Knoch High School students work on constructing a spaghetti tower designed to support a marshmallow during a presentation by MIT students. This tower was the tallest, measuring 90.5 centimeters. From left are Mackenzie Moretti, ninth grade; Allyson Porter, 10th grade; Rebecca Stockert, 10th grade; Hailey Alwine, 10th grade and Jewel Robertson, ninth grade.

GROVE CITY — The science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields continue to experience job growth, but many high school and middle school girls seem to lose interest or become discouraged in pursuing an education in STEM.

To address this problem, educators such as those at a recent STEM Summit at Grove City College are organizing programs specifically to get girls more interested in math and science fields.

The Jan. 6 summit was organized by the Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV and attracted about 300 female students from 14 school districts, said Diane McGaffic, consultant with the MIU.

The students took tours of some of the STEM facilities at the college, participated in hands-on programs and met with professionals representing Covestro and LECOM medical school. They also took part in an interactive presentation with two engineering students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Women's Initiative.

The women's initiative is a program that started at MIT in 1998 and sends students around the country each year to do programs intended to get more girls interested in pursuing a career in fields where women are underrepresented.

The students, sisters Charlotte and Emily Keely of Virginia, did their presentation eight times for about 1,000 students total during a weeklong visit to Western Pennsylvania. After the summit at Grove City College they visited several other districts, including South Butler and Moniteau.

Emily Keely, a biological engineering major, told the students at Grove City College that professionals in STEM fields are working to make products, solve problems and improve technology in nearly every aspect of society.

Some of her examples of items STEM professionals could make include a healthier breakfast cereal, an adhesive bandage that is more elastic and stronger steel. STEM professionals are planning cities, working on spaceships and curing diseases, she said.There are a wide variety of specialties among engineers, Charlotte Keely said.“There is a way to bridge your interests. You can find your place in any one of these fields,” she said.One reason that girls seem to be discouraged from STEM is because they see stereotypical depictions of scientists and engineers in the media, Emily Keely said.“The stereotype is engineers just sit in an office all day and just do work,” she said.Stacey Birmingham, dean of science for the college, said there will be an anticipated 1 million new jobs created in STEM fields in the next 10 years.“We are looking to this next generation to fill those jobs,” she said.Currently, women are earning 38 percent of STEM bachelor's degrees, and the STEM work force is only 26 percent female, Birmingham said.Constance Nichols, chairman of the Grove City College Education Department, said that more diversity in the workplace will help companies to succeed.“It's really a problem for these firms when they don't have diversity in their work force. They are trying to solve problems for all people, so they need to have a diversity of perspectives,” she said.

Kylie Simons, Jenna Belanger, Ava Boardman and Jessica McDeavitt, sixth graders at Dassa McKinney Elementary School, built a spaghetti tower as tall as they could with a yard of both tape and string. The tower had to be able to support a marshmallow and was an activity that went with a presentation from MIT students Charlotte and Emily Keeley.