July
2014
August Brings Awesome STEM News at Girls Stem Collaborative (GSGSC)
 
Greetings from GSGSC! The Garden State Girls STEM Collaborative is the New Jersey initiative of the National Girls Collaborative Project, a program focused on providing high quality STEM activities to girls. Our primary goal is to strengthen the capacity of girl-serving STEM programs to effectively reach and serve underrepresented girls in STEM by sharing promising practice research and program models, outcomes, products and by connecting formal and informal educators, business and industry in order to maximize the resources that can positively influence our girls. 
As always, this newsletter is for you as members of the Collaborative. It can serve as a forum to promote events and to highlight the good work that you all do, so please let me know what is going on so we can include your program in upcoming issues.
 
In this issue:
  • Science academies a hot trend for fall in North Jersey
  • Full STEM Ahead is the #1 Resource for New Jersey STEM News - All Aboard!
  • Coding in N.J. classrooms: 'Language' of computer science grows as life-skill
  • Man With Dwarfism Wears Hidden Camera to Show a Day From His POV
  • Take Advantage of this Valuable FREE Resource: Is your program listed?
  • LEGO Launches Collection of Female Scientist Figurines
 
Mike MacEwan
Collaborative Lead, Garden State Girls STEM Collaborative
 
By Hannan Adely

With schools set to open in about three weeks, the hottest trend in education is the launching of special academies for science, technology, engineering and math, aimed at training future high-tech workers and capturing the fascination of young people born to a digital age.

The Tenafly School District will open its STEM academy, bringing together the four fields of study, in September, and there already are established ones in the Cresskill, Bergenfield and Paterson public schools, as well as high-tech learning centers in private schools.

While specialized academies have been promoted as a means to raising the achievement of American students, meeting workplace demands, and helping young people compete with their counterparts in other nations in a fast-evolving high-tech economy, some critics say such programs are vastly uneven in quality and resources and offer advice on how the best well-established academies have succeeded.

Educators say the small schools or school programs are intended to improve students' knowledge and global competitiveness and encourage career choices in the STEM fields. Demand is also coming from students who have a growing interest in computers and technology, from families that believe the coursework offers a path to success, and from business leaders who say such skills will keep America competitive in a changing world economy.

But critics say the academies alone don't go far enough unless they have the right resources and teaching talent. Some vary in quality or lack proper facilities, including well-equipped science labs.
 
Click here to read more from this article.
Full STEM Ahead is the #1 Resource for New Jersey STEM News - All Aboard!
 
Eighty percent of jobs created in the next decade will require math and science skills (National Science Foundation). NJSACC's new Full STEM Ahead! Afterschool Initiative continues to help New Jersey afterschool providers become STEM leaders, preparing students for these jobs.
 
Some of their latest informative STEM news include such items as:
Click here to stay up-to-date at FullSTEMAhead.org
 
By Susan Bloom

Microsoft founder Bill Gates got his first exposure at age 13. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg started when he was about 12. Twitter creator Jack Dorsey was 8 and Dropbox founder Drew Houston was just 5.

These gurus of tech were only kids when they began learning how to program a computer. None started by trying to solve complex algorithms, rather they played games or designed simple objects. In the process, they learned code.

"Code is how any technology works - from computers to phones, coffee pots, cars and electronics. Anything driven by a computer mechanism requires code," says Andrea Ballina, a technology teacher at Bradley Beach Elementary School.

And as with Spanish, French, German or Italian, a growing number of K-through-12 districts in New Jersey are including the "language" of technology in their curriculum. It's estimated that one in every 10 schools now offers classes in coding for students at all grade levels.

"Just like we use the principles of math or the words in world languages as building blocks for those studies, code is a form of communication," says Marie Blistan, vice president of the New Jersey Education Association.

"Coding is its own language, not like anything else. It's sort of like learning music and then applying it," says Ballina, who introduced coding to her fifth-grade class for the first time during the 2013-14 academic year.

"There are so many great games and exercises out there today that make learning code fun for kids, and they can see the results of their work right on the screen," she says. "I feel like this is the real meaning of and most effective way to teach logic - not in an abstract way, but rather making it happen right then."

Ballina's 25 fifth-graders attended her technology class once every six days for a 45-minute coding session, during which they learned how to create games and animation with user-friendly software programs such as Scratch and Tynker. "We designed a maze as a whole class," says Thomas Sexsmith, 11, who was particularly adept at computer science basics and often helped other classmates navigate coding assignments.

Click here to read more from this article.
 
By Zain Meghji

New York is a big city, and the sheer size of it can be overwhelming for anyone. Now imagine what it feels like if you are a little person. Jonathan Novick, 22, has achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism.

Sharing a definition of dwarfism, Novick says it is "the abnormal underdevelopment of the body characterized predominantly by extreme shortness of stature." He adds, "The term is dwarf or little person, one or the other is totally fine - just not midget ... not only is that incorrect, but it's incredibly offensive."

Novick came to New York City about a year ago. He made a short film about his experience and posted it to YouTube on Aug. 7. In less than a week, it's racked up more than 69,000 views.

He wanted to share this video so that instead of telling people about his condition and his life, he could start showing them.

In May 2013, he participated in a different film that also tells his story.

In the more recent project, he uses footage from a hidden camera disguised as a button on his shirt to show us a day in his life: his perspective dealing with mistaken identity and people snapping photos of him on the sly.

This is the question he poses to the viewer: "The next time you see someone who is different than you, think about what their day might be like, think about all of the events of their life leading up to that point ... and think about what part of their day do you want to be."

What did you learn from Don't Look Down on Me?

  

  
Click here to read from this article's source.
Take Advantage of this Valuable FREE Resource: Is your program listed?
 
The Online Program Directory lists organizations and programs that focus on motivating girls to pursue STEM careers. The purpose of the directory is to help organizations and individuals network, share resources, and collaborate on STEM-related projects for girls. 


When you sign up for the Program Directory, you will enter your program description, resources available within your organization, program and/or organizational needs, and contact information.

The Directory contains program descriptions, resources available within each organization, program and/or organization needs, and contact information. Submitted entries undergo review and verification prior to publication.


 

Click here to register your STEM program
 

By Mattie Kahn

When a 7-year-old girl wrote a stern letter to Lego earlier this year to express her discontent with the Danish toy company's offering of female figurines, she set in motion an effort to do something about it.

"I want you to make more Lego girl people and let them go on adventures...ok!?!" Charlotte Benjamin wrote in her letter.

 

At the time, Lego officials assured Benjamin that they were in fact considering a brand new female set. Now, Lego has made good on its promise.

The company debuted a the Research Institute play set on its website today. Created by geophysicist Ellen Kooijman on Lego Ideas, the crowd-sourced design platform, the collection features three female scientists: an astronomer, a paleontologist and a chemist.

In a blog post, Kooijman wrote: "As a female scientist I had noticed two things about the available Lego sets: a skewed male/female minifigure ratio and a rather stereotypical representation of the available female figures."

She added that she hoped her designs would "make our Lego city communities more diverse."

The collection launched today and is already sold out. According to the site, it will be available for purchase again later this month.

Click here to read more from this article.
Contact
Michael MacEwan 
Collaborative Lead  
Garden State Girls STEM Collaborative