National Girls Collaqborative Project

The National Girls Collaborative Project brings together organizations that are committed to informing and motivating girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The goal of the project is to encourage organizations from K-12 education, higher education, government, professional organizations, business, and community-based organizations to collaborate with other girl-serving organizations to increase their capacity for continuation and broader impact.

The Project is currently operating in California, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, Wisconsin, and the South Central area of the United States (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas). Visit http://www.pugetsoundcenter.org/ngcp for more information.

Regional Collaborative News

California (CGCP): The California Girls Collaborative Project has tentatively set the date for their next  Annual Conference for October 19, 2006 in Livermore, CA. This is to coincide with the California Science Teachers Convention planned on October 19-22 in San Francisco. 

Massachusetts (MAGiC): MAGiC held a successful forum on Saturday, April 8, 2006.  Hosted by the Wentworth Institute of Technology (WIT), WIT President, Dr. Zorica Pantic welcomed participants and delivered a wonderful opening speech. She passionately emphasized the role of women in STEM and encouraged girls to choose careers in STEM fields.   Dr. Pantic also encouraged teachers, counselors and parents to increase their efforts in supporting girls Participants included:  high school girls, college students, members of the local Society of Women Engineers, representatives from STEM programs in Boston, MAGiC Champions Board members, Executive Committee members, parents, and school counselors.

Midwest Rural-Urban (MRU):  Still celebrating from a successful kick-off conference on April 1, participants in the MRU are preparing to submit mini-grants for the first round of awards.

South Central (SCGCP): The SouthCentral Collaborative awarded eight more mini-grants in April, bringing the total number of awards to 17. The final awards will occur in September.

Wisconsin (WGCP): WGCP is currently conducting the review of mini-grant applications. In round one, $10,735 will be awarded to programs that will serve girls across most of the state. Initial planning has begun for the Celebration Conference to be held on September 23 in Madison, WI.  Mini-grant winners will showcase projects.

Mini-grant descriptions from can be found here:  http://www.pugetsoundcenter.org/ngcp/mini-grant/sample-ca.html.  All collaboratives will have descriptions posted on the Web site once the projects are underway.

Special Requests

"Why Don’t They Hear What I Say?" - Gender and STEM researchers and advocates can download some answers to this question at http://www.fairerscience.org/dr_x.html. FairerScience.org, an NSF funded project of the Wellesley Centers for Women and Campbell-Kibler Associates, Inc. is developing a series of short readable research briefs on gender and STEM and needs your help to decide on topics. What areas do you want to see covered: single sex classes? barriers to girls’ participation? what the numbers say? STEM myths and realities? Please let Pat know at [email protected]Along with gratitude, each respondent will get some tip sheets to help them with program and project evaluation issues.

Identifying IT Programs for Girls - We need your help! The Girl Scouts of the USA has commissioned the Evaluation & Research Associates at the Puget Sound Center to investigate informal education programs to determine promising practices. We are in the process of identifying potential programs and initiatives that serve youth, primarily ages 6-10, specifically in STEM areasincluding aspects of Information TechnologyPlease click on the following link to enter information about your program or to suggest another program that meets the above characteristics.  http://www.erasurvey.org/websurvey/GSUSApre.htm    If you have any questions, please contact Vicky Ragan at [email protected] or 425.368.1029.  

 

Events

Girls 'n' Games Conference, Tuesday May 9, 2:30-6pm (poster attached):  At the wake of the world's largest trade show on electronic entertainment - where are the women and what do they want? Public conversations about girls and games, women's participation in game design and play with speakers from Europe, Asia and North America.  Moderated by Henry Jenkins, MIT, Carrie Heeter, Michigan State University,  Betty Hayes, University of Wisconsin-MadisonNicole Lazzaro, Xeodesign Celia Pearce, UC Irvine Morgan Romine, Fragdolls Ubisoft. http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/~conferences/ggconference.htm.

Resources

PBS Stations Partner with Community Organizations to Encourage Girls in Science Programs: DragonflyTV SciGirls is based on DragonflyTV, a half-hour, weekly television series broadcast on over 200 PBS stations nationwide. Now in its fourth season, the program features real kids doing real science and is designed to appeal to children from diverse backgrounds. The series is made possible by NSF and the Best Buy Children’s Foundation. http://www.dragonflytv.org

Latina Girls: Voice of Adolescent Strength in the United States, Edited By: Jill Denner and Bianca L. GuzmanLatina Girls is the first book to pull together research on the overall strengths and strategies that characterize Latina adolescent lives in the U.S. This book brings together research that challenges the stereotypical perceptions of the largest minority group of girls in the country. The volume offers solid data and suggestions for practical intervention for those who study and work to support this population. It highlights the challenges these young women face, as well as the ways in which they successfully negotiate those challenges. http://www.nyupress.org

Great Science Site:  Windows to the World in Spanish and English, http://www.windows.ucar.edu

ACE Publication Sheds New Light on Minority Students Who Pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Math MajorsAfrican American and Hispanic students begin college interested in majoring in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields at rates similar to those of white and Asian-American students, and persist in these fields through their third year of study, but do not earn bachelor’s degrees at the same rate as their peers, according to a new analysis conducted by the American Council on Education (ACE).  "Our analysis seems to dispel the commonly held belief that African American and Hispanic students aren’t interested in majoring in STEM fields," said Eugene Anderson. "We find that these students do pursue these majors and persist beyond the third year, but are not earning enough credits each year to attain a degree within six years."  http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=leadership&TEMPLATE=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=15622

ADcouncil.org advertisement for girls in April 2006 Oprah magazine: http://www.adcouncil.org/files/mathgirls_rosie_mag.jpg

Wanted: Girls Interested in Computers:  For three years, Norm Messa has not had a single female student in the high school programming classes that he teaches at the Seacoast School of Technology in Exeter. Messa has begun hosting free game programming nights for middle school girls, hoping to catch them at a time when many girls are still undecided about math and science.  Messa walked the students through a tutorial for Gamemaker and had them program a simple maze game. The girls enjoyed editing the games, creating their own characters, and telling stories, aligning with Carnegie Mellon researcher Caitlyn Kelleher's theory that girls are more interested in the applications of technology than they are in the technology itself. Kelleher is developing the next version of Alice, an object-oriented Java platform featuring elements from Electronic Arts' "The Sims," the most popular computer game of all time. After a short instruction session, the girls got to try their hands at Alice, building worlds and creating characters to tell stories while still learning some of the basics of programming in a non-threatening environment.  http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/exeter/04232006/news/99295.htm

The Simpsons "women in math" episode aired on Sunday April 30.  For more information and ainterview with one of the writers,  visit http://www.mathsci.appstate.edu/~sjg/simpsonsmath//sums.html

 

 

Karen Peterson, Executive Director

Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning
     and Technology
21540 30th Drive SE, Suite 310
Bothell, WA  98021
 
voice:  425-368-1028
web:    http://www.pugetsoundcenter.org
e-mail: [email protected]