ITHACA, N.Y. — “Fishy Business,” “Itty Bitty Pictures” and “Plants Can Breathe” have one thing in common: they were a few of the many hands-on workshops at Expanding Your Horizons (EYH), an annual conference at Cornell University that encourages girls in grades 7 to 9 to explore careers in science and technology.

This year’s conference on April 23 attracted more than 200 girls from upstate New York middle schools. From 30 hands-on workshops on topics ranging from nanotechnology to plant sciences, each student selected three hour-long sessions, which were prepared and presented by Cornell female undergraduate and graduate students to stimulate interest in science.

The “Holey Cow” workshop, for example, focused on balanced hay diets and the stomach compartments in a dairy cow. The main attraction, however, was Daisy, a 13-year-old Holstein who has a special opening in the largest compartment of her stomach, called the rumen fistula, allowing researchers to take an inside peek and study her metabolism. In the workshop, the girls had a chance to do the same thing as well as put their hands inside Daisy’s stomach.

“Girls who come usually have an interest in veterinary science, and they generally like the workshop because it is very hands on,” said Kelly Smith, a graduate student in the Department of Animal Science who ran the popular event for the third year in a row.

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