STEAM Newsletter – Who Runs the World: Girls!
March 21, 2023
It’s March, friends, and that means Women’s History Month! Women’s History Month is a wonderful time to honor the stories, achievements, and legacies of the amazing women who shaped STEM fields as we know them today. By educating ourselves about the past, we can create a bright future for women and girls to follow in their footsteps and forge new pathways to innovation.
If you are a new subscriber to the CAN STEAM Newsletter, welcome! We curate this newsletter with STEAM-related resources, current events, upcoming events, etc. Additionally, CAN includes content from our partners from the Million Girls Moonshot. Million Girls Moonshot (MGM) is the national initiative from STEM Next Opportunity Fund and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation designed to engage one million school-age girls in the U.S. in STEM learning opportunities over the next five years. CAN, excitedly is the entity activating Million Girls Moonshot in California.
Million Girls Moonshot’s transformative practice of Role Models and Mentors highlights some of the women’s amazing contributions to STEM fields. If you would like to learn more about the transformative mindset of Role Models and Mentors, as well as Million Girl Moonshot’s three other transformative practices, you can visit their website.
In This Newsletter:
Early Access to FREE DNA Kits for DNA Day!
April 25, 2023
Get ready for DNA Day on April 25th!
Afterschool programs connected with the Moonshot get EARLY ACCESS to Illumina’s DNA kits! Every year, Illumina celebrates DNA Day throughout the month of April. Together with schools, districts and nonprofit partners, they provide educational programs and activities for all grade levels.
Illumina is providing “Moonshot educators” the materials and support to guide meaningful learning experiences for youth to discover the power of genomics. Visit their DNA Day site to receive illumina’s genomics learning materials/DNA Kits and learn more about available resources.
Use early access code: Million Girls Moonshot
ACRES Training Cohort: Facilitating Engineering Practices
Thursdays: March 16, 30 and April 13, 2023; 7:00 - 9:00 AM PST
Engineering has become a staple of STEM programming for youth. How can we confidently bring engineering into our programming and support youth as they engage in problem-solving? In this module, you’ll gain first-hand experience with engineering by solving a design problem. As a participant, you’ll examine the components of the engineering design process and discuss ways to model the process with youth. Asking Purposeful Questions is a prerequisite to this skill.
Click2CS Virtual Workshop: Supporting Productive Failure
Wednesday, April 26, 2023; 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM PST
Knowing how to help youth see how failure can be productive is critical for developing an engineering mindset.
Join Click2CS’s virtual workshop to learn how you can create learning experiences that support youth and help them persist through their frustration and learn from failures. By engaging in authentic engineering work, youth develop engineering identities and the mindset to solve problems and change the world.
2023-24 InvenTeam Grants Initiative
Applications Close: Wednesday, May 3, 2023
The InvenTeam Grants Initiative, created by the Lemelson-MIT Program, offers an opportunity for students to cultivate their creativity and solve real-world problems through experiencing invention.
- InvenTeams are teams of high school students, educators, and mentors which receive grants of up to $7,500 to invent working technological solutions to real-world problems.
- High school educators and their teams may apply for the InvenTeams grant.
- Each InvenTeam chooses its own problem to solve.
- Up to 10 schools will be awarded the InvenTeam grant.
Professional Development Guide For Staff: Math in Afterschool
STEM Transitions and Pathways
The National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning developed professional development guides for four content areas of the toolkit: literacy, math, technology, and the arts.
Educator Guide: STEM Activities for Families
Parent & Family Engagement
NASA has created an educator guide that consists of easy to implement engaging activities for families (as a follow up to after school activities.)
IF/THEN Ambassadors – Celebrating Women’s History Month!
Role Models and Mentors
Learn about the IF/THEN Ambassadors for February and March!
Engineering Resources
Explore these resources that can be used to cultivate an Engineering Mindset all year long!
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Discover Engineering Downloadable Resources
- A Collection of resources for your Engineers Week and Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day events and activities! Download logos, ads, graphics, certificates, bookmarks, and customizable language you can share.
VolunteerMatch
Develop STEM identities in the youth you serve by Introducing them to the largest audience of committed STEM professionals working in some of the world’s most notable companies!
Create a free VolunteerMatch account and post volunteer opportunities to work with your youth today!
Research shows that role models are important for introducing girls to STEM careers, but less than 50% of high school girls know a woman in a STEM career. Exposing girls to role models helps to counteract negative stereotypes about women and STEM. Such exposure shows girls what is possible in STEM!
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: