Mary Kay Carson-Women in STEM 2021

Science technology engineering and math, and the reason we want more women and girls interested in the stem field is that these are the fields that create our future, the engineers, scientists, and technologies of computers and coding is what is going to make our world what it is in the future. And we want women and girls to be a part of that. We need everyone to be a part of that. We can't build a world that's the best for everyone unless everyone is involved in planning and creating that future. And that includes men, women, Asian, black, white, biracial, multiracial, trans, nonbinary, everyone. Needs to add his or her or their gifts to these fields to make a better future for everyone. 

On the 22nd, I am going to be introducing you to some of the amazing women and some of the books that I've written. Women who chase tornadoes, women who help endangered briny nose, women who study back. Women who do research in national parks and you'll get to learn about some of their work and what they do. I'm actually a writer of books for young people. And I have a stem background myself. I was a biology major in college and went on to be a fisheries volunteer in the peace corps before I started writing. And so I especially love highly being women in stem fields in my books because it's something I'm interested in anyways and let's me get a peek into a life that I didn't choose to live myself. My talk on the 22nd will be full of photographs and videos of the scientists working in the field. We'll do some fun myth busting about bats, as well as some tips on helping wildlife because the 22nd of April is also earth day. 

Earth day, as you all probably know, is every year on the 22nd of April, and it's a day for everyone to take time and to assess the state of our planet and what we need to be doing to help it and help all of us survive on it. Birthday started in 1970, so this is its 51st year. And it started as part of the environmental movement that started in the 1960s, and this is an especially appropriate day for us to have our women in stem event because the environmental movement of the 1960s was started in part by a book written by a woman scientist. The book silent spring written by Rachel Carson, who's no relation of mine, was a big catalyst for starting the environmental movement. The title of the book silent spring spoke to Rachel Carson's warning that we could be having a future without birdsong in the spring if we didn't deal with all the toxic pesticides that were killing birds at the time. And her book led to the banning of pesticides, including DDT, and spurred the environmental movement. 

Today, the environmental movement and earth day are much more global because our problems are much more global with climate change and earth day is not only an anniversary but a call to action. What you can do to help the environment, right, where you live. Wildlife is one of the most important things to me, and I've written books about wildlife, including things you can do to help wildlife, and while we think of wildlife sometimes as pandas and tigers and whales and other faraway creatures, we can all do a lot actually to help the wildlife that lives all around us. If you think about all of the backyards, green spaces, parks, and empty lots, all around you, those places combined can really become significant wildlife habitats with just a little bit of help. So the project that you're going to be doing and your teachers are going to provide you with some materials and some instructions and there's also a demonstration video available online. 

Of the activity, the activity is about making homes for bees. And I know most of us have heard about honeybees and all of the problems that honeybees are having, but honeybees are actually European bees. They came from Europe. Were brought here from Europe along with domestic animals and crops, and were brought because they are the pollinators for apples and other plants that were brought from Europe to North America, whereas native bees are the pollinators of native plants. And native plants are what native wildlife need to survive. And so the activity is about making homes for native bees. And so these are different kinds of bees. And you've maybe seen these native bee homes. Sometimes they sell them in stores with birdhouses and bird feeders or bat houses. We're going to make one out of a can. And a native bee looks different than a honey bee. It's smaller.