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Albany, NY – NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION SERIES
POWERFUL SIGNALS: TRANSFORMING THE ROLE OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
THE GIDGET PIPELINE PROJECT K-12: OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY'S AFTER SCHOOL TECHNOLOGY CLUB -
The Gidget Pipeline Project recommends educating girls to be
designers, not just users. It says educators and parents should
help girls imagine themselves early in life as creators and producers
of new technology. Pamela Haag, the AAUW Educational Foundation's
Director of Research says, To get girls under the hood' of technology,
they need to see that it gets them where they want to go. Mary Thorn,
of the National Council for Research on Women believes, The need for
mentors and networking for girls and women begins at the primary school level... And so, the past few years, volunteers from Ohio State University's Women in Technology group...and OSU's TWICE (The Women in
Computer Engineering) program, have been running an after school
technology club for girls. It's generating a curriculum for others to be
able to duplicate the after school technology experience. And though
it's still early, the club reports a remarkably high retention rate of 80%,
or 8 out of 10 girls completing the full year program. TBOOK visits this
unique program in Columbus, Ohio to speak with faculty and students.
Sandra Sleight-Brennan reports. (12:47)
**(Attention Program Directors. For more details about this
popular Gidget Pipeline Project, listeners should log on to:
www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~bbair/gidget/Rationale.htm.
Also, if listeners would like to hear more stories like this one from
our exclusive radio series on STEM, just visit our special website:
www.womeninscience.org.)**
The preceding material is supported by the National Science Foundation
under Grant HRD-0436130. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or
recommendations expressed in this story are those of the authors,
and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Science Foundation.
EDUCATION HEADLINES AND UPDATES
- In news from Canada this week, classes for Ontario's 150-thousand
college students have resumed...ending a nearly three-week bitter
faculty strike. The dispute ended after a warning from Premier, Dalton
McGuinty, that he was losing patience and wanted the 9-thousand
college teachers back in their classrooms. The full-time instructors
want better pay, more faculty positions, and a lighter teaching load so
they can spend more time with their students. Their contract expired
last August. The College Student Alliance welcomed the return to
classes, but called on the government to provide tuition and fee
rebates for class time lost to the dispute.
- In other news...after 18 months of intense training, NASA's latest
astronaut candidates are now officially astronauts. The class of 11
included three Educator astronauts chosen from Teachers across
North America. The new astronauts immediate duties include support
roles in the space shuttle and space station programs, and positions
in robotics, which leads us to our next story.
Dr. Karen Hitchcock reports. (1:05)
ENGINEERING DAY -
Jill Holz of NASA Robotics is currently the Robotics Manager for the
Hubble Space Telescope. With her dual degrees in Applied Physics
and Engineering Management, Holz was the perfect candidate for one
of this year's Engineer's Week events. The society of Professional
Engineers founded Engineer's Week more than 50-years ago. And
again this year, the State University of New York at New Paltz welcomed
nearly 1-thousand students, grades 7 through 12. They came to
experience what engineers do by participating in hands-on projects.
And they all got to talk with special guest, Jill Holz. TBOOK takes
you on location for this fabulous day.
Francine Zeller reports. (4:52)