CHAPEL HILL - Carrington Middle School eighth-grader Courtney Bobbitt filled a test tube with 1 ounce of dye and 9 ounces of water to dilute it for use in a mass spectrometer.

The experiment, performed during a field trip at the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Chapel Hill, would show how medical examiners determined the cause of death for a Hmong woman who had died unexpectedly.

Field trips like these are a part of how the Women and Mathematics Mentoring Program, a nonprofit that aims to show eighth-grade girls from public schools in Durham and Wake counties that jobs using math can be fun.

"I think that a lot of girls are just so discouraged," said Lenis Chen, community education specialist with the Destiny Traveling Science Program and Courtney's mentor. "[The math and science field] is just dominated by guys."

The mentoring venture was started as a way to expose teenage girls to the variety of jobs that use math. Program director Leila Goodwin said the program is geared specifically toward eighth-grade girls for a reason.

"There had been some research done ... that eighth grade was the year when it's not as cool to be smart," said Goodwin, water resources manager in Cary's Public Works and Utilities Department. "If they can have some kind of mentoring or see something to keep that interest, that's the idea [of the program]."

The program, which runs from January through May, pairs girls with local mentors who hold jobs in a math-related profession to show them that women are paving their way in the field. The girls attend field trips set up through the program and spend time with their mentors, many of whom said they feel it's important to show girls that it's possible to pursue jobs in math and science.

"I never had anybody tell me I couldn't do math and science, but I know people who have," Goodwin said. "I just want to open their eyes to the world, to let them know they can do what they want to do."

Chen said listening to her sister's job search in the sciences field makes being a mentor more important to her.

"She was invited to this interview and everybody else there was male," Chen said. "The sciences are making progress ... but there's a lot of need for women to see women role models. I love science. My high school biology teacher turned me on to science. I enjoy being able to return that excitement."