“Enough talk. Let’s go classify a stream!” With that, Tiffany Bright, an environmental engineer with Hazen and Sawyer, led fifteen fifth- to eighth-graders across the parking lot from Northampton Community College ’s Monroe Campus, to the Pocono Creek. Undeterred by the steepness of the bank and the pesky pricker bushes, the girls worked with Tiffany to assess the health of the stream, using sophisticated surveying equipment and their senses.

Back in the comfort of the classroom, but still wearing her thigh-high waders and SWAT (“Storm Water Action Team”) t-shirt, Tiffany explained the steps engineers can take to improve water flow in streams that have been compromised by erosion or to avert flooding in those that tend to overflow their banks.

This and other workshops offered as part of Northampton Community College’s SMaRT Careers for Girls program were designed to pique young women’s interest in fields they might not have been aware of or that were not deemed appropriate for their grandmothers.

Times have changed, and careers in science, math and related technologies can be very rewarding, Tiffany said. “You will have some really tough classes, but if you stick with it, it will be worth it,” she promised.

Each of the 87 girls who participated in the program on April 5th had the chance to choose three workshops. Emma Miller, a fifth grader from Pocono Mountain Elementary School, liked DNA-“The Code of Life” the best. “We got to find the DNA in kiwis and strawberries,” she said.

Caitlyn Doyle, a seventh grader from Pleasant Valley Intermediate School, thought forensics would be fun, and it was! It reminded her of the TV show, CSI. The girls tested their crime-solving abilities using the science of fingerprint analysis.

Another Pleasant Valley seventh grader, Marissa Brown enjoyed learning to use field radios. “We got to try them out and see how people in Iraq communicate in the field,” she said.

Science and creativity merged in a session in which students got to work in a computer programming environment created by another Caitlyn. While she was in graduate school, Caitlyn Kelleher developed a tool called “Storytelling Alice” to inspire middle school girls to learn computer programming to bring characters “to life” online. “It felt like you were really making a movie,” exclaimed an enthusiastic Breanna Colvin afterwards.

Students in Grades 6-12 will have a chance to explore SMaRT careers in greater depth this summer when Northampton Community College hosts career camps focusing on SMaRT careers (June 16-19 for students in Grades 6-9), “Adventures in Health Care” (July 14-18 for students in Grades 6-9), and biotechnology (June 23-26 or July 21-24 for students in Grades 10-12 and June 30-July 3 and July 28-31 for students entering Grades 8 and 9). For additional information about the summer camps, call 1-877-543-0998.