NATIONAL CHAMPIONS BOARD MEETING
On Thursday, February 21, 2008, NGCP Champions Board members met in Washington D.C. at the national headquarters of AAUW to discuss the progress of the National Girls Collaborative Project. These Champions are respected leaders from the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and provide valuable advice and outreach for the project .
http://www.ngcproject.org/about/champions_board.html

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR NEW NGCP REGIONAL COLLABORATIVES
The NGCP is continuing to expand its services across the United States and Puerto Rico. We are now accepting proposals from organizations that are interested in hosting collaborative activities. The ideal lead organization for a collaborative is one that is already engaged in work relating to girls in STEM and can fit the collaborative activities into existing job roles and organizational events. Preference is given to organizations serving multiple states, primarily in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, and Virginia. For more information, contact Karen Peterson, kpeterson@psctlt.org.

National Girls Collaborative Project Mini-Grant Funded Projects Begin
The NGCP awards mini-grants to girl-serving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) focused programs to support collaboration, address gaps and overlaps in service, and share promising practices. These mini-grants are designed to build collaboration between existing programs and organizations in order to encourage girls to pursue STEM-related educational programs and careers.

Girl-serving STEM programs began applying for NGCP mini-grants in October, 2007. The first of those programs to receive mini-grants are now reporting back on their activities. On March 1, 2008, The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Youth Advisor, Silvia Andrade took 22 eighth - twelfth grade Latino girls from Santa Clara County schools to the University of California-Santa Clara Expandi ng Your Horizons Conference. The grant helped pay the cost of transportation to get the girls to the conference. Andrade said, "The girls' response was great, they enjoyed the workshops and came back excited and wanted to share their experience with their families and friends. For most of the girls it was the first time they had been at a university. Attending the conference gave the girls an opportunity to think about their future plans for their education and got them thinking about attending UCSC."

Texas Girls Collaborative Project Kick-off Conference
April 18, 2008, 10 AM - 3:30 PM
The University of Texas at Austin campus
The TxGCP Kick-off Conference is the official launch of the project and the first opportunity for organizations, companies and educators to meet, share best practices and forge partnerships to advance efforts aimed at diversifying the engineering community. For more information and registration visit http://texasgirls .engr.utexas.edu

NGCP April Webcast
Using the Data: How to Plan, Develop and Use Program Evaluation to Build a Better Program
April 9, 2008
11:00-12:00 PDT
Few of us love collecting or analyzing data about programs, yet data from participants and other stakeholders can be so valuable in planning and delivering a great STEM program. In this session, learn how to use National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) evaluation data to improve your program. Also learn how to create evaluation tools that will help you promote your program and its outcomes.
To register:
http://www.ngcproject.org/events/webcast _schedule.html

Assessment Workshop at WEPAN
June 8-10, 2008
St. Louis, MO
Want to get started on assessment? Get an introduction to assessment basics? Attend the SWE AWE workshop: Getting Started with Assessment: Developing and Implementing Outcomes-based Plans and develop a plan for your own assessment. We will also discuss the new pre-college outreach instruments and the high school self-efficacy tool and introduce you to the interactive database ADAPT (AWE Database for Activities and Participant Tracking).
To register:
http://www.wepan.org

Techbridge Summer Training Institute
August 4-6, 2008
Oakland, CA
This 3-day workshop will teach participants strategies for encouraging girls in technology, science and engineering.
Techbridge has served over 2,000 girls through after- school and summer programs over the past 8 years, working closely with teachers, parents, role models and corporate partners. Founded by Chabot Space & Science Center, Techbridge offer hands-on projects developed for girls and career exploration activities such as field trips to companies and role model visits. The Summer Training Institute shares our best practices and curriculum while providing the tools and framework for achieving success to engage girls in technology and science.
http://www.techbridgegirls.org/programs_instit ute.asp

New Resources Available on NGCP Web site
We are pleased to announce the addition of two new resources to the Research Based Strategies section of our Web site. You can now find a list of informal learning resources that meet established criteria for high-quality STEM programming for girls. Visit the site for the list of programs as well as the criteria used for their selection. You can also find a publication summarizing the evaluation and assessment webcast presented last fall: Good Assessment = Success, presented by Rose Marra and Barbara Bogue of the Assessing Women and Men in Enginnering Project (AWE). http://www.ngcproject.org/resources/rbs_overview.html

SWE AWE High School Self-Efficacy Instrument
The SWE AWE High School Self-Efficacy Instrument is now available at AWEonline.org (or through a front page link at SWE.org). The instrument is based on AWE's LAESE (Longitudinal Assessment of Engineering Self-Efficacy) and was developed and tested by the Female Recruits Explore Engineering (FREE) Project. FREE, supported by NSF Grant # 0624537, can be found at:
http://www.xpl oreengineering.org

WHAM-O 60th Anniversary Kid Inventor Contest
To salute its storied, 60-year history, WHAM-O is searching for the next great toy idea from its most innovative and engaged audience - kids. WHAM-O has launched its search for the next great WHAM-O toy invention with the kick-off of the "WHAM-O 60th Anniversary Kid Inventor Contest." Open to kids ages 6 - 17. The Winning Toy Inventor Will Receive $2,000 and profits from WHAM-O making and distributing their toy.
http://www.wham-o.com/contest/

NGCP Program Directory- Register your Program Today!
The online Program Directory lists organizations and programs that focus on motivating girls to pursue STEM careers. The purpose of the directory is to help organizations and individuals network, share resources and collaborate on STEM-related projects for girls. When you sign up for the Program Directory you will enter your program description, resources available within your organization, program and/or organizational needs and contact information.
http://www.ngcproject.org/directory/

American Association of University Women (AAUW) members across the country are serving as Regional Liaisons for the National Girls Collaborative Project. These Regional Liaisons help the people involved in the NGCP to make connections - to one another, to resources on gender equity, and to AAUW.

AWE is the Assessing Women and Men in Engineering Project, which provides exportable assessment instruments, literature resources, and methodologies for Women in Engineering and similar programs. AWE is developing resources for use by K-12 STEM programs as part of NGCP services.