Ready for launch

WUSTL students, faculty and staff hosted aspiring scientists March 26 and April 2 during “Catalysts for Change” Saturday workshops aimed at introducing female high school students to science, technology and engineering fields. Students came from high schools throughout the St. Louis area, including Central Visual & Performing Arts High School, Vashon High School and Parkway Central High School. Above: Workshop students launch containers — designed by the students using straws, cotton balls, rubber bands and tape — outside of the Lab Sciences Building. They competed to see who could launch their container the farthest without breaking an egg protected inside. Below: Jill Smith (right), a graduate student in chemistry in Arts & Sciences, assists workshop students with an experiment in a Lab Sciences laboratory. The final workshop is scheduled for Saturday, April 9. The three workshops were supported by a grant from the American Association of University Women and were led by Regina F. Frey, PhD, director of the Teaching Center and professor of the practice in chemistry, and Barbara A. Baumgartner, PhD, associate director of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in Arts & Sciences.