Michelle George

When George developed her winning program, “Wonder Women and Real Men,” she wanted to inspire young boys to read more and young girls to gain more of an interest in math and science. Research indicates that girls in middle school often lose interest in math and science. At the same time, boys tend to stop reading recreationally. She started by inviting professional men from the community into her classroom to share their reading with her students. She also invited professional women working in the fields of math and science to come in and share their experiences with her students. The men read excerpts from some of their favorite books and talked about what they read and why they read. Two to three students are assigned to each woman, and they research their careers and develop interviews of each of the women. Articles are written by the students about these careers, and each professional woman comes back as an editor to work with the student authors to compile all of the interview articles into a final published book. George lives in Orofino.