Leggings and boots, a hunting camouflage hoodie sweatshirt, basketball shorts and team shirts, and painted fingernails stuck out from behind desks and computer screens on a recent afternoon in a Montana Tech computer lab, where 13 teenage girls gathered for Girls Excelling in Math and Science Club. They worked together to solve cryptogram word puzzles by detecting patterns and using contextual clues.

Two of these girls were Elli Quist and Ally Kukay, both 11. This was their second year with the club, and they had just come to the recent late afternoon meeting from basketball practice.