About 18 months ago, marketing researcher Lynn Liu was in a room with a focus group of middle and high school-age girls, trying to figure out how to talk about math and science in a language that would get their attention.

It wasn't going well.

"I suggested the notion that math is around you, it's part of your world, every day, and they said, 'So what?' and basically shrugged it off, because it reminded them of the science projects they had to do in fourth grade," recalled Liu, an account planner for MARC USA, the marketing communications firm that was conducting the focus group for Family Communications Inc.

"So I talked about empowerment, and they told me they thought the term sounded a little bit 'old,' " she laughed. " 'That girl power thing is just so 20th century,' one of them told me. They also tended to relate the empowerment issue to sports.

"This was a pretty jaded group," Liu added. "I was just about ready to throw up my hands."

But Liu persevered, as did her colleagues at MARC, Family Communications, Carnegie Mellon University and other members of the Girls Math Science Partnership, who have been waging an ongoing campaign against the assumption that math, science, technology and engineering are not only too intellectually difficult but -- gasp! -- inappropriate for girls and women.

As a result, www.braincake.org is making its debut online today. It's a lively, jazzy Web site aimed mostly at middle school girls in southwestern Pennsylvania who are smart, studious but not necessarily inclined to take advanced calculus by the time they reach 11th grade.

Braincake.org seeks to change that, not just by being a Web site promoting math and science, but an online community, with chat rooms, games, contests with cash prizes, mentoring programs and scholarship resources -- all done up in girl-friendly shades of purple, pink and, of course, chocolate.

"If I could change the world, I'd start marine farms and grow crops under the ocean," the animated intro begins, a deliberate attempt to link abstract math concepts or dry laboratory research with exciting real-world -- indeed, change-the-world -- activities. Its list of navigable sites includes "She's Livin' It" -- monthly interviews and moderated chats with successful local women in math and science -- to "Girl 2 Girl," which gives girls a chance to be mentored by women working in those professions. The "Click" link invites girls to join a team-based sleuth game where the city of Pittsburgh itself is the game board.

"Chew On This"

"This is about creating buzz," said CMU professor Barbara Mistick. "And it's about getting to a place where a girl will say, 'I want to take that extra math class because I know I can do it.' "

While there are other sites targeted directly at girls, including sites developed by the Girl Scouts of the USA, Girls Inc., the National Academy of Engineering and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Braincake.org breaks new ground. "It provides an online club for middle school girls to interact with their peers about current science topics, solve science mysteries and discuss careers with young women scientists and engineers," said Yolanda S. George, deputy director of Education & Human Resources at the American Association for the Advancement of Science

The site is mainly focused on middle school girls, Liu said, because research has found that's when they tend to disengage more from their studies and focus on social activities. Girls tend to get more distracted at this age, "whereas boys are just not as emotionally outward oriented," said Liu.

Plus, she added, "Girls at that age mature emotionally a lot faster than boys. They have a good handle on language and arts; there's a sense of power over subjects like history and geography. Once they get it, they can use it and feel very much in control. Math and science are very different, because you might master one problem, but then you have to practice, practice, practice to get at the next problem," she said, "and that can be frustrating."

The idea was to reach the girls not through the usual conduit of teacher or parent but directly, Mistick added, by finding them where they live: on the Internet, at the movies and through each other. Information will be handed out at local cineplexes, and Braincake.org is promoting a "sisterhood" concept, whereby girls can sound off on topics posted monthly, find mentors and read about successful local women in math and science.

Parents aren't being shut out of the equation. A direct mail campaign will introduce the Web site to girls via their parents. And while teachers will be part of the campaign in the future, research found that they've been so often overwhelmed by work in the classroom that's left them little time to disseminate information about extracurricular programs like this one, Mistick said.

Partnership makes progress

For the past five years, the Girls Math Science Partnership, which includes Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, the Heinz Endowment, Alcoa Foundation and other local business and government organizations, has been waging a step-by-step campaign to stop girls from moving away from math and science and, consequently, depleting the region's future technology work force.

One of the Partnership's first efforts came in 2001, at Kennywood Park, when signs were strategically placed at the amusement park's newest roller coaster by a team of researchers explaining some basic science principles, such as centripetal force and momentum -- but in a jokey, amusing, visually stimulating way. Experts call this an "informal learning venue," with the idea that young people would see the signs while waiting in line, and, as a captive audience, begin to study and talk about them.

Pleased with the response, the Partnership began planning other ways to engage girls, and they might have received an unexpected boost in January, after Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers publicly suggested that "innate" differences between men and women might be one reason for the underrepresentation of women in science. While later declaring he was misunderstood, Summers' remarks inflamed many in the academic community and beyond, and reignited a nationwide debate about the issue.

Braincake.org's funders, the Heinz Endowment and Alcoa Foundation, are committed to seeing that the debate doesn't die out again. It's about hard numbers, actually: A 2003 study of career barriers for women and minorities conducted by the Center of Economic Outreach at Carnegie Mellon found that only 10 percent of women in southwestern Pennsylvania pursue degrees and certificates in science and technology fields, compared with 26 percent of men.

"Braincake makes math and science accessible, doable and "cool," while at the same time offering girls a window on the world of work," said Kathleen Buechel, head of the Alcoa Foundation. "If girls become discouraged and stop progressing in math in middle school, they may have inadvertently eliminated some wonderful career options when they're only 12 or 13."

Waking up the focus group

In the end, Liu finally found a way to reach the girls in her focus group -- by focusing on how math and science can help girls change the world.

"Play with me a little bit," she told the girls. "What if math and science were illegal? You're going back to school, and no one ever has to study math and science again?" At first, she got a lot of smiles, but then, as they considered the subject more closely, they became more serious.

"They said, 'Wait a second, this is not right,' and the discussion just took off from there," she said. By the end, everyone in the room was speaking in the same language, Liu said.

"The girls understood that math and science isn't just about numbers, it's a force of enlightenment. It makes the world a better, kinder and more beautiful place. And these girls are dreamers. They want to be part of that."