Women in Science with Heidi Poelman

On today's episode of the "Helping Families Be Happy" podcast, host, Ashley Marie Mireles, Director of Sales and Marketing for Families Publishing, author, and DEI leader. Today Ashley is going to talk to Heidi Poelman, author of Women in Science Who Changed the World and other Courageous People books.

Episode Highlights:

• 01:02: Today Ashley and Heidi are going to discuss the creation of women in science teaching the world.
• 01:46: Science is so interesting and so fun, and we have kind of an issue in our country where a lot of the times we give girls the message that science and mathematics and technology are more masculine subjects, more subjects for boys, says Heidi.
• 03:01: Heidi talks about a few amazing women that she came across while doing research for her book. 
• 03:50: Heidi mentions Janaki Amal, who is an Indian scientist who did a lot to create a plant that could grow sugar in India because, before that time, they couldn't.
• 04:00: Wang Zhenyi learned more about lunar eclipses and what a cool girl at the time, people thought that lunar eclipses were the cause of angry gods, but she thought otherwise. She learned that the moon, the earth, and the sun all interacted to create something.
• 05:06: As per Heidi it is really upsetting to see some of the very strong and knowledgeable women getting noticed.
• 07:01: Heidi talks about her inspiration and from where she gets it.
• 07:33: Heidi talks about the first female president of the New York Cancer Society, and she was also the 1st woman and only African American on the board.
• 08:30: One of the big takeaways that we are getting from here is that children and just people, in general, need good examples to look up as long as you have someone inspiring you or you have something inspiring you, you can keep moving forward.
• 09:12: As part of the series, the first book that Heidi wrote was just a book about a few people that she loved and looked up to who did courageous things, and who wanted to make a difference in the world.
• 11:04: Heidi shares how she loves quotes and she also shares a quote that she wrote before the podcast. 
• 12:25: Heidi explains why she mentioned Marie Curie in her book. 
• 13:43: Heidi's goal is to teach young girls about perseverance and curiosity and just wonder and discovery and problem-solving, and just remind them that the things that they do make a difference and that even one person can be part of making the world a better place.

3 Key Points:

1. Heidi shares why in her book she has featured women that aren't normally featured in kids' books, women from around the world, and women who maybe people haven't heard of before.
2. Heidi shares how she wanted to inspire young girls from a very early age. 
3. Heidi talks about her series of books and the idea behind writing those.

Tweetable Quotes:

• "It's not necessarily the names and the facts, but this idea that curiosity and questions and problem-solving are all these really great values that we want to show to these young girls. How many times we talk to our little girls about, hey, let's go outside and just study bugs, or have you ever asked hey, do you know that there was a woman behind sending the first man to orbit the earth in space?" – Heidi
• "Jane Wright was fairly young she saw that cancer was a problem, and so she set her mind on doing something. So she just started researching. She decided that she wanted to be a doctor." - Heidi
• "I worked on a book about animals, famous animals who have made a difference and just had fun stories." – Heid
• "It's an important and fun time to work with young kids and to tell them stories of real heroes and not just knowing their names and what they did, but knowing what we can learn from them." - Heidi

Resources Mentioned

• Helping Families Be Happy Podcast Apple
• Familius.com
• Heidi Poelman 
• Ashley Marie Mireles: LinkedIn 
• Podcast Editing