Even with Mount St. Helens' most popular tourist spot now closed, young students have been up at the mountain ready to learn.
Some engaged in a discussion about volcanic eruptions. Others prepared to visit where the debris slide happened in May on Spirit Lake Memorial Highway.
The annual GeoGirls overnight field camp program at Mount St. Helens, headed by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Mount St. Helens Institute, began Aug. 7 and ended Friday.
Middle- and high-school girls showed up to the Coldwater Science and Learning Center, and their days were quickly jam-packed with geological projects, small-group workshops, self-reflection time and a chance to stay overnight in the learning center with an astounding view of Mount St. Helens.
Girls this year had the unique chance to go with the Washington state Department of Transportation officials to the location of the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway debris slide, which wiped out a bridge leading to the Johnston Ridge Observatory and closed the tourist center for the rest of the summer.
The girls were busy: they used seismological equipment to learn about the movement of magma below Mount St. Helens; classified different types of rock and ash; used “geophones” to track landslides; and learned from local teachers about how and why volcanoes erupt.
The GeoGirls field camp began in 2015, said Liz Westby, geologist at the Cascades Volcano Observatory.
“It’s a chance for them to learn about the forces of nature,” she said. “It’s not just about the geology. It’s about learning the ecology of this area.”
At the end of the week, the girls connected what they learned in a “hazard crisis mission,” Westby said, which involved learning the different levels of crisis at the mountain.
Depending on the emergency level, they learned what happened in terms of deformation, seismic activity, changes in gas and communicating with the public during a crisis. The entire experience was very “hands-on,” Westby said.
“You get to be outside in nature and do things you normally don’t get to do,” said Paulina Dhanens, who will enter eighth grade this school year at Vancouver iTech Preparatory School.
Dhanens, who wants to be an astronaut when she’s older, said her favorite parts of the camp were the hikes to old logging deposits and, of course, the view.
The GeoGirls program is a competitive process, said Gina Roberti, youth education and mental programs coordinator with the Mount St. Helens Institute. This year, they had about 100 applications come in from students; 25 were chosen.
The costs for the program vary depending on which project is scheduled during the week, Roberti said. The institute, which is funded through donations, ends up footing the bill for the program.
Planning the event starts in the fall, almost immediately after the current GeoGirls head back home, Roberti said. Then it’s a flurry of nailing down different partnerships with agencies like WSDOT or USGS, setting up the overnight provisions, scheduling workshops and hiring volunteer teachers and researchers to help facilitate some of the scientific activities.
“It’s fun to tap into our community,” Roberti said.
One of the main goals of GeoGirls is to address how young girls often feel isolated in STEM, Westby said.
“This historically has been a field that has been dominated by men,” Roberti said. “Even today, the people who are in charge, in positions of power, are predominantly male.”
Women make up 8% of the physical science workforce, according to 2021 data from the Pew Research Center, which includes jobs in conservation, environmental science and geology. When factoring in other STEM careers, this field is where women are the most underrepresented. Women in STEM jobs also tend to earn about $20,000 less annually than their male colleagues in the same position, the report says.
“They have a chance to feel encouraged and to think about what they’re interested in,” Westby said. “It gives them confidence.”
