Nominate our After-School Science Project

Some members of the Coalition for Science After School have submitted a project for consideration by the American Express Members Project. This program grants funds to projects that have been suggested by AmEx members for worthy causes. We hope that you will help us by logging on to the Members Project site and nominating our proposal. You do not have to have an American Express card to participate.

The project is called "Afterschool Science and Technology Seminars," and the link is: http://www.membersproject.com/project/view/86H7ME

Should we receive funding for this project, it would support hundreds of individuals or organizations in starting science clubs. This would be a positive achievement for all of us and benefit the entire field. Even if the project is not selected, having it as a finalist would provide great publicity for after-school STEM as a goal.

Again, the link is: http://www.membersproject.com/project/view/86H7ME.

Here is a link that will take you straight to the "Guest Signup" page if you are not a cardmember:
https://www.membersproject.com/registration/guest_signup.html

All you have to do is login and click nominate. Feel free to leave comments as well. The sooner you do this, the better, since it will move up to the top of the list faster. Please also pass this link along to friends and colleagues.

Thanks for your support!

Youth Involved in Major Scientific Announcement

Today, National Geographic announced a major archaeological find in the Sahara. Follow the link to read more about the science. However, what is most relevant to readers of this blog is the involvement of Chicago-area teens in the announcement. The African gravesite was found by an expedition led by paleontologist Paul Sereno, who is also co-founder of Project Exploration, a non-profit science education organization that connects science to the public - especially minority youth. Some of those youth traveled to Niger as part of the excavation team, and still more were involved in the production of today's public announcement. Read here about Shureice, one of the junior paleontologists involved in the program. Many scientists will tell you that communicating their findings to the public is one of the hardest parts of their job. Project Exploration gives youth an early opportunity to experience the science and the communication. Visit their website announcing the find, and you should be impressed by how well they do it.

Cafe Scientifique

In response to my July 8 post, debs from the Children and Youth Blog commented that the idea of pub science would be great to offer to teens as well. I found that NSF recently funded such a project, Cafe Scientifique in New Mexico. I don't know much about it, but it seems to give teens a space to have informal conversations about science and technology. Sounds like a great idea to me!

More about Girls and STEM

In case you missed this story, a recent study finds that boys and girls are performing the same academically in math. The results of this research beg the question - why aren't women in STEM careers at the same rates as men? Significant recent research has found that parents, especially fathers, impact how girls view themselves and their career options and that interest in STEM careers is a better predictor of eventual career paths than math test scores. If you have not read Engagement, Capacity, and Continuity, this may be a good time to do that. The evidence continues to grow that schools alone cannot form the pathway to STEM careers.