STEAM Newsletter – Celebrating Women’s History Month
March 15, 2022
March marks the beginning of Women’s History Month. What was originally known as “Women’s History Week” in 1982, has deservedly transformed over the years into an entire month aimed at recognizing and celebrating the contributions of women in our society, throughout history.
This month, the Million Girls Moonshot and all of its partners will pay tribute to the brilliant minds and contributions of female STEM leaders who have impacted not only their field, but the world around them in meaningful ways. In celebrating the lives of these women and Women’s History Month, we must realize that in order for our world to solve some of our biggest challenges — public health, climate change, and cybersecurity — we must remove barriers for girls and women in all STEM disciplines so they can truly thrive!
To learn more about Million Girls Moonshot and their vision, you can visit their website.
In This Newsletter:
Are You Listening? Advancing Equity in STEAM
In an article for Medium, Karyn Warner, the Associate Director of STEAM Initiatives shares her experience participating in the 100Kin10 project, the UnComminission. This project listened to 500 young people share their personal experiences in STEM. The findings show that ”many students experience racism in STEM classes. This has a powerful impact on them both emotionally and academically.” How can we combat these inequalities? By centering STEM education on students’ lived experiences.
Women’s History Month
Share these resources within your program to see how you can help bridge the gap for women in STEM to celebrate Women’s History Month:
- Toolkit: Girls STEAM Ahead with NASA Resources & Events Catalog – A searchable catalog of resources and events specifically catered to engaging girls in astrophysics and celebrating women in NASA and space history
- Article: State of Girls and Women in STEM, March 2021- This NGCP resource presents a high-level summary of the most compelling statistics and research on the state of girls and women in STEM, focused on K-12 Education, Higher Education, and the STEM Workforce.
#CASTEAM22 Call for Presentation Proposals – Share Your Expertise!
Proposal Deadline: Friday, March 25, 2022
The CA STEAM Symposium is the best STEAM conference for educators in the nation, and call for proposals is now open! We hope you’ll join us as a presenter, in-person, at #CASTEAM22 to share your expertise and “lessons learned” since we last convened. Submit your presentation proposal by Friday, March 25th.
To learn more about the CA STEAM Symposium, visit their website.
Summer “Engineering Mindset” Assessment Project
Application Deadline: April 15, 2022
Are you leading engineering activities in summer of 2022? If you expect to be conducting an engineering camp or leading engineering activities for middle school youth this summer, you may be able to help with the Million Girls Moonshot (MGM) evaluation.
In exchange for your assistance, they will provide $2,000 for program expenses and a $1,000 stipend for the facilitator.
The M in STEM: Math in Everyday Life
Wednesday, April 20, 2022; 11:00 AM PST
Hosted by the National Girls Collaborative Project, this webinar will focus on ways math is prevalent and relevant in everyday life, including in afterschool spaces. Learn about ways to recognize and embrace authentic math moments and activities to help engage afterschool youth in math.
Wednesday, April 20, 2022
11:00 AM PST
Equity and Inclusion
Explore these equity and inclusion resources that you can incorporate into your programs:
- Toolkit: Women’s History Month | Managing American Spaces (state.gov) Resource Toolkit for Women’s History Month - This toolkit contains lesson plans, discussion guides, posters, social media, and movies about the struggle for women’s equality in the United States, as well as, women’s rights globally.
- Toolkit: Math Equity Toolkit – This tool kit layers professional development into “Strides” that educators can take along a path to equitable education. Topics include Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction and Creating Conditions to Thrive.
Incorporating Role Models
Explore these resources surrounding this month’s IF/THEN Ambassadors:
Microbiologist Dr. Harshini Mukundan
Engineering Mindsets
- Professional Development Guide: The National Center for Quality Afterschool – Math in Afterschool – The National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning developed professional development guides for four content areas of the toolkit: literacy, math, technology, and the arts.
STEM Transitions, Handoffs, and Coordination
- Toolkit: Brokering Youth Pathways: A Toolkit for Connecting Youth to Future Opportunity from the Hive Research Network – This toolkit shares ways in which various out-of-school educators and professionals have approached the challenge of brokering. We provide a framework, practice briefs and reports that focus on a particular issue or challenge and provide concrete examples, as well as illustrate how our partners worked through designing new brokering routines in partnership with our research team.
Parent & Family Resources
- Website: Math Communities – Students, parents, and educators coming together to play with math! Math Communities creates a virtual community that provides free access to joyful collaborative activities designed by professional mathematicians and math educators for K-12 students, educators, and families. There are lots of ways to communicate with other folks interested in math.
Activities for Programs
Explore these resources curated by Million Girls Moonshot to integrate into your programs today!
- Activity Toolkit: STEM Educators Academy Activity Toolkit from ExpandED Schools — This Activity Toolkit offers hybrid learning engineering design challenges, STEM facilitation skill builder videos, and engineering design activities categorized by content areas.
- Student Activities: 30 Active Math and Activities for Kids Who Love to Move – When kids think of math, they usually picture worksheets and flashcards. But math doesn’t have to be dull! These active math games get kids up and moving, using their whole bodies to learn facts and skills. Lots of these ideas can be adapted to suit a variety of math concepts, so choose a few to try out with your math students soon.
Mizzen by Mott
The Mizzen By Mott app delivers inspiring and engaging activities that spark learning in young people. Supported by the Mott Foundation, Mizzen is available at no cost to afterschool professionals! Encourage partners to download the Mizzen By Mott app to access STEM activities at your finger-touch!
Featured Activities & Playlists
- Playlist: STEM Activities for K-5th Grade in Small Groups – This playlist is a great mix of engineering and science activities that are easy and fun for small groups of students.
- Playlist: Science Notebooks for 3rd – 12th Grade – Keeping a notebook can help your students think and act like scientists and engineers. Sample these easy-to-implement strategies and lessons to bring science notebooking into your program.
- Module: S.INQ Up Earth and Space for 6-8th Grade – Earth and Space is an inquiry and exploration-based curriculum that uses hands-on activities focused on the relationships between the earth, the solar system, and human impacts on our global environment.
Check Out CAN’s Other Newsletters!
Access the CAN newsletter archives to view past newsletters today! You may be interested in some of our other newsletters as well: