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May/June 2012
Newsletter
Welcome to the KY Girls STEM Collaborative Newsletter
 
Welcome KGSC Member

Collaborative News
 
Development of Regional Collaboratives


The Kentucky Girls STEM Collaborative(KGSC)would like to establishregionalcollaboratives based on the CPE University regions.  In this way, there is a Kentucky university to serve as a catalyst for the establishment of the Regional Collaboratives with a regional based leadership team. The regional leadership teams will be made up of 5-8 people. 

  

The Regional Collaboratives will encourage collaboration within the regions as well as between the regions. In this way, the impact of KGSC will be distrubuted all across the commonwealth. The Regional Collaboratives will be asked to:   

  • Support the statewide KY Girls STEM Collaborative (KGSC) Mission and Values
  • Communicate regularly with KGSC
  • Help organize and support at least one regional STEM program per year
  • Help identify girl-serving organizations who are not registered in the Program Directory on the National Girls Collaborative website
  • Encourage girl organizations from the region to collaborate on mini-grants
  • Support and encourage participation in the KGSC statewide Annual Conference
  • Presentation at the November 2012 Collaboration Forum in Bowling Green, KY

 4Hgirls

 NEW Facebook Page

The Kentucky Girls STEM Collaborative Project has a facebook page. Check us out and join to keep up with STEM related news.

 

Like us on Facebook
Spring Collaborative Forum
We are planning to have a statewide Collaborative Forum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Stay tuned for venue and event news.
Upcoming Programs for Girls
Aquabots logo 
AquaBots Camp

Are you stumped on what to do this summer? Looking for something fun and challenging to do? We have eight more slots available in our AquaBots Camp. Come join us for this one-week camp for girls to explore real-world challenges in underwater discovery. Girls will work together to design the ultimate underwater vessel. Make a splash in science while learning about underwater robotics. Design and build with LEGO Mindstorm and discover how robotics are changing the world!

 

The AquaBots Summer Camp is a day camp offered on the UK campus from July 30, 2012 to August 3, 2012. Girls in middle school and high school (rising 8-11th graders) will be engaged in creative activities from 9:00 AM until 3:00 PM. Students will be dismissed at the end of the day to a parent/guardian or approved adult chaperone. The camp is a 5-day camp and commitment to all five days is required for consideration as a camp participant.


 
For more information click here

Articles, Reports, Resources
NGCP Exemplary Practice Spotlight: Family Involvement  

 

The Exemplary Practice Spotlight for May focuses on fostering family involvement to engage Hispanic/Latino(a) youth in informal learning opportunities. Research findings consistently illustrate a strong relationship between family involvement and positive youth outcomes for Hispanic/Latino(a) youth, including outcomes related to engagement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Based on a review of the literature, the Computer Science Collaboration Project has identified three strategies to foster family involvement for Hispanic/Latino(a) youth:

  • Meaningfully engage families to increase their buy-in, and build their knowledge and social networks;
  • Educate family members and other key adults to build youth's network of support and encouragement; and
  • Provide culturally competent staff to connect with and get regular input from family members.

For specific examples of how one informal science education program incorporates these strategies, view the NGCP archived webinar  Engaging Underserved Youth: Strategies for Family Involvement. Additional resources and background information can also be found in: Engaging Latino Youth in Community-Based Programs and What Works for Latino/Hispanic Children and Adolescents.

PBS News Hour: Why Aren't There More Female Scientist, Engineers? 
 

PBS News Hour: Why Aren't There More Female Scientist, Engineers? 

A recap of a live chat examines why women lag behind in some areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and what can be done to encourage more young women to pursue careers in STEM fields.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2012/04/stemchat-why-arent-more-women-in-science-and-engineering.html

GCP Webinar Is Your Website Accessible? How Do You Find Out?

 

June 5, 2012
10:00 - 11:00 AM Pacific

In this webinar participants will learn the basics of the web accessibility. A fully accessible website is one in which all visitors, with or without disabilities, using a variety of devices, can easily find information and access all the features of a site. Participants will learn basic steps they can take to assess whether their website might be excluding particular groups. No prior knowledge is required. This webinar will be presented by Terrill Thompson, Technology Accessibility Specialist at the University of Washington, where his work is supported, in part, by AccessComputing, funded by the National Science Foundation to increase the participation of people with disabilities in computing fields.

 

Register: http://www.ngcproject.org/events/events.cfm?eventid=247

What can you do to help?
Do you want to know more about what is available in Kentucky in terms of STEM education from girls? Check out the Program Directory at the NGCP site. If you have your own program for girls in STEM be sure to enter your own data in the NGCP Program Directory. Kentucky had 177 entries as of December 2011 and we're hoping for 250 entries by the end of 2012.
 
Sincerely,
 
Czarena Crofcheck
KY Girls STEM Collaborative
In This Issue
Regional News
Spring to Collaborate
AquaBots Camp
Website Webinar
Join Our Mailing List
Be sure to check out the
KY Girls STEM Collaborative Website!
4Hgirls 
About NGCP
The vision of the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) is to bring together organizations throughout the United States and Puerto Rico that are committed to informing and encouraging girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). 
4Hgirls 
Newsweek Ranks Kentucky's Gatton Academy as America's Top High School