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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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| Do you have a Second Life presence? |
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Second LifeŽ
is a 3-D virtual world created by its residents. Since opening to the
public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by
millions of residents from around the globe.
From
the moment you enter the World you'll discover a vast digital
continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and
opportunity.
You'll also be surrounded by the Creations of
your fellow residents. Because residents retain intellectual property
rights in their digital creations, they can buy, sell and trade with
other Residents.
Many
organizations are using the Second Life Grid today to enhance their
online presence and productivity by focusing on internal business uses
such as training and simulation. Others engage with their customers
through interviews, recruiting, and product research. You can reduce
travel costs and downtime by substituting use of the Second Life Grid
for real world events and meetings.
Don't you want to be where the girls are you are trying to reach?
Effective Collaboration
The
Second Life Grid enables participants in different environments and
locations to collaborate in real time in 3D space. You can walk through
a new piece of equipment, engage with a scripted training simulation,
or cooperatively design a new workspace.
Improved Communication
The
Second Life Grid provides multiple channels of communication, including
images, audio, video, text and voice, with both groups and individuals.
The platform supports multiple languages, and real-time text chat
translators are available. Educators are using the Second Life Grid as
a platform of choice for a range of distance learning options from
entire virtual campuses, to classes, office hours, meetings and
presentations. A visible indicator of speech and spatial 3D-voice makes
it easy to identify the speaker from among those present.
Enhanced Engagement with your Customers or Audience
Second
Life Grid enables a unique, two-way opportunity for direct engagement
with your customers or audience. Unlike most traditional Web sites,
this virtual world platform encourages high engagement times with
participants. Many organizations have taken advantage of this 3D
interaction space and high engagement times for focus groups, customer
research and feedback, recruiting and interviews, and other practices.
Reduced Business
Costs
Save
expensive travel and business costs through the use of the Second Life
Grid. This virtual world solution enables your organization to
establish a private or public centralized 3D meeting space where
participants can communicate, collaborate and present using voice and
text in real-time. Meet with global partners at your own branded
virtual headquarters. Participants from around the world can connect
together daily for a fraction the cost of video conferencing solutions
or airline tickets.
For more information about the Second Life Grid and how to create your own presence click here.
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Add your Program to the Online Program Directory
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.
The directory contains:
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Program descriptions with web site links
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Program resources available
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Program needs
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Potential collaboration opportunities
With the online program directory you can:
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Enter a program for inclusion in the directory
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Sign up for the e-newsletter listserv
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Search programs using various criteria |
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Girl Scouts of West Central Florida
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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Conference Registration Now Open
October 10, 2008 9 AM-3 PM
University of Central Florida
Student Union
Orlando, FL |
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This annual conference promises something for
everyone; whether your organization is already offering STEM programs
or you are just learning what STEM (science, technology, engineering,
and math) is.
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Learn about the National Girls Collaborative Project.
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Network with other professionals to share resources and collaborate with.
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Add evaluation your programs to prove its effectiveness.
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Learn how to successfully market STEM programs to girls and their parents.
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Explore the expo area to find out more about other organizations.
Best of all, this daylong conference is FREE.
Continental breakfast and lunch are provided.
For session details and to register, visit the National Girls Collaborative Project Web site.
For your convenience, a tentative agenda, hotel information,
directions, and maps are all included on the registration page.
Session descriptions are osted and an interest indicator to select
preferred workshops will be emailed to you after your registration is
received.
If you would like more information about the
conference or to showcase your organization, please contact Amy Foster,
Collaborative Lead, at afoster@gswcf.org, or 800.881.4475.
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E-Girl Project |
The
2006 National Academy of Sciences publication Rising above the
Gathering Storm is a response to the realization that the US is losing
its worldwide competitive edge in science and technology. The article
demonstrates a vital change is necessary as the US
educational system engages in attracting and retaining more women and
minorities in STEM fields. Specific goals and mechanisms are outlined
and emphasize collaboration among universities, private industry and
governmental agencies. One approach is the use of mass media
including television, the internet, and small screen technologies in
both informal and formal educational strategies to enhance public
understanding of science and technology while increasing the workforce
in these occupations.
The National Science Foundation and
many STEM professional organizations have monitored a downward
trend since the mid 1990's of women entering STEM disciplines with the
exception of the biological sciences. There was a 70% decline in the
number of freshman women choosing computer science between 2000-2005
(NCWIT, 2006) and in the best cases only 20% of undergraduate
engineering students are women. Many approaches have been tried to
reverse this trend and increase recruitment and retention of girls and
women. These range from science summer camps to reality TV to online
mentoring. These programs have had little to moderate success when
compared to the impact of forensic science TV programs. Women now
comprise 70%-90% of undergraduate and graduate students in
forensic sciences. European countries and the UK have shown
that TV programs attract girls into the STEM disciplines.
(Lieberman, LS SWE: Society for Women Engineers Magazine,
Summer, 2007:97-99.)
My
colleagues (screenwriter, director, producer, actor, scientists and
engineers) and I are working on the E-GIRL Project to develop a TV
program to attract girls into engineering. We collected original data
and have analyzed 305 girl surveys about TV and internet viewing
behavior and intent to go into STEM disciplines. Approximately
55% of adolescent respondents watch CSI -type programs and 65% of these
students began to watch them at age 14 or younger. The
programs are written for the prime time age group of 18-35
years but clearly have a much broader viewing audience.
They routinely represent 4-6 of the weekly top ten
Nielsen-rate shows. Students report that they watch these
shows for the mystery and plot and characters and only secondarily
for the science content. We will be submitting the survey data and
implications for publication in the next month.
I invite readers of this Newsletter to contact me with ideas about the E-GIRL Project and related projects.
Leslie Sue Lieberman, Ph.D.
llieberm@mail.ucf.edu 407.823.5142
Director, Women's Research Center
University of Central Florida
Orlando, FL 32816-0995
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Webcasts |
 NGCP September Webcast
Effective Strategies for Working with Girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (Part 2)
September 10, 2008
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific
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. The
November 2007 webcast recording and summary publication are both
available online.
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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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