The panel, from left to right: Rene McCormick, Ellen Ochoa, Tom Costello, Margaret Weitekamp, Dan Vergano and Linda Billings. And while there are women scientists and engineers who may work alone in labs, it’s much more common that it’s more of a team effort.” “A lot of girls think it’s very much a solitary career. “I think a lot of it is just trying to educate girls on what careers are like in those fields,” says Ochoa, an astronaut herself who followed in Ride’s footsteps as a PhD student at Stanford and believed in the possibility of being an astronaut because of her. A number of studies in recent years have shown that women still remain significantly underrepresented in STEM careers, particularly at higher levels, so the panel focused on the steps that must be taken to interest girls in science at a young age and to retain this interest as they prepare to enter the workforce. The group reflected on Ride’s game-changing influence in a traditionally male-dominated field and her progress in promoting science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, as well as some of the hurdles America still must overcome to ensure gender equality in the sciences, such as lingering cultural stereotypes that prevent women from pursuing STEM careers and a lack of mentors to encourage them. It featured space and science education luminaries Ellen Ochoa, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center Rene McCormick, director of Standards and Quality at the National Math and Science Initiative Linda Billings, professor at George Washington University Dan Vergano, USA Today science writer and Margaret Weitekamp, the museum’s curator of space history. The panel was broadcasted live on NASA TV from the museum’s “Moving Beyond Earth” gallery and moderated by Tom Costello of NBC News. In 2001, she founded Sally Ride Science, which develops science programs, books and festivals for fourth through eighth grade classrooms. Her highly decorated career included two trips and more than 343 hours in space, work at NASA’s headquarters, positions on the committees that investigated the Columbia and Challenger disasters and a professorship at the University of California, San Diego. Ride, who became the first American woman in space aboard Space Shuttle Challenger in 1983, was an outspoken advocate for women scientists and improved science education. The National Air and Space Museum honored the late pioneer astronaut Sally Ride recently with a panel discussion entitled “Sally Ride: How Her Historic Space Mission Opened Doors for Women in Science.”
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