COEUR d'ALENE — With steady hands and careful eyes, Kyli Cantrell and Serenity Waide added ingredients to a plastic container.

Their goal was to produce clean water with a filter of their creation, using charcoal and other filtration substances to purify water from a contaminated source.

"I did this before," said Waide, 16, a Kellogg High School sophomore. "It’s really good when you’re camping so you can filter your own water."

The young ladies are among about 150 female students from North Idaho high schools who were invited to participate in University of Idaho Coeur d'Alene's Women in Science program, which had morning and afternoon sessions Tuesday and continues today.

"It's good they're doing this," said Cantrell, 15, a Post Falls High School sophomore. "It’s a good opportunity for me to see different things in case I want to do a different career."

During the workshops, the students are given a water quality scenario studying the algae in Fernan Lake. They take that knowledge and conduct the filtration activity followed by a cost benefit analysis exercise. This helps with efficiency and a real-world application for the lesson.

"They do a bunch of hands-on activities in the lab, other activities at North Idaho College, and at lunch they get to sit down with scientists across the board,” said Marie Schmidt, outreach coordinator for U of I Coeur d'Alene's Community Water Resource Center. "We invite all of these different female strong role model scientists or engineers or mathematicians and talk to the girls about their experiences."

The purpose of this workshop, in its 10th year, is to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) career paths among young women.

"Even when women go into science fields, they tend to go into certain ones. I think that’s ingrained in us at a pretty young age," Schmidt said. "Even if you have strong females in your life, I mean still, our society kind of shows us that women belong in the teaching or the medical fields. This is a good exposure to see how many different STEM fields there are and different careers and for them to know that they can stand out in any field they choose."

Mark Neilson, associate dean of U of I's College of Science, which sponsors the workshops, said more women are enrolling in college right now, but not enough young women are choosing to go into STEM careers.

"The STEM fields are more men than women, and we’ve got to change that. We can't afford to have that," he said. "The world’s problems are going to be solved by the STEM disciplines. We can’t have half of the talent leaving themselves out."

Post Falls High School sophomores Kaisa Stowers, 15, and Cypris Crane, 15, said they're both very interested in STEM careers and that the workshop was a positive experience for them.

“It’s really fun, and all the teachers are nice," Crane said.

"I’ve always loved science. I thought this would be a good thing for me to come and see what it is," Stowers said. "This shows that more girls can be interested in it and they don’t have to be scared to do it."