A Mini Grant with a Mighty Impact

Last month the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) kicked-off it's California state affiliate, CalGirlS.  Next week CalGirlS will begin accepting applications for mini-grants, which are awarded to girl-serving STEM focused programs to support collaboration, address gaps and overlaps in service, and share best practices.  As a proud partner with CalGirls, the Coalition for Science After School presents this example of a successful mini-grant project to inspire you to apply for an NGCP mini-grant!

By Linda Kekelis

What is life in the dorms like? Do you have a lot of homework? Are classes hard? Do you get homesick? The girls in Techbridge have lots of questions when they meet up with college students. They want to know what college life is like and if they have what it takes to study engineering or computer science. Role models who are one step ahead of our girls are just right for providing the academic guidance that girls need and the personal stories that girls want.

Six years ago Techbridge and the Alumni Relations Office at the College of Engineering at U.C. Berkeley applied for a mini-grant from the California Girls Collaborative. This grant helped to seed a new partnership and has proven to be a win-win for both groups. Techbridge offers training and support for students and alumnae at the College of Engineering. The Alumni Office helps recruit volunteers and host trainings. The result—well prepared role models lead activities in Techbridge after-school programs and open their research labs at the university and corporate sites for field trips.

Benefits go both ways. Girls discover how engaging engineering can be and what it takes to prepare for majoring in engineering. For girls who are first in their families to plan to go to college, these encounters are especially impactful. College students talk about scholarships that help cover their tuition and offer practical advice on courses to take in high school and internships to explore in summer. Role models find that they have just as much fun as the girls and leave inspired and reminded of why they chose engineering. An added benefit for the college students—they meet alumnae and establish mentoring relationships that may help them make networking connections and land a job when they graduate.

Over the years, Techbridge has trained more than 100 role models through this collaboration with the Alumni Relations Office at the College of Engineering at U.C. Berkeley. We continue to partner and held another well-attended training this fall.

The program has come full circle and not only have Techbridge girls gone on to the Engineering program at U.C. Berkeley, these young women are also coming back to Techbridge and volunteering as role models.

I encourage you to reach out to a new partner in your community and start a collaboration. You never know where it will take you. I look forward to hearing about your success stories that result from a mini-grant from the California Girls Collaborative Project. To apply for your mini-grant visit http://www.ngcproject.org/mini-grants.

About Techbridge
Techbridge offers hands-on science, technology, and engineering opportunities for girls and partners with Bay Area school districts. Techbridge also works with local and national partners to support youth’s engagement in STEM out of school.  Want to learn more about Techbridge, and find resources for supporting role models or STEM curriculum to inspire youth in your community? Visit our website at www.techbridgegirls.org.

Girls Got Game: Techbridge Hosts the League of Extraordinary Gamers

This month's guest blog is from Techbridge, an organization based in Oakland, CA dedicated to promoting girls' interest and skills in STEM.  Techbridge also develops resources for teachers, role models, families and partners.  The organization has served over 5,000 girls in grades 5-12 since the organization was founded in 2000.  This piece was written by Linda Kekelis, Executive Director of Techbridge and Eliza Smith, Administrative and Operations Assistant.

What Does a High Quality After School Science Program Look Like?

Recently the Coalition was invited to visit the after school program at Allendale Elementary in Oakland, California.  I wanted to blog about it here because what I saw that afternoon looked to me like a high quality after school science program.

First, some background.  Allendale Elementary serves 475 students pre-K through grade 5.  According to their website, their student body is quite diverse: 37% African-American, 33% Latino, 12% Asian, 4% White, 1% Pacific Islander, 7% Other.  80% of the students at Allendale receive free or reduced-price lunch, and 42% are English-language learners.

Allendale has contracted an organization called Higher Ground to run their after school program.  About a third of the kids that attend Allendale receive some after school programming on school grounds through this organization.  The 2011-2012 school year was the first year that Higher Ground offered science in their program.  I really like the way that the organization frames after school science on their website: 

Teaching science to our after school program students is not only a way for us to support Oakland Unified's District Goals but it also allows for students to engage in fun activities that gives them a chance to ask questions, explore curiosity, make career connections, work cooperatively and reflect and change ideas... Students are learning that science is all around us and not just in a laboratory.

Have you ever built a tower out of gumdrops and toothpicks?  This was the challenge the Higher Ground facilitator Adam put before his group of kids on the day of our visit.

Higher Ground's science curriculum comes from Coalition member organization Techbridge, which is also based in Oakland.  Unfortunately, a high quality curriculum doesn't always get translated to students through a high quality experience.  I was delighted to watch Adam, a skilled facilitator, lead the gumdrop engineering activity with modifications to suit the needs of the kids in his group.  

Adam started out with a clear plan written on the white board and defined the key word that he wanted the kids to explore: compression.  He explained that they would work in pairs or threes to construct a tower out out of gumdrops and toothpicks that could withstand some compression.  

The kids first drew plans for their structures, and then they collected their materials.  But before they began to build, Adam had two volunteers construct shapes for the class to compare: a cube and a pyramid.  He pressed down on each shape and the kids described what they saw - the pyramid could handle more compression.  Now the kids were free to start engineering.

An expert facilitator knows how to break down an activity into steps, slowing down the process to encourage reflection in action and discussion amongst group members.  But there must also be a sense of freedom and expansiveness that balances the structure of an activity like this.  In high quality after school science, creativity, exploration and experimentation thrive when there are clear definitions and expectations, but not so many rules that it stifles original thinking.

The kids had 15 minutes to build in small groups.  Adam visited each group and talked to them about their designs, never telling them what to do specifically, but reminding them of what the challenge was and helping them talk out their ideas and problems.

Here is a snapshot of what high quality after school science looks like to me.  A student presses down on his group's building with his hand, testing the strength of their construction under some compression.  He's thinking ahead, improvising with materials, testing a hypothesis, talking about his observations and proposing a plan of action with his group members.  The environment is free enough for him to take control of his exploration, but it's focused enough to motivate him to stay on track with the challenge.  

In case you're curious, we didn't see anyone eating the challenge materials!

After 15 minutes, Adam had the groups stop building.  Each group talked about their structure and tested it to see where it was strongest and weakest under compression.  It is always wonderful to see the wide range of designs that are possible with such limited materials.  Adam also pointed out some innovations that the kids made - some kids doubled up on toothpicks between certain spots, while others snapped toothpicks in half in an attempt to resist compression. 

After getting more ideas from this share back, the groups had 10 more minutes to refine their designs.  At the final share, the kids talked about what they changed and why.  Adam concluded the activity with a few words about the kind of work that engineers do.  "Did anybody like building these structures today?" he asked.  All of the hands in the room went up.  "Then maybe someday you'd like to be an engineer and build houses or bridges."  These kinds of career oriented comments are critical for kids to hear in after school science programs, because otherwise they may not make the connection between the activity they just did and the idea that they could use those skills someday in a job that they might really enjoy.

So, what were some of the things I saw that made this a high quality after school science program?

1. A highly trained facilitator who knows his kids and can modify curriculum as needed,
2. An activity with clear goals that struck a balance between feeling structured and free,
3. Kids collaborating in groups,
4. Many 'right' answers,
5. Kids internally motivated to explore, create, test & try,
6. Lots of sharing of ideas and time built in to revise work,
7. Connections to STEM careers.

What do you think is important in a high quality after school science program?  Tell us and we might feature your story on our blog!

The National Girls Collaborative Project

I'm writing to share some of my experiences from  2012 National Collaboration Conference hosted by the National Girls Collaborative Project last week.  I had the opportunity to meet dozens of representatives from girl serving STEM organizations and discuss how we can collaborate to move towards supporting more women and girls in STEM.

Among the organizations I learned about at the conference was the National Center for Women and Information Technology.  The NCWIT website is full of information and resources for increasing the participation of girls and women in computing and IT.  They also sponsored the Collaboration Conference reception and the Coalition co-hosted some fun, hands-on activities along with our friends at CAISE and Techbridge.  Check out the fun we had!

We adapted an activity from the NISE Network and made edible gummy capsules out of cranberry and grape juices, using food grade sodium alginate.  The result?  Science you can eat!

 

Here's Kalie from CAISE talking about a few activities available on HowToSmile.org.  This website is full of fun, high quality, hands-on activities!

And here are some of the fabulous folks of Techbridge, including Executive Director Linda Kekelis.  One of the highlights of the Collaboration Conference for me was attending Techbridge's workshop on career exploration in engineering.  When designing engineering activities for girls, I learned that it's important for them to see real life examples of women who are passionate about their jobs and doing interesting things with their science training.  We watched a video from PBS' Design Squad that was great for prompting discussion and setting context for engineering challenges.

I left NGCP feeling inspired and motivated to keep looking for opportunities to collaborate and work towards a brighter future through science in after school!

Closing the STEM Gender Gap through Mentoring Programs

Happy New Year!  As you probably already know, January is National Mentoring Month, which makes now the perfect time to resolve to learn how your organization can impact gender equity in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields through a mentoring program.   

Why is mentoring so important in establishing equity in the STEM fields?  Isn’t it enough to provide high quality science programs in after school settings, spark boys’ and girls’ interest in science, and offer them support to explore, build, experiment and discover?

According to the Collaborative for Gender Equity in Emerging Technologies, young women don’t consider careers in science because they don’t have female role models in the field or because they feel dissuaded by adults to pursue a career in science.  Furthermore, there are powerful implicit assumptions, held by both men and women, that prevent girls from continuing on in STEM fields.  

One implicit assumption often made is that boys are just ‘naturally’ better at math than girls.  However, in a recent cross-cultural analysis of math abilities across gender by Jonathan Kane and Janet Mertz, no significant difference was found between boys’ and girls’ math abilities.  The report suggests that we need to make social and cultural changes if we want to close the gender gap.  As Mertz explains:

"None of our findings suggest that an innate biological difference between the sexes is the primary reason for a gender gap in math performance at any level. Rather, these major international studies strongly suggest that the math-gender gap, where it occurs, is due to sociocultural factors that differ among countries, and that these factors can be changed."

The partners of the Gender Equity Collaborative, and we at the Coalition for Science After School, believe that mentoring is a critical sociocultural key that can help debunk implicit assumptions about gender and science, and keep us moving towards equity in the STEM fields.   

Mentoring programs can and should look different depending on the needs of the youth in your community, and the strengths of your organization.  

• 4-H’s mentoring program Tech Wizards is designed for all youth, not just girls, who tend to be underrepresented in STEM fields.

• Techbridge highlighted in this article by EdWeek, serves over 600 elementary and secondary girls, most of whom are minorities.  The website has great resources for potential mentors. 

• New Coalition member Chidren First CEO of Kansas recently announced the launch of their mentor program.  They are currently recruiting college women seeking STEM degrees, as well as girls in middle and high school to participate in monthly meetings.

• Girls Inc of the Island City, Girls Inc of Alameda County and the Center for Science Education at the Sciences Laboratory are creating a mentoring program for 5 ‘generations’ of females - elementary, middle, undergraduate, graduate students and scientists - will participate in after school science studies together.

• At the Exploratorium, the Biology Department has created an internship program for one high school student.  This video shows that even the smallest of mentoring programs can have a tremendous impact on how a mentee feels about pursuing a future in STEM. 

If Mentoring Month, the stories listed above, or your reflections on your own career path have motivated you to make a difference in a young person’s life and in the future of the STEM field, visit mentoring.org on information on how to start a mentor program.  And if you’re already involved with a mentoring program, you’re not off the hook!  This is the perfect time time to think about evaluating your program.

How are you and your organization resolving to impact equity in the STEM fields through a mentor program?

Member Blog Post: Techbridge Student Wins NCWIT Bay Area Affiliate Award

We recently got a message from the National Center for Women & Information Technology about the winner of their Bay Area affiliate award, Ana Peña , who happens to be a participant of Coalition member Techbridge. Read on to find out about her project--and how a girl in your community could be a winner too! Congratulations, Ana!

"Ana first became interested in programming through the Techbridge after-school program.  She really enjoyed the challenging aspect of programming a robot to move and making a roller coaster function.  At Techbridge, Ana has also worked on a project making a clay animation movie.

She loves to help other Techbridge students with their programming problems, and is the go-to person in her family if anyone has problems with their computers.  Ana would like to combine her programming skills with her passion for architecture and maybe help to design and program roller coaster for amusement parks.

Unfortunately, interested and well-prepared young women like Ana often don’t choose a computer science major. Only 18% of computer and information science degrees were awarded to women in 2009 (11% at major research universities), though 57% of college degrees are awarded to women. (source NCWIT By the Numbers 2010)  The NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing is designed to reverse this trend by identifying, recognizing and supporting  young women interested in and aspiring to pursue a major in computing. 

Founded in 2007, the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing has grown to a combined National and Affiliate program with local awards serving 22 states in 2011.  To date NCWIT has recognized 855 young women and plans to grow the award program to a reach of 10,000 young women and recognize 1,000 award recipients annually.

Contrary to the name, the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing is much more than an award program.  Recipients are provided long-term support for their interests in computing through peer networking, mentorship, scholarships and access to opportunities. 

Applications open September 15, 2011 for the 2012 competition.  All high school young women residing in the US are eligible to apply for regional awards if offered in their area, as well as the national award.  Girls, parents and teachers should visit www.aspirationsaward.org for more information about both opportunities."