Cool Girls is sponsoring an overnight camping trip the weekend of June 25-26 with our collaborator, the Women's Wilderness Institute, for a maximum of 11 girls from ages 8 to 11 years.        

     The girls will have a real-life, hands-on experience that extends what we focused on in the spring curriculum, which is STEAM as it relates to our home on the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. They will have fun bonding with each other through activities and games, and they will enhance their self-confidence as they set up camp and explore.

     At the WITW office at 5723 Arapahoe Avenue, Suite 1B, on Friday, June 24, from 4:00 to 6:00 pm, the girls will get to know each other better and prepare for the trip. Parents are invited to join the  discussion with WITW counselors from 5:30 to 6:00 pm.

     We'll depart in a WITW van from their office at 9:00 am on Saturday, June 25, for our destination, which is up Left Hand Canyon and about 45 minutes from town.  This private nature preserve features a lovely meadow, a creek, and a forest, as well as numerous hiking trails. 

     After setting up camp, the girls will have time for group and individual play as we learn more about STEAM through observation, discussion, and journaling. The girls can use their scientific illustration skills acquired in their springtime sessions with artist Laura Denman McCall*.

     Cool Girls chaperones Mary Golden and Karen Kehn will lead a STEAM-focused activity in the afternoon, after which the girls can choose individual or group activities before dinner preparation begins. After dinner is a fun session around the campfire before the girls go to sleep in the tents they set up in the afternoon.

     Girls are encouraged to bring the explorer tools they've received from Mary this past year as well as cameras, videocameras, magnifying lenses, binoculars and other tools, as well as musical instruments.

     Sunday breakfast and lunch will each be followed by more nature-focused exploration and fun. We'll return to the WITW office in Boulder to stow our gear and prepare for pickup by parents or guardians at 4:30 pm on Sunday, June 26.  

   The agenda includes lunch and dinner on Saturday and breakfast and lunch on Sunday (which the girls will help cook), as well as snacks. Special dietary needs can be accommodated. All transportation, food, gear, and supplies are included.

     WITW emphasizes team-building and enhancing self-confidence through accomplishment and their guides are safety-certified. Our 11 girls will be accompanied by 4 adults: Mary, Karen and WITW outdoor educators Madeline Bachner and Lindsey Miller. 

     The cost per child for the Friday presentation and two-day trip is $250, all-inclusive. Partial scholarships are available and no girl will be turned away for financial reasons. We are grateful to Cool Girls parents, individual donors, the National Girls Collaborative Project and The Noyce Foundation for their generous donations to fund scholarships. 

     For more information, please visit the WITW website and the Cool Girls STEAM Adventure in the Rockies site, or call Mary at 303.931.2280 (cell) or 303.593.2864 (home office). WITW invites you to attend an informational slideshow about its outdoor adventures at REI at 1789 28th Street from 6:30 to 7:30 pm on Tuesday, June 1, by its  Program Director Jody Radtke.

     Time is short, so please register immediately to reserve a place for your daughter by contacting Mary at mary@coolgirls-scienceart.com, or by phone.

     This will be such fun and the girls will return with a deeper understanding of and appreciation for our home in the Rockies and each other.  

CG TUESDAY GROUP (grades 1-2)

April 5:

  We made clouds with Mary and learned about the atmosphere.

April 12:

  We hiked the North Foothills trail and learned how local ecology has recovered from last summer's fire with OSMP naturalists. Magnifying glasses, prairie dogs and meadowlarks are so cool! 

April 19: Neuroscientist and Cool Girls board member Dr. Lauren Costantini helped us do experiments using our very own brains. Lauren presented several models and showed us how to build our own from clay to take home.

Watching worker bees inside their hives was amazing!

April 26:  We went to the Children's Peace Garden and learned about bees and pollination with director Annie Sweeney.  Watching the bees inside their hive was amazing! Those white spots on the ground are hail. When it began to fall, the bees moved very slowly because it was so cold. Don't worry--we were under cover! 

May 3: Ecopsychologist Margaret Emerson, author of Contemplative Hiking, took us to the Habitat to explore how we feel about nature and to draw what we saw.   

May 10:  CG Lauren and her engineer mom Michelle helped us make our own toothbrush robots!  

CG THURSDAY GROUP (grades 3-5)  

March 31:  Mary helped us understand the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami as we made art and modeled plate tectonics with frosting and graham crackers. Delicious! 

April 7: Bill Stephens, artist and industrial product designer, showed us how to use math to design things we'd like to have such as a multi-screen computer.

Cool Girls designed products with artist Bill Stephens. We had a great time!

   Bill also explained how he does 3D modeling and told us how much fun it is to earn his living as an artist designing  products he and his friends actually use. He showed us a suitcase, a showerhead, and other useful things such as a bike he races. 

April 14: CG Paula and her mom Annette arranged for Dr. Stacy Blum of Colorado Horse Rescue to bring a horse and her mobile office, including an X-ray machine, for a hands-on lesson about the way a horse's body functions...which is a lot like our own. You have to get really good grades to become a vet. 

April 21: Rebecca Crane, CU social scientist, and August Allan, photographer, showed slides and talked about their exciting work in Antarctica.  Rebecca led us in creating and analyzing a survey, so don't be surprised if we're asking YOU questions soon. 

April 26: We joined the Tuesday group at the Children's Peace Garden to learn about bees and pollination.  There are 20,000 species of bees! 

April 28: Ecopsychologist and artist Margaret Emerson* took us to the Habitat to explore how we feel about nature and to draw what we saw. Margaret is the author of Contemplative Hiking.  

May 5: We hiked with OSMP naturalists at Boulder Valley Ranch and learned about local wildlife and wilderness safety.

May 12: We did our favorite activity--designing our own experiments! Mary brought dry ice and assorted materials. We learned about carbon dioxide, pressure, and other cool things as we tried one thing and then another, and wrote up our results in our science journals.

Laura Denman McCall teaches scientific illustration by helping the girls draw animals.

      If you have not already seen the Cool Girls video, please watch it right now. You will be amazed by how quickly and how well the Thursday girls learned to manipulate this awesome technology.

     Award-winning filmmaker and mentor extraordinaire,

Dr. Deborah Fryer, volunteered to help the girls create a script outlining the history of their club. Then she worked with them to  film and edit it. The girls loved it, and did an awesome job of cooperating, collaborating, mastering a new technology, and creating a work of art.

Cool Girls and Deborah Fryer edit their film.

     We hope to do more work with Deborah, because video provides an audiovisual and artistic extension of the girls' science notebooks, and another mode for learning.  And, Deborah is a lot of fun! 

     We need video cameras and are working with CU's ATLAS program to set up a mentoring partnership that may provide such access.  If you have a videocam that your daughter can use, please let Mary know.  We'd like to continue to document our work on film, so please help us make sure as many girls as possible have access to video cameras.

      Dr. Samantha Messier, BVSD science director and Cool Girls advisory board member, noted the value of science notebooks in

an article in the Daily Camera. Most of the Cool Girls remembered to bring their notebooks each week. Several used them between sessions to record their observations and questions for further research.

Please encourage your daughter to do so this summer.  If you go through the notebook with her, you will discover that helping her to write a story or make art about her experiences is valuable for both of you. And what could be more fun than spending time talking about science with your bright, curious, intelligent daughter?

      Many STEAM professionals develop projects based on ideas they recorded in their childhood notebooks. Following the scientific method teaches critical thinking and evaluation skills in art and science:

1. Ask a question.

2. Do background research.

3. Construct a hypothesis.

4. Test the hypothesis by experimenting.

5. Analyze data and make a conclusion.

6. Communicate your results.

7. Have fun doing more experiments!

Cool Girls teach each other about sea life and fossils.

     Our first knitting party was a great success. Thanks for that go to Paula, Lilly, Alex, Ruth and Izzy, as well as mentors Pat Manka* and home-schooled student and knitting teacher Shannon* , hosts Annette and Paula, and you for getting our girls there.

     Of course, not every girl will take up knitting as a hobby but some will, and the others have learned more about what they like and don't like to do. And everyone had fun together learning something new and deepening their relationships.  When they had been knitting for about 45 minutes, there was a palpable change in their demeanor as they relaxed into the rhythm and discovered they could talk, laugh and knit at the same time...just as women and girls have done together for hundreds of years. Our mentors made this easy with their low-key and helpful approach, participating when they were asked for help and joining in the girls' conversation by talking about their own interests in STEAM.

     We shared stories about mice, spiders, gravity, horses, cooking, music, auto accidents, writing books, homeschooling, porcelain doll making, shooting targets, martial arts, math and a myriad of other topics.  Some of the girls even demonstrated the dance and karate moves they'd told us about.

     How did Cool Girls get into knitting? Knitting was an unexpected bonus that astrophysicist Meredith Wills-Davey added to her presentation last fall as a way of teaching math. In addition to being an accomplished scientist, Meredith is an award-winning knitting pattern designer. She explained that she enjoys incorporating images from her work among the stars into her knitting designs. This was an inspiring opportunity for Cool Girls to experience another way to combine art, math and science.

    Sometimes it's important to jump on a child's newly sparked interest in a subject while it's hot. Girls who would like to continue with their knitting might benefit from a number of video tutorials on YouTube and various websites devoted to knitting. It can be fun and easy to do with your child, especially finger knitting without needles.

     Here are some of the sites we've uncovered that will show you the way: 

• how to finger-knit 
• finger-knitting a flower 
• how to cast on to get started 
• how to knit a scarf 
• how to knit fingerless gloves 
•  how to knit a hat for beginners   

Knitpicks makes very good yarn and provides a series of matter-of-fact, clear instructions for a number of projects.  While supplies are available at most fabric and craft stores, the best source in Boulder is Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins at 635 S. Broadway in the Table Mesa shopping center. 

     Here's a suggestion for a parent or other volunteer who loves knitting: some of the girls said they might be interested in a Cool Girls knitting club.  

     While not everyone will form a lifelong attachment to the activities they experience in Cool Girls, they all have the opportunity to plan the agenda, make friends with other girls on their STEAM team, get a taste of a variety of new experiences and develop confidence to move forward along their own paths.   

To continue to improve the Cool Girls' technical skills, CG director Mary Golden will undertake two weeks of intensive training in June from Agent Sheets Scalable Game Design. The CU-based computer literacy program, founded by CG adviser Professor Alex Repenning, emphasizes the role of art and the fun of designing games such as Frogger with friends, both of which increased the participation of girls in the program to more than 50 percent; 78 percent of girls want to take the course again.
  

Dr. Alex Repenning coaches Cool Girls

Cool Girls will be able to post their games for others to play. We will be among the first groups of elementary-age students to use the program, which was introduced at Crest View Elementary School this year through Mary's initiative.
     Besides coordinating the CG website team, Mary is also working with acting CG Board of Directors chairperson, life sciences and technology attorney, CG parent and donor Shannon Golden-Schubert to establish mentoring partnerships with CU's Alliance for Technology, Learning, and Society (ATLAS),  TechStars and the Boulder/Denver NewTech Meetup Group.

      Shannon has connected us with several experts.  One of her contacts may lead to a collaboration with a group of girls in a school in Vietnam. 

     Cool Girls and Boulder Community Computers* (Bococo) plan to offer the girls workshops in building computers this year.

     The Cool Girls board of directors is planning a retreat and a meeting of the curriculum and fundraising committees this summer.  Volunteer and parent Joelle Friedman, an extraordinary chef and nutritional counselor, will prepare an outstanding menu for a fundraising dinner this fall.  

     Please contact Mary or Shannon if you'd like to participate on these committees.

Eureka!

Cool Girls Science and Art Club is an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization led by the girls.  Contributions are tax-deductible.  All girls in 1st through 5th grades are welcome and no one is turned away for financial reasons. Learn more about us on our in-progress website.  

Thanks, everyone!