The girls were a little shy for their interviews. Luci Thompson, Logan Mosley and Saloni Patel have been friends since fourth grade and now they’re starring in an episode of a TV show. They didn’t seem accustomed to the applause they received from the audience. They’re just a group of friends who love science.
The Indiana Dunes National Park held a screening Friday of the PBS Kids TV show “SciGirls,” a program which seeks to encourage young girls to pursue careers in STEM fields, or science, technology, mathematics and engineering. The “SciGirls” episode was shot at the Indiana Dunes National Park and features the girls assisting park scientists in monitoring water quality.
The episode, titled “Dragonfly Detectives,” saw the girls catching dragonfly larvae, known as nymphs, under the water of Lake Michigan in order to use them to measure mercury levels in the lake.
“What’s great about the show is that it’s for girls,” Luci said. “It’s good for encouraging women in STEM.”
Desi Robertson-Thompson, an entomologist at the dunes and mother to Luci, appeared in the program to assist in catching dragonfly nymphs.
She explained that dragonflies are predators that eat smaller insects, which eat things like algae in the lake containing the mercury the scientists want to measure. Mercury is naturally occurring, but Robertson-Thompson said most of it probably gets in the lake from the heavy industry in the area.
Too much mercury in the lake can cause significant health problems to people and animals who live around it, but Robertson-Thompson said levels in the lake aren’t too high and have been declining.
The girls’ participation in the program not only serves to encourage more young girls to engage in STEM, but also promotes “citizen science,” the idea of people getting involved with the science all around them. Robertson-Thompson said the great thing about an episode at the dunes was its promotion of a park near an urban area.
Shania McDonald is an interpretive park ranger at the national park and appeared in the show alongside the girls. An interpretive park ranger does a variety of things, like explaining park resources to visitors or guiding them on hikes, among other things.
On the show McDonald is seen teaching the girls to kayak and assists them in catching dragonfly nymphs.
“It was a really positive experience [being involved with the show],” McDonald said. “We get to talk about science and make it accessible to everyone.”
McDonald said the kids were “troopers” when the show was filmed last summer. The then-12-year-olds were available eight to 12 hours a day for seven days in the grueling summer heat for shoots and reshoots of the 28-minute program, the latter of which the kids said was the hardest part.
“They’re an amazing group of kids,” McDonald said. “And they’re great ambassadors for citizen science.”
Luci, Logan and Saloni all hope to go into science-related careers when they grow up and they said they appreciated getting to do citizen science with the scientists at the park, which Saloni said is a “special place.” The other girls agreed, and hope more people will get involved in citizen science.
“As soon as you step in there, you’re doing science,” Logan said. “Science is for everyone.”
Jared Quigg is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
