Today is Pi Day.
When I was in junior high, some friends and I had a little competition to see who could memorize pi to the most digits. (3.141592653589 is what I remember. I haven't checked to see if I still have that right.)
All the other pi memorizers were boys, by the way. I hung out with the boys who memorized pi and played Dungeons & Dragons.
Can you guess how many dates I had in high school? Yeah. But I digress.
A couple of years ago I was working at a charity event. Two other volunteers saw me mixing regular and decaf coffee in my cup, and I explained "I need to titrate my caffeine." One person said "Huh?" The other one said "What do you do for a living?" When I told her, she gave me a high five and said "Another girl geek!"
Now, I don't think of myself as a geek (more like a wanna-be. Would that I were smart enough to be a true geek!), but I did happen to be browsing the National Academies site the other day, and I noticed that they have a project called iWASwondering.org "intended to showcase the accomplishments of contemporary women in science and to highlight for young people the varied and intriguing careers of some of today's most prominent scientists."
It's kind of neat, and I may get the companion books for my niece.
I hope the kids like it too, because it sure beats the hell out of Bratz.
Posted by Nic at March 14, 2006 07:08 PM | TrackBackOne of the highlights of the Team America Rocketry Contest is the all-girl teams. They do well, and even on teams with both boys and girls, quite often the girl is the team leader.
Posted by: Ted at March 15, 2006 06:38 PM