Educators across Texas are invited to attend free professional development opportunities and discover how to engage young women (ages 8-13) through  research-based, high quality activities and resources.

SciGirls Connect Professional Development

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

The University of Texas at Austin

FREE to attend

Space limited to 30 educators 

Participants attending a full day workshop will:

• Learn latest research for exciting and engaging girls (and boys) in STEM
• Experience FOUR hands-on STEM activities such as using dough to teach circuits, designing their own wind measurement machine and creating your own experiment to identify mystery plastics
• Leave with curriculum for 20 hands-on, video enhanced activities that put a creative twist on teaching STEM
• Learn how to modify any activity to excite and engage kids in STEM using the SciGirls Seven
• Discover additional online resources that enhance teaching and learning experiences for all kids 

Get all the details and register to attend at 

http://txgcp.org/scigirls/.

Additional SciGirls educational opportunities will be scheduled throughout Texas. Stay tuned for more opportunities in your region of Texas. Informal Science Learning Associates of Laredo, Girlstart, and the Women in Engineering Program at The University of Texas at Austin are certified SciGirls trainers connected with TxGCP.

• Central Texas K-12 STEM Outreach
• DFW K-12 STEM Outreach 
• East Texas K-12 STEM Outreach 
• El Paso K-12 STEM Outreach  
• Houston K-12 STEM Outreach 
• San Antonio K-12 STEM Outreach 
• South Texas K-12 STEM Outreach 
• West Texas K-12 STEM Outreach

For those not in one of these areas who still want to receive information going out to all groups, join the Texas K-12 STEM Outreach group. 

Contact Tricia Berry for any specific regional requests or questions.

Are You Listed in the Program Directory?

Gain access to mini-grants and have the first shot at opportunities such as the Water Works camp curriculum, role model training and other curriculum and resource dissemination across Texas!  Sign up your program, organization and/or event in the National Girls Collaborative Project Program Directory.  Join over 170 listings from across Texas and find collaborators and other STEM educators in your area. Registration is free...can't get better than that!

General scholarships for women, scholarships for moms and single moms, and scholarships for women who have delayed their education for a number of years or who are in search of a second career.  

MOST-Science - NEEDS Your Out of School Time STEM Program Info 

MOST-Science is a nationwide study funded by the National Science Foundation and the Noyce Foundation. We are collecting data on the organization and practices of science, engineering and technology-focused out-of-school-time (OST) programs across the country, and we are eager to gather and analyze a large, comprehensive body of data on current work in this fast-growing and diverse field.  We recently released an online questionnaire for leaders of youth OST science programs that can be found at: www.colorado.edu/eer/research/outofschool.html

The study targets OST programs for middle and high school-aged youth that focus on science, engineering and/or technology. The questionnaire asks program providers for details about who participates in their programs, for how long and how often, and with what kinds of content, hands-on activities, career information, mentors and role models participants have the opportunity to interact.  More details are available at our web site. 

White House Releases Report on Women and the Economy

The White House released a new report entitled Keeping America's Women Moving Forward, The Key to an Economy Built to Last, which examines the ways in which the Administration has worked to ensure women's economic security through all stages of life - from young women furthering their education and beginning their careers, to working women who create jobs and provide for their families, to seniors in retirement or getting ready for retirement. STEM careers are mentioned in the report.

Why are High School Teachers Convinced that White Girls Can't Do Math?

New research from The University of Texas at Austin suggests teachers have biases that white girls can't do math. Check out the Forbes article giving the highlights.

More Young Women Want High-Paying Career Pew Finds

Check out the article from USA Today higlighting new research that young women want a high paying career AND a balanced life. Good thing young women can get that with a STEM career! Let's be sure to spread the word and tell the girls and young women that fact.

How to Solve the High Tech Hiring Problem: Ask Women

From Good Business...

"To help connect companies with talented women, the Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology released a report containing specific and actionable advice for companies. If you're in any kind of hiring position in the tech world, you should read it and start correcting the common mistakes it identifies, whether a narrow recruiting process that fails to reach qualified candidates or a company culture that doesn't welcome female employees."

NGCP's April 2012 E-Newsletter "Exemplary Practice Spotlight

The Exemplary Practice Spotlight for April focuses on collaborative learning. Research has shown that girls prefer and benefit from working in collaborative groups. In What We Know about Girls, STEM, and Afterschool Programs: A Summary, Fancsali (2002) summarizes research that suggests cooperative learning groups may foster girls' STEM participation and achievement and Parker & Rennie (2002) discuss the importance of using gender-inclusive instructional strategies in the classroom, such as cooperative group problem-solving and collaborative practical work.

An important finding from this body of research is that for collaborative learning to be a valuable and beneficial experience for girls, the process must be effectively structured and facilitated. Hazari, Tai, & Sadler (2007) present negative and positive examples of group work and conclude that cooperative learning can be strongly positive if it is well-designed and 'moderated in an appropriate gender-fair way'. In a study focusing on learning mathematics in groups, Ismonde (2009) finds that some cooperative learning activities do not benefit all students, even if the groups appear to be collaborating and that cooperative learning activities need to be designed and facilitated to provide all students opportunities to share and develop knowledge. A helpful research brief discussing this study was developed by the Relating Research to Practice Project.