said, “but I never had anybody I could identify with in that kind of way. There’s kind of a stigma around science teachers, that we’re nerdy and we wear glasses and dress all in one color. There’s a general stereotype. … But that’s not really the case. So that’s my role, to expose them to the fact that there are women, all different kinds of people, that they don’t even think of being scientists.”

Such as?

“Musicians and dancers and chefs and people who work in labs at the Columbus Water Works,” Niemi said.

One of Niemi’s former students, Katheryn Livingston, a Columbus High School freshman, was in Niemi’s science class last year at Arnold. Now, she is helping Niemi in the GEMS club at Richards to gather community service hours and give servant leadership.

“She’s one of my inspirations for this group,” Niemi said.

“I saw a lot of girls who felt like they didn’t need to be interested in science because it was dominated by guys,” Katheryn said. She wants these girls to understand, “No matter what, whatever you know could be used.”

Sixth-grade science teacher Lauren Rulon also helps the GEMS club.

Niemi considers the club a demonstration of the “full engineering process.”

“It allows them to fail and to make design modifications,” she said.

Niemi would like other schools in the Muscogee County School District to establish GEMS clubs, giving more girls this valuable opportunity. She also hopes the GEMS club members can learn from more local female STEM professionals, such as the CSU physics professor Kim Shaw, who met with the girls.

“I really want it to be a community-involved program,” she said. “I want them to see practical, real live, everyday women that do these types of jobs and are successful.”

The GEMS club is raising money to take a trip to Sapelo Island, which has an estuary reserve. Niemi also would welcome sponsors.

Next up for the GEMS: bottle rockets, Niemi said, and the Columbus Water Works, a Partner in Education with Richards, has expressed interest in helping the club.

“The girls are going to volunteer and do community service for some of their community events,” she said.

Niemi is grateful Richards principal Lance Henderson has allowed her to turn the space that used to be a testing room and a teacher work area into the GEMS club room. Also fortunate, the GEMS room is adjacent to her classroom, so the members don’t have to take apart their projects after each meeting, “and they don’t have to trash my room,” Niemi said with a laugh.

“My administration has been so supportive,” she said. “Mr. Henderson, he really has allowed me to take action and do this thing.”

Henderson told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email that Niemi’s “special interest in an underrepresented population of students (females) in the field of science shows her desire to share with them her love and belief that they are more than capable of pursuing and being successful in any field of study they desire. Mrs. Niemi’s love for science and her desire to make an impact is evident every day in her classroom, and it is becoming contagious! We are thrilled to have her at Richards, and look forward to seeing how much of a difference she is going to make.”

This story was originally published March 15, 2017 at 12:38 PM with the headline "For girls only: Middle school club helps students shine in STEM subjects."