Wow, what a year it’s been for our Girls In Science (GIS) program! In the span of one short school year, we met with 30 different presenters, covering topics from veterinary pathology to behavioral research to visual communication in primates to cytogenetics. (Read Cindy’s previous GIS blogs here.) We met sea lions, nearly extinct golden frogs, carnivorous plants, marsh birds, Mei Sheng the giant panda, Mexican gray wolves, and a black tarantula named Vivica. We dabbled in exotic animal nutrition, GPS mapping, and poop sampling. And we spent a glorious day at the La Brea Tar Pits learning about Southern California as it was during the last Ice Age!

Virtually all of the scientists we met with were women, but we tossed a couple of males into the mix just for variety’s sake. One of them, Michael Puzzo, is a field biologist who tracks mountain lions throughout Southern California. He joined us at our end-of-the-year campout at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park this past weekend, and brought with him all of the tools he and his team use to track, capture, tag, and release mountain lions. We also met up with Bob Cisneros, a hospital keeper here at the Zoo who volunteers time at the California Wolf Center in Julian. Bob did a presentation for our group about the endangered Mexican gray wolf and we got to wander down to the enclosures to see one of the Center’s wolf packs up close.

The campout was a great end to a wonderful year. We hiked, we sang, we ate s’mores, and we giggled into the night. The weather was fabulous and the company was great!

Special thanks to Wells Fargo, without whose support this program couldn’t exist. Thanks, too, to ” Kathy-with-a-K” Myers, our programmer, and Camping Pros, who make our overnights so easy!

See you all next fall!

Cindy Spiva-Evans is an educator at the San Diego Zoo.

Girls In Science is a program for Roosevelt Middle School girls which creates science-based experiences with professional women at the San Diego Zoo. The program is funded through the generosity of the Wells Fargo Foundation.

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