WEBSITES: Writing & Art + The Girls, Math & Science Partnership & Explanatoid
These two resources are interesting initiatives around engaging 11-17 and middle school girls in math, science, writing and visual literacy. Making science "girl friendly" might be a Spice Girls approach to gender and education and thus a bit problematic philosophically, however it certainly makes for some interesting resources and discussion.
This would actually be a very powerful model for an interdisciplinary project that Art, English and Science teachers to experiment with.
BTW - If you're a science specialist or know one please consider joining our MC POP Science Teachers Group.
First Resource: The Girls, Math & Science Partnership aka Brain Cake
The Girls, Math & Science Partnership's (a program of Carnegie Science Center) mission is to engage, educate, and embrace girls as architects of change. Working with girls age 11 - 17 and their parents, teachers, and mentors, we draw organizations, stakeholders, and communities together in an effort to ensure that girls succeed in math and science.
Second Resource: Explanatoids
I don't love the site design, and the actual Explanatoids are not easy to print PDFs out for teachers. That being said, I really like the actual Explanatoids assignment idea (explained here as "Make Your Own Explanatoid") as it could work in any discipline and has an interesting and public focus. I do think it is a great concept and very powerful partnership model. I think the Carnegie Mellon team improved greatly on this with the design teams' second endeavor The Fitwits. I have an article on the Fitwits that I'll post at a later date when the text becomes available online.
From the website:
Explanatoids™ is a multi-media project of the Girls, Math & Science Partnership (GMSP), part of Family Communications, Inc. All of the GMSP projects are created to help individuals in the community think differently about what science is and who can do it. Focusing on middle school girls, the GMSP projects hope to counter the negative stereotypes associated with women in math, science and technology, as well as stress the importance of these disciplines to the region's future. Explanatoids™ aims to cultivate young women's curiosity by helping them explore math and science by discovering their questions and interest in the world around them.
The explanatoids™ project is funded under a grant from the National Science Foundation and is a collaboration involving students from Carnegie Mellon University School of Design and educational assessment researchers at the University of Pittsburgh.
Each semester explanatoids™ teams develop and place "girl friendly" signage and media about the science behind "real world" questions in public places around Pittsburgh. For example at a popular roller coaster at Kennywood Park, three signs - "The Scream Team," "No Engine? No Way!" and "Choose Your Adventure" - are currently on display in the queue area. Research on the effectiveness of these signs show that they are successful in stimulating curiosity about the science behind the rollercoaster. We hope this curiosity will encourage girls, (and boys) to pursue other questions in the fields of science mathematics, technology and engineering
The character-driven explanatoids™ signage was the result of an in-depth study of over 3,000 families and serves as a platform from which parents, educators and mentors can begin to talk with young women about the opportunities available to them in the world of science. The GMSP aims to bolster "community conversations" around each explanatoids™ sign, which brings science outside the classroom and into Pittsburgh's neighborhoods.
This would actually be a very powerful model for an interdisciplinary project that Art, English and Science teachers to experiment with.
BTW - If you're a science specialist or know one please consider joining our MC POP Science Teachers Group.
First Resource: The Girls, Math & Science Partnership aka Brain Cake
The Girls, Math & Science Partnership's (a program of Carnegie Science Center) mission is to engage, educate, and embrace girls as architects of change. Working with girls age 11 - 17 and their parents, teachers, and mentors, we draw organizations, stakeholders, and communities together in an effort to ensure that girls succeed in math and science.
Second Resource: Explanatoids
I don't love the site design, and the actual Explanatoids are not easy to print PDFs out for teachers. That being said, I really like the actual Explanatoids assignment idea (explained here as "Make Your Own Explanatoid") as it could work in any discipline and has an interesting and public focus. I do think it is a great concept and very powerful partnership model. I think the Carnegie Mellon team improved greatly on this with the design teams' second endeavor The Fitwits. I have an article on the Fitwits that I'll post at a later date when the text becomes available online.
From the website:
Explanatoids™ is a multi-media project of the Girls, Math & Science Partnership (GMSP), part of Family Communications, Inc. All of the GMSP projects are created to help individuals in the community think differently about what science is and who can do it. Focusing on middle school girls, the GMSP projects hope to counter the negative stereotypes associated with women in math, science and technology, as well as stress the importance of these disciplines to the region's future. Explanatoids™ aims to cultivate young women's curiosity by helping them explore math and science by discovering their questions and interest in the world around them.
The explanatoids™ project is funded under a grant from the National Science Foundation and is a collaboration involving students from Carnegie Mellon University School of Design and educational assessment researchers at the University of Pittsburgh.
Each semester explanatoids™ teams develop and place "girl friendly" signage and media about the science behind "real world" questions in public places around Pittsburgh. For example at a popular roller coaster at Kennywood Park, three signs - "The Scream Team," "No Engine? No Way!" and "Choose Your Adventure" - are currently on display in the queue area. Research on the effectiveness of these signs show that they are successful in stimulating curiosity about the science behind the rollercoaster. We hope this curiosity will encourage girls, (and boys) to pursue other questions in the fields of science mathematics, technology and engineering
The character-driven explanatoids™ signage was the result of an in-depth study of over 3,000 families and serves as a platform from which parents, educators and mentors can begin to talk with young women about the opportunities available to them in the world of science. The GMSP aims to bolster "community conversations" around each explanatoids™ sign, which brings science outside the classroom and into Pittsburgh's neighborhoods.
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