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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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Digital Danger
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Sexting, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, AIM, YouTube and blogs...OH MY!
For
most adults, these technologies can be intimidating. Today's kids are
"digital natives" and parents must be aware of the dangers lurking in
cyber space. Explore issues like sexting, cyber bullying and social
networking sites while learning how to protect your child from online
predators and other dangers of the digital age.
Jan 13, 6-8 PM
All dates: $5/person
To register click on desired date and location.
For more information contact: Julie Halladay
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Feature Your Program or Organization Here
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Share
your success! Want others to know about a great program you are
doing? Have you tried a model that others may benefit from?
We want to hear about it. The Florida Girls Collaborative Project
e-newsletter reaches approximately 2,000 people in the state of Florida
that care about gender equity and STEM. Submit story ideas,
pictures, successes, and other info to:
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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, approximately
30,000 girls and nearly 10,000 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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2009 Florida Mini-Grant Awardees
ACES (Aerospace, Chemistry & Engineering Sciences)
Collaborating Programs: Girls Incorporated of Pinellas and WOW! That's Engineering
Girls Served: Ages 11-14
Girls
Inc of Pinellas provides Pinellas County girls with a safe, healthy,
and fun environment where they come together to learn, share, and grow.
Girls Inc Operation SMART Summer Camp ACES program fosters girls'
interest in science, math, and technology-oriented careers with a
special focus on Aerospace, Chemistry and Engineering Sciences for 60
girls ages 11 to 14. Over an 11 week camp, ACES immerses these girls in
a dedicated STEM curriculum, connects them with female engineers as
mentors and role models, provides experientially based hands-on
learning, encourages scientific inquiry, fosters cooperative project
design with relevance to real world applications, and provides an
opportunity for the girls to showcase their collaborative projects in a
community Science Fair.
Alice Software Workshop for TeachersCollaborating Programs: Florida FIRST LEGO League State Competition and WOW! That's Engineering
Girls Served: Teachers (middle and high school)
This
project will provide training for teachers (primarily middle school and
high school) to use Alice Software, which has been shown to be a more
attractive software application to involve girls in using computers and
pursuing computer science. Alice is an innovative 3D programming
environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a
story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the Web. The
goal of this grant is to train teachers to use Alice to involve more
girls in classrooms in voluntarily engaging in computer use through the
introduction of Alice as a teaching tool.
New Smyrna Beach AAUW STEM Project
Collaborating Programs: Girls Growing: Having fun with Science and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical U. Aerospace Club
Girls Served: Grades 4-5
This
project targets 20 to 25 4th and 5th grade girls in an informal, after
school exploration of science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics. These activities awaken their curiosity and interest,
stimulate their imaginations through discovery and challenge, and
encourage them to consider careers in these areas. Eight sessions from
September 2009 to May 2010 will immerse these girls in hands-on
learning projects presented by local STEM career women with at least
one field trip is included.
Sarasota-Manatee Girls Reach For the Summit
Collaborating Programs: Sarasota-Manatee Girls Reach for the Summit and Girls Incorporated of Sarasota County
Girls Served: Grades 6-8
The University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee's Campus
Action Project (CAP) is a one-day summit for 50 middle school girls,
with a particular focus on girls of lower-income households, who have a
desire to enter the STEM fields. The summit will include a female
community leader working in the STEM fields as the keynote speaker,
group discussion workshops that allow the girls to engage in a
girl-centered, supportive environment, and a researched-based hands-on
activity in which the girls can experiment and use their critical
thinking and problem-solving skills. |
2010 Mini grant applications will open in early Spring.
More details to follow. |
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Announcing the Florida Girls Collaborative Project Free Spring Forums
January 21, 9 AM - 1 PM
GS of the Florida Panhandle Camp Lodge
1600 Julow Lane
Tallahassee, FL 32310
Register
January 22, 9 AM - 1 PM
Girls Inc of Jacksonville
1627 Rogero Rd
Jacksonville, FL 32211
Register
Too
often programs that serve girls in STEM are limited in service and
impact due to size, location, funding, expertise and equipment. In
other cases, projects compete with each other, duplicating services and
seeking the same resources.
The Florida Girls Collaborative Project brings
together organizations throughout the state that are committed to
informing and motivating girls to pursue careers in science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Network and share
information about your project or organization, discuss barriers to
serving girls in STEM, and learn about mini-grant opportunities.
Girl-serving organizations, professional organizations, businesses,
higher education, K-12 teachers and after school programs are
encouraged to attend.
Special training will be provided on building
effective collaborations that are a win-win for all involved, as well
as how to prove your programs really work for funders and other
stakeholders.
For more information contact: Amy Foster |
Stay tuned for more information on our Annual
Conference planned for Spring 2010 in Orlando!
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Spring Forum Success: "She's a Scientist" Event
The
National Girls Collaborative Project focuses on two research based
strategies: informal education and evaluation. Forums are hosted each
year addressing one or both of these important strategies. This
Spring, The Florida Girls Collaborative Project hosted a forum
presented by Techbridge, a program of the Chabot Space and Science
Center in Oakland, California.
This
informative workshop helped participants understand how essential field
trips and role models are to influencing girls' career choices.
Practical tips and take home tools were shared to make these
experiences successful and engaging for both the girls and the role
models involved. Cari Holland, Girl Leadership Program Specialist from
Girl Scouts of Gateway Council attended the spring forum, along with an
astrophysicist GSGC was planning to collaborate with to
provide girl programs in STEM. Inspired by the Techbridge
workshop, Cari and Althea planned and implemented a new
program series: "She's A Scientist."
The
goal is to highlight "young" female scientists, and at the same
time help girls to see these careers are not only obtainable, but you
can have a social life and family too. Althea talked to the
girls about her career and about her education, even sharing
the struggles that she had in math and emphasized that ONE bad
grade in math does not mean that you are bad at math. The day ended
with hands-on experiments in astrophysics with GSGC program
partner MOSH (Museum of Science and History). This event had all
the necessary elements to engage girls and influence their
career choices in science, technology, engineering, and math by using
real life female mentors and offering hands on activities
which is the key to success!
Future
events planned include careers in marine biology, research and
development, and environmental engineering. For more information
on STEM programs and Girl Scouts Gateway Council, please visit their Web site, or contact Cari Holland.
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| Resources |
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Design Squad: Inspiring the Next Generation of Engineers webcast
November 17, 2009 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific
Register
Design
Squad is a PBS engineering reality show and multimedia campaign that is
all about bringing engineering to life for middle school kids. In this
interactive webinar, you'll learn how to use the series' free
educational resources to start up or spice up your efforts to get girls
excited about engineering. Learn about Design Squad, PBS' popular
engineering reality competition series, find out about Design Squad's
outreach campaign and FREE resources that you can use to get kids ages
9 and up excited about engineering and the design process, and get
great tips on how to talk to girls about engineering.
Amazing Space
Teaching
tools provides educators and developers access to all the teaching
materials available at Amazing Space. This index includes an 'overview'
with each resource. Amazing Space Web site
Amazing Space teaching tools:
- Myths vs. realities- collection of common misconceptions about space is accompanied by the facts that dispel the myths
- Classroom Activities- collection
of classroom activities includes student activity sheets, science
background information, national education standards, and more. All are
supplied as PDFs.
- Graphic Organizers- T-charts and Venn diagrams compare and contrast various celestial phenomena.
- Q&As-commonly asked questions about astronomy
and the Hubble Space Telescope
- Resources with Educator Guides-these resources have detailed Educator Guides, written by the teachers who developed the activities.
- Science content reading materials-each resource listed here represents a "reading for comprehension" activity.
- Online explorations- these are our fun, interactive online activities.
Free science education materials from
National Institute of Health that are designed to educate, engage and
inspire the next generation of scientists. For more information NIH Web site. |
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NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing
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The
National Center for Women and Information Technology is looking for
young women with outstanding achievements and aspirations in computing
and technology. Are you the future of technology, or do you know
someone who is?
What do winners receive?
Each qualified National winner receives:
- $500 in cash
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a laptop computer, provided by Bank of America
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a
trip to attend the Bank of America Technology Showcase and Awards
Ceremony, held in Charlotte, North Carolina on March 27, 2010
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an engraved award for both the student and the student's school
Who is eligible?
- Applicants must be high-school level girls (grades 9-12).
- Applicants must reside in the United States of America.
- Applicants
should have a demonstrated outstanding aptitude and interest in
IT/computing, and demonstrated leadership ability.
- Applicants should have good academic history, typically a GPA of 3.0 or better.
- Applicants should have post-secondary education plans.
- Students from groups underrepresented in computing and current Juniors/Seniors are strongly encouraged to apply.
- Past
applicants including semi-finalists are encouraged to apply, however,
previous award-winners are not eligible to reapply or receive any
awards.
- Relatives of employees or board members of NCWIT are prohibited from receiving the award.
How do I apply?
- Visit www.ncwit.org/award
- Applications open on October 7, 2009 for the 2010 National award call.
- Applicants have until November 15, 2009 to complete their application.
- E-mail any questions to aspirations@ncwit.org
New this year - Affiliate awards
There
will be Affiliate Award programs in Illinois, Texas and Florida to
recognize even more young women. The application period is the same and
young women in those states will automatically be entered into both
Affiliate and National competitions. Affiliate Award prize packages
will vary. The Affiliate Awards are possible through a generous grant
from the Motorola Foundation.
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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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