The mission of Cool Girls Science and Art Club is to engage young girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) so they have the desire, confidence and skills to sustain their contributions to the community throughout their personal, academic and professional journeys.
The club was founded in 2008 by a group of 8-year-olds who love inquiry-based, hands-on learning about STEAM.
Cool Girls are at the apex of the power pyramid: Each semester these first- through fifth-graders select and evaluate what they want to learn with mentors' help.
Cool Girls Science and Art Club is proud to be the Convening Organization of the Colorado Collaborative for Girls in STEM and a part of the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP). Major funding comes from the National Science Foundation.
Cool Girls became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2010. No child is turned away for financial reasons. We need your help to keep the program going and to reach other girls.
Become a Cool Friend of Cool Girls today! Contact Mary Golden, Director, to volunteer or learn more about becoming a sponsor.
We are very grateful for the financial support of the NGCP, the Noyce Foundation, the Irving Foundation, LCC Consulting, Life + Tech Law, individual donors, and all the time and passion donated by mentors. And to teachers Renee Cerny and Erin Maxwell for sharing their classrooms at Crest View Elementary School in Boulder, CO.
           
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Cool Girls Science and Art Club Board Members for 2012 are:
Dr. Donna Charlevoix, Science Education Director of The GLOBE Program (chair); Cori Chavez, parent and filmmaker (CG mentor and web developer); Michelle Christenson, parent and engineer (CG director of logistics); Dr. Lauren Costantini, neuroscientist and biotech consultant (CG fundraising outreach co-director); Joelle Friedman, parent and wellness coach (CG fundraiser and chef extraordinaire); Augusta Garrison, parent and biotech scientist (CG mentor); Mary Golden, grandparent and science editor (CG director); Shannon Golden-Schubert, parent of CG founding alumna and current Cool Girl, and life sciences & technology attorney (CG treasurer and fundraising outreach co-director); Kate Hartman, science teacher (CG recorder, mentor and curriculum committee member); Karen Kehn, parent of CG alumna and current Cool Girl, and software engineer; Annette Kissinger, parent of CG alumna and yoga teacher (CG fundraiser host extraordinaire); Cindy Noel, artist and teacher (CG art director and curriculum committee member); Egbe Osamwonyi, parent of CG alumna and engineer (CG bookkeeper); and Julie Poppen, writer and CU journalism instructor (CG vice-chair, communications director, and newsletter and website editor).
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| March 2012
Dear Friends of Cool Girls,
Oftentimes, our events and field trips result from the girls' current requests and our mentors' availability, which is part of what makes our club so exciting and dynamic. In February, the girls tested different types of rocket fuel before launching film cannisters higher than the school roof. We do our best to keep the calendar updated, so make sure to bookmark the Cool Girls website and check it often. (Thank you , Susan Esrey!) You can also follow Cool Girls on Twitter @CoolGirlScience. And, don't forget to "like" Cool Girls and to post photos of our events on Facebook, where our communications director and newsletter and website editor Julie Poppen is also posting lots of interesting articles and information about activities to do with your daughters. Julie also edits EdNewsParent, well worth reading.
Mary Golden, Director
Lights, Action, Camera!
It's fine to do experiments and create art all day - but what about documenting the results so that other cool girls around the world  can replicate what we do? Both groups of Cool Girls learned some good old-fashioned reporting skills from Julie Poppen and cutting-edge video technique from Cori Chavez over the past couple of weeks. From Julie, they learned the essential questions to ask interview subjects and why it's important to take accurate notes. From Cori, they learned about the "rule of thirds", how to make use of different camera angles, and how to edit their shots into a video.
We encourage all Cool Girls to write, do experiments and make art about club activities and take photos or make videos. We will happily post them on our website. E-mail contributions to julie.poppen@gmail.com.
Cori Chavez and Julie Poppen with 1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-graders.
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International Women's Day
Thursday is International Women's Day and March is Women's History Month. In Colorado, we've got a few things to celebrate (not the least of which is Cool Girls).
- 1893: Women earned the right to vote in Colorado.
- 1894: Four women were elected to the Colorado House.
- 1912: Helen Ring Robinson, a Denver Dem, became the first woman senator in Colorado.
- 1920: Women earned the right to vote in the U.S.A.
- 1971: Women earned the right to vote in Switzerland.
- 2015 (maybe): Women will vote in Saudi Arabia.
According to a recent AP story, Colorado's state Legislature currently has the highest percentage of women in any state. The Legislature is 40 percent female, with 17 women senators and 23 female House members.
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What's Coming Up
- On Thursday, March 8, Cool Girls (both groups are invited) will take a field trip to CU Engineering to visit with graduate students about their projects. We will leave directly from school to be at the Discovery Learning Center at 3 p.m. Our first stop will be to tour a couple of labs and then the girls can practice their interviewing skills on grad students. We will leave CU at 4:30 to be back at Crest View by 5:00 p.m. Each child must have a signed field-trip permission form to participate.
- All Cool Girls and families are invited to meet Nobel Prize-winning scientist Marie Curie this week. "A Visit with Madame Curie" (aka Susan Marie Frontczak) is part of the University of Colorado WIZARD series. 9:30 to 10:30 a.m., Saturday, March 10, Room 142 of the Cristol Chemistry Building. The theatrical event also includes a Q&A.
Susan Marie Frontczak of Storysmith portrays Marie Curie.
- Both groups of Cool Girls will visit Martek Bioscience / DSM lab with scientist and board member Augusta Garrison on the last day of spring break, Tuesday, April 3. We will depart promptly from the front of Crest View at 8:30 a.m. and return by 1:30 p.m. The girls will get to be scientists for the day, wearing pint-sized lab coats and goggles (and giggles), doing experiments, watching science happen with impressive equipment, and getting their photos taken with enthusiastic scientist-mentors. And then there's pizza! Each child must have a signed field-trip permission form to participate.
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CoCoSTEM Launches from Skyline
Cool Girls Science and Art Club is the official Convening Organization of the new Colorado Collaborative for Girls in STEM, affiliated with the National Girls Collaborative Project and funded in part by the National Science Foundation. CoCoSTEM will bring more women and girls into science, technology, engineering and mathematics by providing professional development, mini-grants and other resources such as successful models of collaboration to groups that share this goal.
 The first Information and Implementation Meeting with national NGCP leaders Karen Peterson and Amy Foster of the EdLab Group is scheduled for today from 12:30-3:00 at Skyline High School in Longmont. More than 70 people representing a range of STEM interests will attend, including Ball Aerospace, United Launch Alliance, NCAR, several Colorado school districts, Hewlett-Packard, CU, CSU, Colorado School of Mines, Girl Scouts of Colorado, NCWIT, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, The GLOBE Program, CLACE, AAUW and Girls Inc. Contact Cool Girls Director Mary Golden to attend or for more information at CoCoGirls.STEM@gmail.com.
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Cool Girls Board of Directors Meeting
The Cool Girls Board of Directors is now meeting monthly. The next meeting will be held at 7:30-9:00 p.m. Monday, March 17 at the office of Shannon Golden-Schubert. The 2012 Cool Girls board officers are: Donna Charlevoix, chair; Julie Poppen, vice-chair; Kate Hartman, recorder; and Shannon Golden-Schubert, treasurer. For more information, contact Donna at charlevo@gmail.com.
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A Note of Thanks
Thank you, cool parents, for bringing healthy snacks for Cool Girls. We couldn't run the club without you. Thanks for driving girls to and from field trips, too. Lauren Costantini, thanks for supplying food for the CoCoSTEM leadership meeting. Lauren and Shannon Golden-Schubert gave CoCoSTEM a publicity push via their extensive networks of science and tech contacts. Donna Charlevoix devoted her weekend to preparing a CG brochure for the March 6th meeting. Michelle Christenson managed food supply and transportation. Julie Poppen, Cori Chavez and Susan Esrey are getting the news to you on time. Cindy Noel, thank you for putting so much time into coming up with creative art projects for the girls and explaining the science behind them, and for the lovely soaps for board members. And Cool Girls: Thanks for letting us grown-ups experience the joy of discovery with you!
 Art director Cindy Noel |
Latest News Reports on Girls and STEM
Cool Girls say farewell to Sooyeon as she returns to Korea. Thanks for supporting Cool Girls!
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