Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Since 2019, Earthwatch has partnered with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)’s Sea Grant to help close the gender gap in STEM through Earthwatch’s Girls in Science program. Each year they have supported 10 underserved high school-aged girls from across Massachusetts as they spend eight days working side-by-side with leading female scientists at WHOI. This program is designed to empower young women to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) by exposing them to hands-on research focused on urgent environmental challenges. At WHOI, the young women experience the life of a research biologist as they study the intersection between dolphin bioacoustics and mass stranding events. The data they collect is used to help enhance response efforts to stranding events, potentially reducing costs, injuries, and mortalities associated with whale and dolphin strandings. In addition, Earthwatch learning facilitators guide the young women through skill-building exercises that improve their confidence and teach them to share their stories of science.
“I can learn important things in the classroom, but doing research with a large variety of scientists, engineers, and mathematicians is what is going to lead me to a career that has many exciting chapters and endless opportunities to learn.
Girls in Science Fellow, 2019
YOUR SUPPORT MATTERS
Earthwatch depends on donations—above and beyond what we raise from volunteers who participate on our expeditions—in order to deliver our global conservation mission. In fact, volunteer contributions provide only half of the total resources Earthwatch needs to sustain over 40 field research expeditions, a wide variety of educational programs, corporate sustainability trainings, and more each year.