Science and math are high school senior Melanie Hreha's strongest suits.

	Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette Veronica Jae, 17, center, a senior at West Mifflin Area High School, talks to Rebecca Kostovny, during an advance placement physics class yesterday afternoon. Teacher David Boyd writes equations on the blackboard during a lesson on circuits. Click photo for larger image.

So it's only natural that the West Mifflin Area High School student and future biology major is taking Advanced Placement courses in calculus and physics and an honors course in anatomy and physiology as she prepares to enter John Carroll University, her first step toward becoming an optometrist.

Enrollment in the highest level science and math classes at her school -- like that at most of more than a dozen public, private and parochial schools in the region that were polled -- is for the most part a roughly even mix of boys and girls.

Boys typically outnumber girls in physics and computer science classes, however, and, in some schools, there are more girls than boys in advanced biology.

The topic of science, math and gender has come to the forefront since Harvard University President Lawrence Summers last month questioned whether women have the "intrinsic aptitude" to be top scientists.

His statements have generated so much heat that some Harvard faculty members this week were considering whether to seek a no-confidence vote.

The remarks also have hit a sour note with some local educators.

"I laughed," said Nancy Bunt, program director of the Math & Science Collaborative and leader of an $18 million effort to improve science and math education in the region. "It's always better to laugh than to think people seriously would believe that your abilities were limited by your gender."

In his remarks, Summers contended there are three reasons that women are underrepresented in "high-end scientific professions," the second most important of which is "different availability of aptitude at the high end."

He said the first is that women may not be willing to commit 80 hours a week to the job and the third is "different socialization and patterns of discrimination," a factor he said is overrated.

Barbara Mistick, director of the Girls, Math & Science Partnership of Family Communications and a Carnegie Mellon University professor, said, "There is no conclusive research to substantiate his [Summers'] comment."

The partnership's research summary paper blames girls' lack of participation in science and math on the problem Summers said was least important: cultural issues.

"While girls consistently demonstrate an aptitude for both math and science, research has shown that girls' interest in math and science is often implicitly or explicitly discouraged," the report says.

At West Mifflin Area High, where six of nine science teachers are women, girls are encouraged to take math and science. Girls account for about half of those taking calculus or first-year physics, but a smaller proportion in AP calculus and AP physics. Six of 18 AP calculus students and four of 14 in AP physics are girls.

George Zimmerman, West Mifflin's math department chairman and AP calculus teacher, said girls are "every bit as strong as the boys are."

Hreha put it this way: "I believe that girls do have the ability to do the same things as men can do."

Woodland Hills High School gifted coordinator Jo Smerdel works to counter stereotypes about girls in math and science by bringing in women with careers in those areas to meet informally with girls.

"You still see that idea that the girls who go into science are nerds. It's an upward battle," she said. "The girls that are in science are really good in science. ... I'm getting more and more of them in."

At Pine-Richland High School where eight of the 11 math teachers are women, Michelle Switala, math chairwoman, said students told her about Summers' remarks.

"We tossed it off. They think it's ridiculous, too, because they see me," said Switala, who has bachelor's and master's degrees in physics.

High-level math and science courses often are linked because the top science courses require students to reach a certain level in math. To reach the top levels, students must take algebra in seventh or eighth grade, or double up on math, or take summer courses.

"If you want to take the higher-level physics class, you have to have computational math to get into that. If you don't plan that, you miss out," said Mistick.

In recent years, Switala said, Pine-Richland has opened a section of algebra for seventh-graders and expanded geometry to a full class rather than a handful in eighth grade.

It is in those middle school years that some girls begin to lose interest in science and math.

"When kids start out, girls and boys are pretty equal," said Mistick. "Girls tend to drop out in the middle school ages. ... It's just a combination of psychological things that go on along with social things that go on in school."

In Pennsylvania, there is little difference between the achievement of boys and girls on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests in math -- 50 percent of males recorded a score of proficient or better as did 48 percent of females.

Pittsburgh Public Schools also does not have a gender achievement gap, said Diane Briars, the district's head of math.

One of the challenges is increasing the number of students overall who take top-level math and science classes, she said. In many high schools, relatively few students -- boys or girls -- reach the top.

"None of us are doing that well in math and science. It's not necessarily gender-related," Bunt said. "We need to deepen the understanding of math and science by everyone, both male and female."

For Veronica Jae, a West Mifflin Area senior taking AP calculus and AP physics, there was no question she would do well in science and math even though she plans to major in French.

"My teachers expect it of me. My family expects it of me. I expect it of me," she said.