Chicago Tribune news :: "Women lag men when it comes to choosing careers in math and science. IBM is trying to buck that trend. According to the National Science Foundation, the females earning bachelor's degrees in computer science dropped from 37 percent in 1985 to 28 percent in 2001.
'Research shows that if you can influence young girls at this age to go and utilize math and science and study it as a career, you can turn that trend around,' said Sandra Zoratti, director of marketing and strategy for IBM's printing systems division and executive sponsor for the camp. 'This is the critical time in their life when they're starting to think about a career.'
In addition to learning how to use a computer program to motorize Lego blocks, the girls attended workshops about forensic science, immunology and toxicology, and wildlife science.
The goal of the camp is not to prepare women for careers at the company, but to help them develop their interest in math and science, Zoratti said.
'We're not trying to influence the pipeline, we just want to influence the statistics,' she said. 'To us a success is women that would go into any technical field.'
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