All Three Winners Of Google Global Science Fair Were Girls From U.S.

Three girls from different parts of the country defied the status quo earlier this week -- by snagging the top title in a global science fair for each of their age categories.

Lauren Hodge from Pennsylvania took home the title for age category 13-14, Naomi Shah from Oregon won among the 15-16 group and Shree Bose of Texas topped the 17-18 category. The Google Science Fair saw more than 7,500 entries from over 90 countries around the world, ABC News reports.

Hodge, Shah and Bose have been making the news for their gender. All three are girls, and girls have long been said to be uninterested and underrepresented in science, technology, math and engineering.

“As a girl, to see that my gender actually is going to come into this field that’s been so dominated by men is exciting to me, and to be a part of that is even more exciting,” Bose told The New York Times.

But also of note is that all three girls hail from the United States, a country whose students that studies have shown to be outperformed in math and science by foreign counterparts in Singapore and China, among others.

Bose's winning entry provided insight into some female resistance to chemotherapy treating ovarian cancer. Shah's researched the connection between air pollutants in respiratory diseases and Hodge's examined how different methods of marinating chicken could create carcinogens.

Slate reports that all three teenagers aim to continue doing research.

Bose earned a $50,000 scholarship for her research, in addition to a trip to the Galapagos Islands with a National Geographic explorer and an internship at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Shah and Hodge each won a $25,000 scholarship and internships at Google and LEGO. All three also won for their schools subscriptions to Scientific American's digital archives.

Comments

[Alice HerrickDavis]

10:03 PM on 07/18/2011

I would like to know how these top winners had access to the sophisticated equipment that would be needed for these projects. Even a professional has a hard time with obtaining them and they wouldn't be your standard school stock. I have a feeling the deck was stacked.

[dbalsx]

03:11 PM on 07/18/2011

"Bose's winning entry provided insight into some female resistance to chemotherapy treating ovarian cancer. Shah's researched the connection between air pollutants in respiratory diseases and Hodge's examined how different methods of marinating chicken could create carcinogens"

All the research entries here seem to be on subjects that matter to US. No wonder US won this. For eg. Cancer research is not a priority in East.

[beasteben]

12:39 PM on 07/18/2011

GREAT prizes! Its thrilling just to hear about it.

[Libleet]

10:44 AM on 07/18/2011

I don't find it suprising they are from the US. Like the health care system, the US education system is the best in the world IF you have money.

[Puzzlr]

10:21 AM on 07/18/2011

High five to all of them. I have said for years that the numbers don't actually add up. Our kids may not score high on those tests, but they seem to do very well in the real world. Who created Facebook? Apple? etc. The kids will be alright.

[RocheTm]

04:25 AM on 07/18/2011

Sometimes I have to wonder if people are paying attention.

Schools are being set up for boys to fail. Girls are topping their classes everywhere. In my area this year of 10 kids in the paper at graduation only one was a boy.

Girls are unlikely to be interested in certain areas of science which would lead them into certain fields. You wont find anywhere near as many women into cars or woodshop as you will boys. Things like that are what get people into some STEM fields. Go check the demographics on something like electrical engineering or physics and then compare that to biology and I bet you will see a big jump in the number of women in the field.

At some point we need an international law passed that says "Men and women are different." I honestly don't understand why no one can understand this simple fact. There are certain areas that are always going to be more popular with men or women just because it is what they like.

And a final thought, maybe if we want women to succeed in the "men" fields we should stop acting like it is some kind of special event every single time one does.

[Smirk]

06:11 AM on 07/18/2011

At this point, it's just amazing that all three are from the US, not that they're all girls.

[Puzzlr]

10:26 AM on 07/18/2011

I have to disagree with you about wanting the boys to fail. No one wants a certain gender to fail or not do well. I think the problem is that we are obsessed with diagnosing whether or not a high-strung boy has ADD, or is it ATP or maybe ADP? Perhaps he's hyper for another reason. Perhaps there is something going on at home that makes him crave attention. I can't say what it is, but I know our response is to pump him full of drugs as soon as the teacher has a problem maintaining his attention. That one little pill (ritalin) does a lifetime of damage, imo. I honestly think that it can also lead to future addiction.

[RocheTm]

10:37 AM on 07/18/2011

Boys are setup to fail in the US education system. They learn best by moving and doing and if they try are drugged as you said.

Boys can learn like girls do and girls can learn like boys do but neither is as good for them.

[inmyhumbleopinion]

12:41 PM on 07/17/2011

Well deserved congratulations to these accomplished young women!

[Valerio della Porta]

10:14 AM on 07/17/2011

From the article "...United States, a country whose students that studies have shown to be outperformed in math and science by foreign counterparts in Singapore and China, among others."

That's a myth. These countries are very good at having kids memorizing an incredible amount of information so they score high in standardized tests. But when you are looking at how they really understand the concepts and apply them to creative ideas, they don't have a clue. That's why the ones that can, come here to study.

You can't make new discoveries or create new technologies by answering multiple choice questions.

[theveggiedude]

01:51 PM on 07/17/2011

Myth or not, India is churning out far more engineer graduates than the US.

[Dede Eagleburger]

11:16 AM on 07/18/2011

umm maybe cos they have 4 times as many people to start with?

[JaxReader]

01:52 PM on 07/25/2011

" But when you are looking at how they really understand the concepts and apply them to creative ideas, they don't have a clue. That's why the ones that can, come here to study."

Subjective experience? I do agree that the US has been very successful however at 'brain drain' and bringing intelligent immigrants to the US. In hte future, I hope it will be just as adept at doing so. That recruitment does help to maintain a competitive edge.

[MissIndependentLady]

10:09 AM on 07/17/2011

Wonderful. More girls should be more interested in math and science than their appearance. Not saying we shouldn't care about our appearance at all but a lot of women put a heavy focus on fashion and make-up.

[snake griffin]

09:52 AM on 07/18/2011

maybe these girls will go on to invent new more effective makeup

[jagrmeister721]

03:19 AM on 07/17/2011

Awesome!

[rdk70816]

10:33 PM on 07/16/2011

Yeah for the girls. Yeah for the ladies. Someone has to rescue the USA from the chaos and stupidity brought about by the males.

[Rem Sleep]

05:01 PM on 07/17/2011

I've thought that way a long time, but all we have to show for this so far is C. Rice, S. Palin and M. Bachman! H. Clinton is certainly an improvement, but no rescue there FAIL! (so far)

[AZterritory]

09:55 PM on 07/16/2011

Hard work and determination recognized, way to go! Live long and prosper!

[jambi77]

08:37 PM on 07/16/2011

Good for all of them...and apparently the US education system isnt as bad as we have been told...

Go girls go...a foot to the face of us males maybe a good thing...

[sawyer0413]

07:30 PM on 07/16/2011

Congratulations to all three of these young scientist. Here's to the hope that they continue the drive to the day when no one will mention that girls are uninterested in science. I strongly suspect that their showing is even more indication that old ideas about girls and STEM subjects is sorely dated.

[Valerio della Porta]

10:17 AM on 07/17/2011

Agree, High School Girls Now Outnumber Boys In Most Math And Science Classes http://bit.ly/mPQMZW College is not far behind I suspect.

[jourdankr]

01:45 PM on 07/18/2011

Women are already outnumbering men in college

[jessivehadit]

07:11 PM on 07/16/2011

That is because girls are smart.

[x men]

10:44 PM on 07/16/2011

Maybe one day one of them could even become the governor of Alaska.

[emkay625]

11:44 PM on 07/16/2011

This comment seems unnecessary.

[BigSlick674]

01:19 AM on 07/17/2011

They are already better than that.