MO Girls Collab 
 
Early Fall 2013
In This Issue
Fall Professional Development Forum
STEM Article
Trackin' Trash
Mini-Grants Awarded
Girl-Focused STEM Curricula
NGCP Webinar
Missouri STEM Summit
Grant Opportunity
Webinar Opportunity
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Join us for the Missouri Girls Collaborative STEM Initiative's Fall Event!

 

Professional Development Forum 

 

"Engaging Youth with Disabilities in STEM"

  

October 22, 2013

10:00am to 2:00pm (Includes lunch)

Stoney Creek Inn

2601 S. Providence Rd., Columbia, MO

 

$25 Registration Fee 

Eligible for 2 Missouri Professional Development Clock Hours

Click here to register 

 

Do you have youth in your programs with disabilities? Do you struggle to fully include them in your STEM activities? Do you want to better include ALL students in your activities?

 

Gina Ceylan, PhD candidate in Science Education at the University of Missouri and specialist in inclusive education will shift your thinking about ability, and will share strategies you can bring back to your program to engage youth with disabilities in afterschool and informal science activities. 

 

The event will also explore the National Girls Collaborative Project model and efforts in Missouri.  Please bring business cards for networking. 

The NGCP Annual Survey
  
Do you want to engage more girls in STEM?
Tell us more! The NGCP Annual Survey is open for responses until
 September 27.
 
The survey is administered by  Evaluation & Research Associates as part of the project evaluation. Individual responses are kept confidential. We want to hear from you.
 
Please click here to add your response.  
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Resource Highlight

Check out this article!

 

How An After School Program Helped Me Become A Woman in Tech
By Dilainy Abreu, mechanical engineering student at the University of Rhode Island
Huffington Post, June 21, 2013

  

Dilainy Abreu describes how her three years of afterschool experience in a robotics club launched her interested in engineering and technology. She is currently a first year student at the University of Rhode Island focused on robotics. 

Click here to access full article 

Stay Tuned for 

 

Season 3!


Twin Cities Public Television (tpt) has been selected to receive a $2.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create a new season of SciGirls. The nationally broadcast PBS series SciGirls has engaged millions of girls, ages 9-13 in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and is what Parenting magazine calls "cool stuff" and the New York Times says makes science "downright enjoyable."

 

SciGirls' third season focuses on the newest frontier in science education - engaging kids to do real scientific research, or citizen science. Citizen science projects worldwide engage tens of thousands of ordinary people in innovative research, aiding scientists to make observations, gather data and investigate our world.

 

The Missouri AfterSchool Network offers trainings that incorporate the science themes explored in the TV series.  MASN looks forward to adding Season 3 trainings to its menu of curricula in 2014! 

Miss America Foundation Awards First STEM Scholarships 

 

The Miss America Foundation announced its first round of scholarship awards to pageant contestants who study in the science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) fields. The winners of the $5,000 STEM Scholarship Awards are Miss California Crystal Lee and Miss Mississippi Chelsea Rick. Scholarship winners were announced on September 12.

 

According to the Miss America website, "this scholarship will allow women to pursue numerous careers in the sciences and mathematics, fields that continue to grow exponentially as we enter into a new age of technology and medicine.

 

As the Miss America Foundation advocates STEM education through the arrival of a new scholarship, the lives of women who wish to pursue careers in STEM subjects will significantly change as they engage in dynamic careers where women can thrive and grow as humans, learners, and teachers for future generations to come."

Click here to learn more.

Join Our Mailing List

Welcome to the third e-newsletter of the Missouri Girls Collaborative STEM Initiative (MO Girls CSI). MO Girls CSI is the Missouri project of the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP), and is convened by the Missouri AfterSchool Network.

 

The goals of NGCP and MO Girls CSI are to:

  1. Maximize access to shared resources within projects, and with public and private sector organizations and institutions interested in expanding girls' participation in STEM.
  2. Strengthen capacity of existing and evolving projects by sharing exemplary practice research and program models, outcomes, and products.
  3. Use the leverage of a network or collaboration of individual girl-serving STEM programs to create the tipping point for gender equity in STEM.

 

MO Girls CSI is striving to achieve these goals by hosting a series of professional development forums and awarding Mini-Grant seed funding to new girl-serving STEM partnerships. MO Girls CSI invites K-12 teachers, afterschool providers, and administrators, higher education administrators, non-profit organizations, museums, and the business community to join the efforts.

 

We invite you to forward this newsletter to a friend!

 

Trackin' Trash: 
Missouri Girls Collaborative STEM Initiative Seeking Participants for 
GIS Pilot Project

 

 

What's in your watershed?

The Missouri Girls Collaborative STEM Initiative announces a pilot project for girl-serving programs to explore the impact trash in their community has on watersheds, using Esri Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software. The Trackin' Trash project will educate groups about watersheds, and will teach groups to chart data, plot the data using GIS software, and analyze the data with peer groups.

 

Eligible programs include: afterschool programs and clubs, school-day programs, small community organizations, and units within larger community organizations. The deadline to apply is October 4th.  This project will run through December. For more information and to apply please click here

  

Mini-Grants Awarded to 

Five Partnerships

 

The Missouri Girls Collaborative STEM Initiative awarded five Mini-Grant awards to new partnerships in May. Mini-grants are awarded to girl-serving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) focused programs to support collaboration, address gaps and overlaps in service, and share exemplary practices. Mini-grants are a small amount of seed funding up to $1,000 and are not intended to fully fund entire projects. The recipients of the funding include:

 

Blast Off with St. Louis County 4-H and the Challenger Learning Center

Students in the 4-H Tech Wizards program, a collaboration between St. Louis County 4-H, the Challenger Learning Center, and the Ferguson-Florissant School District, will construct and launch rockets with launchpads and controllers.

 

STEM Discovery

STEM Discovery will be implemented by Warrensburg Parks and Recreation Summer Day Camp from June through August and by Warrensburg Adventure Club August through May. The program will especially target girls and minority populations, but will include all children enrolled. During program activities, participants will have the opportunity to become aware of STEM careers, become knowledgeable regarding STEM principles, and apply knowledge to enjoyable and engaging experiments and activities.

 

Mini Grant for KC Power Source: Girls Only Mobile App Development Camp

In 2013, KC Power Source will partner with KC STEM Alliance to implement a Girls Only app camp week. Recognizing the need for a supportive, interactive and relevant environment to grow young women's interest in the creation of computers and technology, a special curriculum and week-long experience is being developed specifically for this group. The goal is to grow the number of Girls Only Weeks across the KC Power Source camp schedule.

 

Mini Grant for Science & Engineering Day Camp

The Science and Engineering Day Camp, held at St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, is a week-long summer camp with 30 hours of supervised, hands-on activities designed to introduce and foster interest in science and engineering among girls. The Camp will utilize curriculum from Girls Go Techbridge, an organization seeking to promote girls' interest and skills in science, technology and engineering.

 

Red Hot Robots- Jackson

A partnership between YWCA- St Louis and Mad Science. Participants at YWCA's Jackson site will be engaged in a 8 week (1 hour per week) program learning about robotics, which includes Ready for Robots, Circuit Science, Use Your Common Sensors!, Robots 101, and Advanced Robotics.

 

We look forward to seeing these Mini-Grant recipients present on the outcomes of their projects at the Missouri Girls Collaborative STEM Initiative Collaboration Conference in Spring 2014!

Professional Development:

Girl-Focused STEM Curricula

  

The Missouri AfterSchool Network will offer curriculum trainings over the 2013-2014 school year focusing on gender equity in STEM activities.

 

 

SciGirls features science activities for co-ed groups that include strategies to best engage girls in activities.

               

October 1-2, 2013

9:00am to 4:00pm

Stoney Creek Inn, Columbia, MO

Features four books:

Engineer It, Get Tech, Go Green, and Live Healthy

Cost: $240, includes curriculum books

 Kits may be rented for an additional $50 per book

Click here to register!

                  

 

 

AfterSchool Math PLUS features standard-based math activities that are informal and fun. This curriculum includes a special focus on equity for girls and youth with disabilities.

 

AfterSchool Math PLUS Training for Implementers and Endorsed Trainers

January 9-10, 2014

9:00am to 4:00pm

(additionally 5:00pm to 8:00pm for Endorsed Trainer candidates on Jan. 9)

 

St Louis Science Center Taylor Community Science Resource Center, St Louis, MO

 

Features four books:

Music Math, Jump Rope Math, Built Environment, and Art Math

Cost:$240 for Implementers, includes curriculum books

$300 for Endorsed Trainer candidates, includes curriculum books

Kits may be rented for an additional $50, or purchased for $75.

Click here to register!

Upcoming NGCP Webinar: 
Increasing Equity and Diversity in the STEM Workforce: Issues and Strategies

 

September 26, 2013

 

In this webinar participants will gain a better understanding of the issues that impede efforts to diversify the STEM workforce and learn strategies that can promote equity, fairness, and diversity in their programs and professional interactions as role models. Dr. Kimberly Tanner, Director of the Science Education Partnership and Assessment Laboratory (SEPAL), will present findings from research on why talented individuals leave the biological sciences, as well as examples of successful efforts and problematic attempts towards diversifying the biological sciences. Kimberly Bryant, Founder of BlackGirlsCode, will present information on the racial and socioeconomic digital divide and resources for computer science programs.

MO Math and Science Coalition 

MISSOURI STEM SUMMIT 2013

 

The Missouri Math and Science Coalition will be hosting its 3rd STEM Summit 2013 to bring together leaders and visionaries from business, education, and government to advance the agenda for innovation in Missouri's STEM education and policy development.

   

Pre-conference Networking Reception

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

6:00pm to 8:00pm

 

STEM Summit

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

9:00am to 4:00pm

 

Who should attend? 

All who are effected by STEM areas throughout the educational and workforce development pipeline.

 

Click here to register, then choose "events". 
SCOPE Missouri Event 
"SCOPE the Night: 
Fun with Purpose"

October 2, 2013 
6:00pm to 10:00pm
Plush, 3224 Locust St. 
St. Louis, MO 
 
$125 per ticket.  
Click here to RSVP.
 

Science Cocktails,  

Food and Dessert  

Science.  

3D Technology, Space,  

Ag Science, Computers,  

Robots and More! 

 

 

Aspirations in Computing by NCWIT (National Center for Women in Technology)

 

The National Center for Women in Technology (NCWIT) Aspirations in Computing program engages young women interested in technology and computing. By generating visibility for these young women in their local communities, the program encourages their continued interest in computing, attracts the attention and support of educational and corporate institutions, and emphasizes at a personal level the importance of women's participation in computing and IT.

 

The NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing honors young women in high school who demonstrate high-level ability in computing and leadership. Awardees are selected for their computing and IT aptitude, leadership ability, academic history, and plans for post-secondary education. Applications are currently being accepted for the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing and will be accepted through October 31st. Women in grades 9-12 are encouraged to apply.

 

Missouri award recipients will be honored at a ceremony in Kansas City on February 7, 2014.

 

For more information about the award please click here.


Grant opportunity:
Google RISE (Roots in Science and Engineering) Awards
  

Google RISE Awards are designed to support organizations that promote access to Computer Science education and give students aged 7-18 the opportunity to become creators - and not just consumers - of tomorrow's technological innovations. Goodle awards funding to, and partner with, organizations running programs that inspire, engage, and retain students on a long-term path in the field of computing.

 

Organizations are chosen based on their focus on underrepresented minorities in the field and position as changemakers in their respective countries for Computer Science at the K-12/Pre-University level. Google is especially focused on partnering with organizations that specifically target girls and currently have the potential to scale their efforts and reach more girls around the world.

 

The deadline for this year's RISE application is September 30, 2013.  

 

For more information on the RISE award, application process, and previous award recipients, please click here.

 
 
Contact:  
Sarah Chappelow
Project LIFTOFF/Missouri AfterSchool Network
1110 S. College Avenue
Columbia, Missouri 65211
Phone: 573-882-9665
Fax: 573-884-4225
  
"
Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge." - Carl Sagan