The Chapel Hill branch sponsored a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) program, called SPARC, in the fall of 2008.  The project provided a 5-week program, 2 days a week,  for 3^rd to 5th grade girls in the After School Program at the Oak Grove Elementary  School in Durham, NC.  Our goal was to provide one to two hands-on activities with a female professional in a STEM field.   Two to three branch members were in attendance at each session and assessments were made at various points during the program. In terms of diversity, there were 2 Hispanics, 1 white, and 14 African-American girls.

In assessing the success of our program, we valued the comments by our branch volunteers about what they observed.  What we learned was that

1. girls at this age have great enthusiasm for anything new,
2. they don’t know many people in STEM careers, but at the end of the program
3. they had learned some of the careers of some of the women professionals we had in STEM careers.

In addition, each child left the program with a notebook which was full of their notes on the various STEM professionals and on the various hands-on activities.

What we learned about our program:

1. that the discussion on the biography of the professional would be shortened to allow more time for hands-on activities.
2. that the program we have modeled can be refined and copied in other After School Programs and
3. that it is easy to get the girls excited about STEM hands-on activities but
4. that it is difficult to predict if the girls at this age will go into a STEM career.

We have begun our Spring 2009 SPARC program at Oak Grove and will report on that program at a later date

Nicole Callahan, Program Associate for NGCP in Washington, D.C., worked with AAUW NC to recruit the new liaison. Sue Metz is an educator who has worked with the NSF funded gender equity program, “GET SET, GO,” out of Wake Forest Univ. and with other programs and projects for educational outreach locally in Guilford County.

Sue will be beginning to help The Science House Girls Collaborative by working with funded projects, and will be using her contacts through the AAUW to develop AAUW mentors to act as resource people for projects throughout our state. (replacing Jennifer McDaniel of Florida whom many of you met at the 2008 convention). She will be working with Janet Bailey of the Science House to further the NGCP program in the state.

AAUW NC members know Sue, a member of the Greensboro branch, from her service on the AAUW NC board. If you have questions or want to share information about your STEM projects, you can find her listed on the state contact page.

Karen Perry of AAUW High Point with participants.

The AAUW High Point Branch formed a partnership with its local YWCA to create the “Money Girls Project” to focus on helping middle school girls ages 10 to 14 gain skills in money management in the areas of earning, saving, budgeting, and spending.  A workshop was conducted on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons at the YWCA on Gatewood Avenue in High Point during January and February.  The project was funded by the National Girls Collaborative Project.

A team of enthusiastic girls listened to a podcast on compound interest, created business cards, toured a bank, and worked on spending exercises.  The final session was a bargaining simulation where girls used play money to visit booths and bargain for small items such as flash drives, DVDs, office supplies, games, and make-up.  All participants received a copy of the book A Smart Girl’s Guide to Money, by Nancy Holyoke.

The workshop was developed following guidelines from the National Girls Collaborative Program which seeks to fund programs for girls which develop skills in the STEM areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.  At the urging of project participants, a second session of the workshop is planned in the Fall.

• Presentation as a flash movie (should work for everyone)
• Presentation as a PowerPoint file (you’ll need PowerPoint or the free PPT viewer)
• Presentation as a PDF (six slides per page)

BDPA will provide instructors and train program participants and local AAUW volunteers. The program will expose the girls to computer concepts and give them the expertise to develop web applications. Participants will be offered a variety of skill building activities (beyond the basics taught in the public school system) and they will have direct contact with IT Professionals; thereby confirming STEM/IT majors in the real world. BDPA will be giving instructions to participants from a number of locations throughout the Triad via web cast. Local AAUW volunteers will be available to help steer the youth through the classes.

Assessment and evaluation will be achieved through informal observation and discussion with participants, informal discussion with program staff and volunteers, formalized participant interviews, and formalized data collection with program staff and volunteers.

Partial funding has been received from AAUW NC.

Contact any of the Triad Branch Presidents for more information and volunteering. [Contacts for Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point.]

Wednesday, September 10, 2008
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific (2 pm - 3 pm ET)

This webcast is a follow-up event to our November 2007 webcast. We will discuss relevant research about working effectively with girls in STEM and highlight two program models that are successfully integrating research-based strategies into their girl-serving STEM programs. To view the November 2007 webcast and read a summary publication, please visit the webcast archive.

To register (and for info on the 2007 event): http://ngcproject.org/events/events.cfm?eventid=8

Along with their hard work, students had a chance to have fun with a trip to an area water park and a visit to the North Carolina State Fairgrounds.

For more information about Ag-DISCOVERY 2008 and for applications for Ag-DISCOVERY 2009, please check the website,

http://www.science-house.org/student/agdiscovery/index.html

L’Oréal Women in Science booklet

1. Consideration of the ENVIRONMENT of your organizations and communities in order to identify unique challenges.
2. Creativity and moving out of the “business as usual” comfort zone to recruit your collaborative MEMBERSHIP.
3. Carefully defined PROCESSES and STRUCTURE for your collaborative group to guarantee effectiveness of effort.
4. Clear and timely COMMUNICATION that goes beyond reporting to seek feedback from collaborative partners.
5. Common MISSION and PURPOSE that is evidenced by seeing identifiers for every member in a collaborative’s objectives.
6. Commitment of RESOURCES that is both honest and realistic to ensure successful attainment of your collaborative’s goal and objectives.

The Anita Borg Systers Pass-It-On Grants honor Anita Borg’s desire to create a network of technical women helping one another. The grants, funded by donations from the Systers Online Community, are intended as means for women established in technological fields to support women seeking their place in the fields of technology. The grants are called “Pass-It-On” grants because they come with the moral obligation to “pass on” the benefits gained from the grant.

More info:

• Past grant recipients
• Summary of this year’s application process (June 16 - Oct 26)