To qualify for this week's Canada-Wide Science Fair in Winnipeg, Larissa Christie logged hundreds of hours investigating North America's vanishing bee population.
Jessie Beaulieu, 15, from Quebec, with her project on preserving the Earth at the 2009 Canada-Wide Science Fair in Manitoba. This year, girls make up 66 per cent of the participants at the annual competition.
Jessie Beaulieu, 15, from Quebec, with her project on preserving the Earth at the 2009 Canada-Wide Science Fair in Manitoba. This year, girls make up 66 per cent of the participants at the annual competition.
Why Canada's young male scientists also seem to be disappearing, she says, is easier to explain.
"So many girls are just determined," said Larissa, 15, speaking from the University of Manitoba, where 500 of Canada's best young scientists are competing for almost $1-million in scholarships and grants that will be handed out today.
As female students increasingly dominate in science competitions across the country, educators are facing a conundrum that requires more social analysis than hard science: Boys are not just getting beaten by girls — they're not even showing up.
Five years ago, boys made up 55 per cent of the competitors at the annual Canada-Wide Science Fair, a national competition where youth in grades 7 to 12 compete against other regional representatives. After a steady decline, this year boys are in the minority at 44 per cent.
Girls are also claiming the lion's share of prize money available each year: Eight of the last nine overall winners have been female.
"We're beginning to have concerns," said Reni Barlow, executive director of Youth Science Canada, a national organization that oversees the national and regional science fairs in its mandate to foster Canada's future generation of scientists.
Educators are searching for new tools to lure more boys back into the fold. In Quebec, where girls made up 68 per cent of students at this year's provincial science fair, regional organizers recently created a program focused on technology and robotics — deliberately promoting fields where boys have traditionally shown the most interest. Youth Science Canada recently launched a mentorship program that it hopes will inspire more boys to continue in the footsteps of Canada's top male researchers.
Ironically, many of the programs mirror those that have been used in the last 15 years to draw more young girls into the fold, when the alarm was raised about the lack of women in science university programs across the country.
Carole Charlebois, executive director of Quebec's provincial branch of YSC, says she suspects the pendulum has swung too far in the girls' direction and boys are being left out and left behind. "We're seeing a real decrease in interest and good marks from the boys."
Others say some boys simply lack motivation.
