But finding other girls her age who share that interest might have been difficult in such a small, relatively isolated place, where the entire ninth-grade class has only 12 students.
Not to worry, though. Martin has that problem licked.
Today, she and scores of other girls from islands up and down the Maine coast will gather online for a cyberparty on “Girl Power Across the Islands Day.”
The girls will tackle skills challenges in math, science and technology, chat with each other and ask questions of an adult female island resident who has made a career in a science or technology field.
The event will unfold in a place known as Zoey’s Room, a Web site developed specifically to help girls in their middle and early high school years meet each other and nurture their science and technology interests.
Organizers of today’s event say the site can be especially valuable for girls on islands, because the technology bridges the distances that separate them from others with similar interests and skills.
“A lot of times they’re so isolated that, even if they were interested in technology, they might have trouble making connections with it,” said Vinitha Nair, the co-founder of the Web site. “Zoey’s Room kind of opened up a different world for them.”
Nair and Erin Reilly, partners in a nonprofit organization called Platform Shoes Forum in Rockland, launched Zoey’s Room in 2002. They wanted to create an online education program that would provide a safe place where girls could meet, learn and collaborate on topics in science and technical fields.
One of their goals was to encourage girls aged 10 to 14 to explore their interests and develop self-confidence in these fields at a time when many middle school girls turn away from science and math.
Nair’s group and the Island Institute, a nonprofit organization in Rockland dedicated to preserving island culture and promoting economic development, have teamed up on the project for island girls. In addition to the online meeting, the groups have helped organize face-to-face gatherings of island girls in some regions, including the Mount Desert Island and Down East areas.
“But this is probably the widest ranging opportunity we have for all the girls to get together,” said Ruth Kermish-Allen, the institute’s education outreach coordinator.
Zoey’s Room offers three main features. It provides a series of self-directed educational modules, called Tec-Treks, that allow girls to develop skills and expand their knowledge in science, business math, robotics, Web site design, databases and Internet research.
A chat room, moderated by a young woman, allows girls to meet online in a safe place and participate in occasional workshops on Internet safety, cyberbullying and e-mentoring.
In addition, the site hosts “Fab Females,” women with careers in science, math or technology who participate in online chats and serve as mentors or role models for the girls. Today’s Fab Female will be a GIS specialist, said Kermish-Allen.
Martin, the Vinalhaven student, says she has enjoyed the Fab Female chats, especially with a woman who works as an engineer for Google.
A Zoey’s Room member for two years, Martin said she has completed all the Tec-Trek education modules and is in line to win prizes, which are offered to girls who accumulate points for doing the modules. Martin has won Zoey’s Room magnets, a mouse pad, a wireless mouse and other prizes.
But she says she’s motivated more now by the challenge of completing the Tec-Trek problems.
“I like the one called ‘Girls Can’t Do Math,’ because I like math,” she said. “You had to figure out interest and balance and net cost and all that stuff. That was pretty cool.”
Martin also likes chatting in Zoey’s Room with her friends in middle school, because...
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