Growing the Next Generation of Young Women Scientists: Exciting Adventures in Soil Science.

Girls Researching Our World, or GROW, educates 6^th-8^th grade young women interested in STEM fields during a summer program on Kansas State University’s campus each summer. Exploring Science, Technology, and Engineering, or EXCITE, is similar and offered to 9-12^th graders. When asked what fields attendees think they might pursue, engineering and medicine are frequently listed, so in order to capture their attention, soil science must be presented to the young women in a way that makes them curious enough to ask, why would anyone study soil? What do soil scientists really do? What crazy and/or important problems do marvelous, superhero, soil scientists solve to save the day? Summer soil science classes must be hands-on and messy in order to be memorable and hopefully “grow” some of the next generation of soil scientists. Examples of tactics used in this STEM program will be presented.