Savannah Loberger was the lone girl in a robotics class at

. Caitlyn Diamond is one of three girls in an electronics class at

.

Even national

winner

found herself and other girls outnumbered five to 34 in an advanced computer science class at

in Beaverton.

In the heart of Oregon's Silicon Forest where parents are engineers and technicians for

,

and a dozen other technology companies, the shortage of girls in high school physics, engineering and technology courses is staggering.

Washington County school districts, which are about 50/50 boys and girls, do not keep tabs on the gender breakdowns in their science, technology, engineering and math classes, collectively called

, but they pulled together some statistics from science and math classes at the request of The Oregonian.

In

, senior boys taking advanced physics outnumber girls 159 to 56. A sampling of

classes showed engineering classes totaling 226 boys and 66 girls.

doesn't offer robotics or engineering, but its AP physics class has 12 boys and two girls.

According to the Georgetown University

, 8 million jobs will be available in STEM-related fields by 2018. But the next generation of American workers will be unprepared for them.

STEM jobs are "critical to our continued economic competitiveness because of their direct ties to innovation, economic growth, and productivity," according to a Center on Education report.

President Obama has made

to ensure students are ready for those jobs, including opportunities for girls.

But first, girls have to take the right classes.

No Boys Allowed



Until two years ago, only a few girls dotted

teacher John Neibergall's beginning engineering classes. It turns out it wasn't a lack of interest keeping them away -- it was boys.

"I felt like it would be intimidating," said Nancy Chan, a junior.

Other girls complained that boys take over projects, leaving them to take notes, which teachers said is common.

"Even in my classrooms, I see it," said

, associate professor of computer science at Pacific University, who co-founded a computer science camp for seventh- and eighth-grade girls.

As for the boys, Sherwood High woodshop teacher Jon Dickover said, "I think they see there aren't very many girls, but they have no clue why."

Chan and about 60 other girls jumped at the chance to take an all-girls engineering class at Sherwood High School.

The course, known as No Boys Allowed, teaches computer-aided design and woodshop. The girls create an object on the computer and send the design to a laser cutter or build it themselves. One of the key features came from Niebergall's female advanced-engineering students, who helped design and market the class. The students make "girly" projects such as jewelry boxes, key chains and stickers.

Based on Sherwood's success, Aloha and

high schools in Beaverton plan to add an all-girls section to their engineering classes next school year. Though the all-girl class has attracted a lot of attention, so far it isn't resulting in girls taking more advanced engineering classes.

"Our hope was to get them to then take the regular class," Neibergall said in an email. "But, after only the first year, we did not see any change from the past. What the girls want overwhelmingly is a level 2 (No Boys Allowed) class."

Biology over technology



Though there is a dearth of girls in engineering and technology-related classes in Beaverton, Hillsboro and Forest Grove school districts, there is a wealth in biology and most chemistry classes. The same is true at high schools throughout the Portland metro area. Putnam High, in Milwaukie, has 24 boys and three girls in advanced physics, but 20 girls and 11 boys in advanced chemistry; Lincoln High in Portland has 61 boys and seven girls in an introduction to technology class, but 80 girls and 37 boys in advanced biology; Gresham High has 23 boys and 15 girls in advanced physics, but 73 girls and 45 boys in advanced biology.

It's also a trend seen nationally at universities, said Claus von Zastrow, director of research at

, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit devoted to boosting STEM education.

"Biology is more women than men. In areas like engineering and computer science, women are gravely underrepresented," he said.

As to why, von Zastrow said girls appear drawn to science, which they say can do more communal or social good. Biology courses are required for many health care careers.

Intel Science Fair projects reflect that, too. Of the 11 physics and astronomy projects created by Beaverton and Hillsboro students last year, 10 were by boys. All eight medicine and health projects were created by girls.

Nationally, boys have outnumbered girls among

finalists for at least eight years, according to Intel Corp. data.

"Physics and computer science can be very important in establishing strength in a community and doing social good," von Zastrow said. But people don't see that aspect.

"Think of the

of the world," he said. Computer science was used to create Facebook, the international social networking site.

Engineering and technology course breakdown by gender School Boys Girls Sunset High, robotics 1 32 2 Aloha High, engineering applications 16 1 Hillsboro schools , computer applications* 19 6 Hillsboro schools, principles of engineering* 62 12 Tualatin High, introduction to computer science 61 3 Tigard High, computer programming 1 59 18 Forest Grove High, AP physics 12 2 Sherwood High, advanced ratio 28 3





*Hillsboro school district numbers are districtwide



Source: Washington County school districts





A specific personality



It takes a strong-willed teenage girl to step into a classroom that is nearly all boys and take a subject that is known, among girls, as boy's territory, several girls said. It takes an even stronger girl to stand her ground on projects to avoid being relegated to note taking.

Those aren't the girls who worry Khoja, who has seen only nine women graduate from her Pacific University computer science program in 10 years.

"It's their personality that keeps them in the field," she said. The quiet ones with obvious talent concern Khoja.

"The ones that are really good but are put off by the behavior of certain boys. They don't even try."

At Hillsboro High School,

, a junior, is often a minority in her engineering and robotics classes. She plans to be a bio-engineer and knows these classes are essential to her goal. Dealing with a room full of guys is just part of the equation.

"I can talk the lingo, and I have to have that for the guys to respect me," she said. "You have to let them know you're smart and can present yourself."

It's not much different in the career field.

Gina Maria Bonini, 39, has a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a masters in electrical engineering from Stanford University. She is a technical marketing manager for Tektronix in Beaverton.

She estimated that Tektronix reflects the national trend in which females are less than 10 percent of the engineers, but the company is trying to close the gap and sponsors an engineering program for women.

Like the high school girls, Bonini often finds herself the lone woman.

"I've been at tech conferences where I'm the only female engineer among 200 men," she said. "Initially, it was intimidating, but I had to find my voice and now it doesn't faze me."

New career attitudes



Karen Spencer, global education integration director for Intel, said women are vital to a company.

"Women have a different way of looking at things," she said. "They want technology to work for the things that they're doing. That brings a different viewpoint to the creating and user process."

The company recently released a study that showed 37 percent of high school boys were considering engineering careers compared to 18 percent of girls.

"Women are almost 50 percent of the workforce and less than one-quarter are in STEM fields," she said.

Spencer and von Zastrow said girls need more female engineer role models to better understand what those jobs entail.

"We've got to change perceptions and attitudes," von Zastrow said.

Pacific University has spent years trying to change the perception that science, especially technology, is not just a male domain.

Physics professor

ran an all-girls science camp between 1992 and 2000. Last year, Khoja started

for middle schoolers. Funded by the

, Khoja and her colleagues will keep tabs on the girls for 10 years.

"Research has shown that through elementary school, girls and boys are equally interested in math, science and technology," she said." At middle school, that is almost where they start deciding what to do in life. They start forming biases."

The four-week camp is designed to teach girls computer skills, but its focus is to expose them to computer science as a career. It is run by female computer scientists, and the girls take field trips to local technology companies.

Both Brosing and Khoja said the most common thing heard from the girls at camp is, " 'I didn't know there were other girls like me out there.' "

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