Sample of Archived Mini-Grants

California

Challenger Mission Fieldtrip to the Chabot Space and Science Center
Collaborating Organizations: Techbridge & Science & Technology Education Program
Grades Served: 6-8
This fieldtrip further broadened girls’ experiences by applying their science, math, engineering and technology knowledge and tools from Techbridge in the context of a simulated scientific activity.

Dinner with a Scientist
Collaborating Organizations: Tri-Valley MECCA and Science & Technology Education Program
Grades Served: 9-12
This grant offered female students interested in STEM fields the opportunity to have dinner with a female scientist from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Students and female scientists came together for an evening of learning, discussion, camaraderie and potential mentorship.

Fly-Away
Collaborating Organizations: Girls Go Tech& Aeronautics Alliance Project
Grades Served: 9-12
Fly-Away was an opportunity for girls to explore, investigate, and simulate real problems faced by aerospace engineers and discover the fascinating fields of aeronautics and engineering. Through a virtual flight from Moffett Field to a destination of the girls’ choice, the girls encountered, explored, and experimented with all facets of aeronautics and aerospace engineering. The girls engaged NASA engineers and researchers in their working environments, ran experiments in NASA’s renowned wind tunnel complex, explored NASA’s premier aircraft and air traffic control simulators, and learn about spatial orientation and flight physiology by experiencing the Barany Chair.

Girls Discover!
Collaborating Organizations: Science & Technology Education Program & Lindbergh Educational Center, Girls Discover
Grades Served: 9-12
Female students attending Manteca Unified School District high schools had the opportunity to participate in several “mini” career days focusing on STEM related careers. Career days focused on Food Science, Health Science, Finance/Investment and Bio Technology and featured female professionals in careers related to the focus area.

Girls in Math & Science
Collaborating Organizations: Manteca High School - Girls in Math & Science & Teen Summit
Grades Served: 9-12
This project provided enrichment activities for female students and allowed them to participate in workshops and fieldtrips. Through these activities the students were encouraged to explore their math and science interests and enroll in appropriate courses. They had the opportunity to experience the expertise of professionals in STEM related careers through an after school program. Students had the opportunity to work with these professionals in hands-on workshops in various areas including, Forensic Science, Biotechnology, Veterinary Medicine and various other specialties. Students also had the chance to visit a medical school.

Girls on the Bay
Collaborating Organizations: Girls on the Bay & BayQuest
Grades Served: 9-12
Girls on the Bay engaged 40 Monte Vista students in the interdisciplinary, standards-based, hands-on inquiry study of the San Francisco Bay with a focus on water quality, plankton, benthos and fish through the Bay Quest Program sponsored by the Bay Model Association. The students were exposed to real world applications of the sciences they are currently studying including physics, geology, chemistry and biology and courses they plan to take in the future.

Happy Hollow Park and Zoo
Collaborating Organizations: Girls Achieving in Non-Traditional Subjects & One Step Ahead
Grades Served: 9-undergraduate
At Happy Hollow Park and Zoo in San Jose, California nine “Animal Facts” exhibits were designed and built in the 1970’s by the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley. The exhibits were designed to be interchangeable so that they could be pulled out and replaced periodically with new exhibits. Students from the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) chapter at Santa Clara University partnered with students from the Girls Achieving in Non-Traditional Students (GAINS) program at Santa Clara Unified School District to repair and update the exhibits for the current audience. This was a fun, interdisciplinary and collaborative engineering project that benefited the local community.

Hello? Is Anybody Out There? An Introduction to the Fascinating World of Astrobiology
Collaborating Organizations: ASA Community Science Center and NASA Astrobiology Institute EPO
Grades Served: 6-11
This event consisted of viewing the film Aliens of the Deep and a science talk and discussion with Dr. Dijanna Figueroa about the film and her experiences as a marine biologist. The day also included an introductory Astrobiology workshop session for the girls as well as a workshop for teachers. The film Aliens of the Deep (AOTD) is inspired by concepts from the field of astrobiology, in particular, the discovery of extremophiles on Earth living at the deep-ocean hydrothermal vents. The bizarre array of organisms at the vents might provide a blueprint for what life is like elsewhere in the universe.

Increasing Impact of Role Models: Collaboration between UC Berkeley Alumni Relations and Techbridge
Collaborating Organizations: Techbridge and Berkeley Engineering Alumni Relations
Grades Served: 5-12
Chabot Space & Science Center’s Techbridge program and University of California, Berkeley Engineering Alumni Relations Office proposed a collaborative outreach effort to promote girls and underrepresented minorities in engineering by increasing the participation of Berkeley alumni and students as volunteers to be role models. Engineering alumni and students were recruited by the Alumni Relations office and trained by Techbridge to become role models.

Pass the Torch Math Teacher Training Program (PTT TTP)
Collaborating Organizations: UC LEADS & Pass the Torch and EYH Consortium
Grades Served: College
This program was designed to provide support services and upper-division tutoring for Math and Science to diversity (diversity = African-American, Native-American, Hispanic, low-income, first-generation, academic obstacles, and disabled students) students at UC Berkeley. Within this program there was a group of ten female mathematicians who were interested in pursuing careers as K-12 or Community College Math teachers. A group is collaborating with the Expand Your Horizon (EYH) entity which would allow us the perfect venue to gain hands-on teaching experiences but also provide female math role models to the EYH participants.

Passing the Torch: Diverse UC Undergrads Inspire Girls to Pursue STEM Degrees through COSMOS Program
Collaborating Organizations: COSMOS: UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC San Diego & UC Santa Cruz and UC LEADS & Pass theTorch
Grades Served: 8-12 and UCB undergrad students
Selected underrepresented minority UC Berkeley female students, who were doing high level undergraduate or graduate work in STEM fields and who participated in the UC LEADS Science Research Program role modeled leadership and brought the message to their former high schools about the COSMOS summer program in math and science for high achieving high school students. COSMOS is a UC residential summer program at four UC campuses: Davis, Irvine, San Diego and Santa Cruz. COSMOS (California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science) is a University of California program. This four-week summer residential immersion program served high school students from throughout the state who excel in mathematics or science.

SCUSD/Techbridge Development Project
Collaborating Organizations: SCUSD Girls' After School Engineering Project and Techbridge
Grades Served: 7-8
The Sacramento City Unified School District wanted to create an after school program aimed at stopping the attrition of interest in STEM subjects by middle school girls. This took the form of a collaboration and consultation to train Sacramento area teachers and mentors to create and deliver a Techbridge program. In order to develop teacher and community interest in creating this delivery team we need to first interest key individuals in the program to create a discovery group, asses its viability in our district, then determine if we can build the resource bank of people and dollars to create the program. The prime goal of this mini grant was to answer the above questions and if the answers were positive to then put a core team in place with the necessary skills and interest to create a project timeline and secure necessary funding to move forward.

Sewer Science Laboratory Workshop
Collaborating Organizations: California High School San Ramon & Dublin San Ramon Services District
Grades Served: 9-12
Sewer Science was a hands-on, interactive laboratory workshop that brought together the Dublin San Ramon Services District, a local wastewater agency, and female students from California High School (San Ramon) to study how wastewater is collected, treated and disposed in an environmentally safe manner. During this six-day workshop, students created sewage and learn how to clean it up. They learned the proper protocols to work with microscopes and other laboratory equipment and personal protective gear. Students also had the opportunity to interact with wastewater professionals who motivated the girls to pursue careers in STEM by teaching them how to be good stewards of the environment and clean up wastewater.

You Go Girl: SUSD Girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math
Collaborating Organizations: Stockton Unified School District & EYH Consortium
Grades Served: 7-12
This mini-grant gave the opportunity for an additional 50 female students from Stockton Unified School District who would not be otherwise have the funds the chance to attend the 2006 San Joaquin Expanding Your Horizons Conference. At the conference, all girls participated in hands-on STEM-based workshops and interacted with female role models who are science and engineering professionals.