SciGirls, an Emmy award winning PBS KIDS series, showcases bright, curious, real girls putting science and engineering to work, as they answer real-life questions and make unexpected discoveries in the world around them. Each half-hour episode follows a different group of middle school girls, whose passion provides an energetic model of inquiry-based science, appealing to tweens, parents, and educators alike. Ten new episodes follow girls as they design an underwater robot, engineer a "chill" ice-cream-making bike, apply real forensic methods to solving a mysterious crime, and more. While new girls are introduced in each episode, the series is unified by a pair of recurring animated characters - Izzie and her best friend Jake. Together, they embark on their own adventures and call on the SciGirls for help.
SciGirls integrates the companion website into the TV series like never before. And in Season 2, there's even more of the unique combination of TV and web that won the series a Daytime Emmy for "New Approaches" in its premiere season. Every episode features onscreen clues that lead girls to a "mash-up" game on the website, where they can create their own unique SciGirls stories. Plus, in other new interactive games, kids can search for underwater treasure, care for a colony of honey bees, and design wildlife dioramas.
And of course, kids everywhere can still join the SciGirls safe social network at http://pbskids.org/scigirls to create personal profiles, upload projects, and connect with other sci-minded girls nationwide. It's all about tweens and screens, and SciGirls' sophomore season will empower girls - as well as their parents and educators - to tap into the collaboration, exploration, and authentic discovery.
The goal of SciGirls is nothing less than changing how millions of girls think about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Every girl can be a SciGirl!
New Season! The first episode of SciGirls Season 2 takes place on the Chesapeake Bay where four SciGirls build an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV). The girls use a SeaPerch kit to build a camera-carrying ROV that they can drive around the bottom of the bay to compare aquatic life between a degraded reef and a restored reef.
After watching the episode, viewers may use their new knowledge of ROVs to play the online game AquaBot. The game scenario: Jake dropped his grandpop's championship football ring into the aquarium! Can you help fish it out? Design an ROV and drive it underwater to rescue the treasured bling. This two-level fun zone will test engineering smarts and driving acumen as the user becomes a real deep-sea diva! Check your local PBS stations for airdates, and play AquaBot starting October 13th.
SciGirls CONNECT
SciGirls has grown from a small, experimental, media-based outreach effort into an innovative national demonstration project that combines video, printed activity guides, and professional development for educators, all linked through dedicated websites. To address the critical need to engage more young women in STEM learning, SciGirls has created and applied a unique approach to SciGirls training, outreach, and educational materials, that is rooted in research into how to best engage girls in STEM. A quarter century of studies have converged in a set of strategies that work called the SciGirls Seven.
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Girls benefit from collaboration, especially when they can participate and communicate fairly - Girls are motivated by projects they find personally relevant and meaningful
- Girls enjoy hands-on, open-ended projects, and investigations
- Girls are motivated when they can approach projects in their own way, applying their creativity, unique talents, and preferred learning
- Girls' confidence and performance improves in response to specific, positive feedback on things they can control-such as effort, strategies, and behaviors
- Girls gain confidence and trust in their own reasoning when encouraged to think critically
- Girls benefit from relationships with role models and mentors
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All of this STEM-sational stuff, including the SciGirls Seven and chat ability for educators, is available online. Join the fun at http://scigirlsconnect.org!
Be sure to follow SciGirls on Twitter and Facebook and watch for sneak previews of season two episodes, short bios of mentors, and SciGirls t-shirt giveaways.
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