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Florida Girls Collaborative Project Newsletter
Advancing the Agenda in Gender Equity for Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
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Florida Girls Collaborative
Project Annual Conference
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The goal of the National Girls Collaborative Project is to maximize
access to shared resources within projects and with public and
private sector organizations and institutions interested in expanding
girls' participation in STEM.
Join us at the Annual Conference to:
- Find
out about future mini-grant funding
- Learn
about successful STEM projects
- Collaborate
and network with other organizations
- Learn
how to incorporate evaluation into your STEM programs
- Use
the program directory to market your organization
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Girl Scouts of West Central Florida
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Girl Scouts of West
Central Florida is the lead agency for the Florida Girls
Collaborative Project. GSWCF serves 8 counties,
33,000 girls and 13,000 adults. Girl Scouts introduces
girls of every age to science, technology, engineering and math
(STEM) with activities that are relevant to everyday life. Whether
they're discovering how a car's engine runs, becoming math whizzes,
or learning about careers in STEM fields, girls are moving forward
into the future.
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Girls and
Information Technology
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The information superhighway is changing exponentially,
even as you read this sentence.
Did you know that the average 21 year old has watched
20,000 hours of TV, played 10,000 hours of video games, and sent or
received over 250,000 text messages or emails?
In 2006, Google was searched over 2.7 billion times
each month.
Are you still trying to figure out MySpace?
230,000 users join MySpace each day. If MySpace were a country,
it would be the 8th largest country in the world.
The average student spends 3 1/2 hours online
each day. Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube are some of the most
popular sites visited.
Use technology to engage girls in STEM and STEM career
fields.
Use YouTube to educate yourself on the plight of
students in a global world.
A Vision of Students
Today
Did you Know 2.0
Use YouTube to start discussions with girls about
gender stereotypes and science.
Science Genius Girl
FairerScience - Women in
Science Blogs provides information about blogs by women in
scientific fields. Girls interested in STEM fields can read what real
women in science are writing about their lives as scientists and
students. The blogs also allow girls to network with women in STEM
fields.
Have girls create their own webpages, videos, and
blogs.
Use curriculum and software like Microsoft Expressions mentioned
in this newsletter. Learn about social networking and
safe blogging.
Find out more about teens
and their internet habits from the Pew Internet and American Life
Project
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Add your Program to the Online Program Directory
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The online program directory lists programs and
reosurces which encourage girls to pursue careers in science,
technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The purpose of
the directory is to help organizations and individuals network, share
resources, and collaborate on STEM-related projects for girls.
- Program
descriptions with Web site links
- Program
resources available
- Program
needs
- Potential
collaboration opportunities
With
the online program directory you can:
- Enter
a program for inclusion in the directory
- Sign
up for the e-newsletter listserv
- Search
programs using various criteria
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During the spring of 2007, the Florida Distance
Learning Consortium and Girls Get IT stepped up to lead the National Girls
Collaborative Project in Florida. Over the last 14
months, their efforts in Florida have brought girl-serving STEM
programs, business leaders in STEM, educators from K-12 and higher
education together to begin the work of building a stronger, more
collaborative network to help close the STEM gender gap in
Florida.
As of June 1, 2008, leadership of the Girls Collaborative Project
efforts in Florida will become the responsibility of the Girl Scouts
of West Central Florida (GSWCF). The National Girls
Collaborative Project sends our sincere appreciation to the Florida
Distance Learning Consortium, Girls Get IT, Leah Cook and John Opper
for the work done so far and hope you will join us in welcoming the
new leadership team with GSWCF as they assume project management of
National Girls Collaborative Project activities in Florida.
The National Girls Collaborative Project comes to life in states or
regions across the country because of local leadership efforts of organizations
like the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida. If you have any
questions about present or future Florida Girls Collaborative Project
activities in Florida, feel free to contact Amy Foster, GSWCF
Director of Program Services, at afoster@gswcf.org or 800.
881.4475 ext 210.
You also won't want to miss the Florida Girls Collaborative
Project Annual Conference on October 10, 2008 at the University
of Central Florida in Orlando, FL. See the article in
this newsletter edition for more details!
We hope you find this newsletter filled with
information and resources that helps move your organization forward
in advancing the agenda in gender equity in science, technology,
engineering and math. If you would like to see a future
article featuring your successful program or strategy please
e-mail afoster@gswcf.org
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Mini-Grants Awarded for 2008
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Ornithology 101: Bird Detectives
Collaborating
Organizations:
St. Marks Refuge
Association and Astoria Park Elementary School
Girls Served:
This after-school program combined classroom and schoolyard
activities, presentations with permanently disabled birds of prey,
and birding on school grounds and at St. Marks National Wildlife
Refuge. The 20 4th and 5th grade girl participants used binoculars
and field guides to identify and carefully observe birds, and
partner with scientists to collect meaningful data. The program
combined activities and materials from the Cornell Lab of
Ornithology's Bird Sleuth curriculum and the Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission's Junior Birder Program, to engage
girls in the process of science by asking and answering their own
questions based on observations, data collection, and publishing
their original research.
Learn more about St.
Mark's Refuge
Learn more about
Astoria Park Elementary School
Girls Go Green and Stormwater Reuse (FSGE)
Collaborating
Organizations:
Florida Technical
College of Engineering; Society of Women Engineers, Space Coast
Section; and Girl Scouts of West Central Florida
Girls Served:
The Florida Showcase Green Envirohome (FSGE)
provides hands-on learning, education, research, and
self-development for women and men and will demonstrate the
economic and environmental benefits of building green. In the
"Girls Go Green and Stormwater Reuse" event, girls will
learn to connect STEM to the real world by touring the FSGE home,
meeting female role models, and learning about stormwater reuse and
how to protect their environment. On the tour they will see five
green roofs, four cisterns, solar power, wind generation,
flexipave, landscaping with Florida natives, Engineering design,
architecture, and more. The workshops will provide a hands-on look
into career opportunities for women in STEM.
Learn more about
Florida Technical College
Galactic Girls Operation SMART Summer Camp
Collaborating
Organizations:
Operation SMART Summer
Camp (Girls Inc. of Pinellas) and Mad Science of West and South
Tampa Bay
Girls Served:
Girls Incorporated of Pinellas operates a ten week
Operation SMART summer day camp for 225 girls. The camp's mission
is to "inspire all girls to be strong, smart, and bold."
This innovative camp will include a combination of specialized STEM
tracks with specific themes (earth sciences, marine biology,
chemistry, and astronomy) designed to be holistic in structure,
experiential in learning style, and conducive to new exposure to
STEM topics. The Galactic Girls track will be interwoven into a
broad array of camp activities, including a kick-off Astronaut
Academy Fair, five educational field trips to area museums and
nature preserves, relevant computer-based learning curricula,
healthy eating classes, recycling projects, and more.
Learn more about Mad
Science
Learn more about Girls
Inc. of Pinellas
Introducing Girls to Engineering Workshop 2009
Collaborating
Organizations:
The PINK Team (Robotics
Outreach)
Girls Served:
"Introducing Girls to Engineering"
is a one-day workshop that will include hands-on lab activities to
introduce 500 girls to engineering concepts and engineering and
technology career choices. The program also provides up to 150
parents with information on how to encourage their daughters in
science and engineering career fields. The grant helped provide 120
tuition fee waivers for participants and bus transportation for 71
of these girls and five teachers from two Title I schools. Hands-on
lab activities will include Alkaseltzer Rockets, Programming LEGO
Robots, Design a Dessert, Straw Structures, and Truss Bridges. The
workshop engages around 120 women engineers as volunteers to
maximize the amount of one-on-one student to engineer exposure.
Learn more about FIRST
Robotics and the Pink Team
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Where the Girls Are
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 AAUW has recently released the most comprehensive
analysis to date on trends in educational achievement by gender,
race, ethnicity, and income. This report shows that girls and boys
from the fourth grade through the end of college are making steady
educational gains. An analysis of data from all 50 states indicates
that girls' successes do not come at the expense of boys. This report
is also the first to analyze gender differences within economic and
ethnic categories. The data show that family income is more closely
associated with academic success than with gender.
The report, Where the Girls Are: The
Facts About Gender Equity in Education, presents a comprehensive
look at girls' educational achievement during the past 35 years,
paying special attention to the relationship between girls' and boys'
progress. Analyses of results from national standardized tests such
as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the SAT
and ACT college entrance examinations, as well as other measures of
educational achievement, provide an overall picture of trends in
gender equity from elementary school to college and beyond. Download a copy of the
full report here.
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Resources
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Microsoft Expression Web Software
Microsoft has
donated their Expression Web Software to the National Girls Collaborative
Project to distribute to non-profit organizations working with high
school girls. The software allows students to learn how to build a
Web site from the ground up. Tutorial and curriculum units available
at www.microsoft.com/facultyconnection/precollegiate. Click here to request a
copy of the software
Three hundred middle school students from around the
country worked on the Funworks Web site,
created by the Education Development Center to link students'
interests and hobbies to future careers in science, technology,
engineering, and math. The site - chock full of graphics, photos,
interactive games and more - can also be a wealth of information for
guidance counselors, teachers, and parents.
Design and Discovery
Looking for a way to get girls interested in
engineering? Design and Discovery
is a free program from Intel that
includes a complete, downloadable and reproducible curriculum as well
as related resource materials and an implementation guide. Design and
Discovery engages students in hands-on engineering and design
activities intended to foster knowledge, skill development, and
problem solving in the areas of science and engineering.
U.S. House of Representatives Celebrates Women in STEM
On June 4, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a resolution
recognizing the efforts of outstanding women scientists,
technologists, engineers, and mathematicians in the U.S. and around
the world. The resolution found that schools must continue to
cultivate female scientists, technologists, engineers, and
mathematicians from every background; and there is a
disproportionately low number of female students pursuing careers in
STEM, so it is crucial that we focus attention on increasing the
participation of women.
New Arctic Web Site from the Exploratorium
The Ice Stories:
Dispatches from Polar Scientists Web site, developed by
the Exploratorium, allows site visitors to meet penguin biologists,
glaciologists, cosmologists, geologists, and marine scientists working
in Antarctica and the Arctic. The site features dynamic information
about the effect of climate change on the Arctic, people of the
Arctic, polar geography, Antarctic projects, news stories, and more.
Design
Squad Trash to Treasure Competition
The PBS Design Squad
is accepting design submissions inventions that recycle, reuse, and
re-engineer everyday materials into an out-of-the-box invention. The
invention submissions should move things or people, protect the
environment, or be used for indoor or outdoor play. Grand Prize
winners will receive $10,000, a Dell laptop, a trip to Boston to see
the design built, and an appearance on the Design Squad PBS show or
Web site. Submissions will be accepted online through August 31,
2008.
Women
in Science Booklet Download
The Women in Science Booklet,
created by Science Magazine in partnership with the L'Oréal Corporate
Foundation, presents a collection of inspirational stories from women
in all walks of life whose common passion is science. The booklet is
intended to motivate and inspire young women to pursue a career in
science or engineering.
BrainCake is
one of many programs the Girls, Math & Science Partnership
sponsors. This cool Web site is designed for girls around
the globe who are interested in changing the world with math and
science!
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Webcasts
NGCP webcasts
will be taking July and August off, returning on September 10, 2008.
All previous NGCP webcasts are archived and accessible on the NGCP
Web site. Webcasts have focused on a variety of topics relevant to
girls in STEM, including evaluating girl-serving STEM outreach
activities, applying for NGCP mini-grants, and reaching underserved populations
in STEM. For example, the November 2007 webcast presented 'Effective Strategies for
Working with Girls in STEM'. Sarita Nair- Pillai,
Education Development Center, presented current research on engaging
girls in STEM, including mentoring, experiential learning and
fostering persistence. Jill Denner, Girl Game Company,
and Zakiyyah Kareem, Girlstart,
provided real-life examples of implementing these research-based
strategies in their girl- serving STEM programs.
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The Florida Girls Collaborative Project is a
collaborative effort funded through the National Girls Collaborative
Project and the National Science Foundation. Partners of the National
Girls Collaborative Project are featured above. Agencies involved
in the leadeship of the Florida Collaborative include Girl Scouts of
West Central Florida, Girls Inc. of Pinellas, University of Central
Florida and the Women's Research Center, AAUW, and Girl Scouts of
Apalachee Bend. To learn more about the National Girls
Collaborative Project or to contact one of the above agencies
click here.
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