From the AAUW “Theme Team” mailing list:
- Web cast for girls and women interested in engineering: March 22-23
- CalWomenTech Project and the new WomenTech Portal.
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WEBCAST
A. There is an upcoming web cast for girls and women interested in
engineering. Sally Ride will be doing the kick off web cast.
“There’s no argument that women have benefited from wider career
choices in the past few decades. But despite representing a majority of
college students, women only make up 10 percent of U.S. engineers.
To highlight the increased opportunities for women in the fields of
science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the National Engineers
Week Foundation, Verizon Business and Lenovo are sponsoring the 2007
Global Marathon, For, By and About Women in Engineering on March 22 –
23.
During the 24-hour period beginning noon ET on March 22 and ending noon
ET on March 23, girls of all ages can hear key engineering and
technology speakers from a variety of technology and engineering
backgrounds and careers speak in 30-minute increments about numerous
topics.
Female astronaut Sally Ride will be joined by Lenovo Sr. Vice President
Fran O’Sullivan to kick off the event with a live Webcast. During the
following 23 hours, speakers from The Gap, University of Houston,
Boeing, the U.S.Army, Northrop Grumman and the Society of Women
Engineers, among many others, will provide a forum to share information,
increase awareness of educational and career opportunities for females
as well as dispel myths about women in technical careers.
Speakers will use a variety of formats to present material, including
conference calls, Webcasts and video presentations. The Engineers Week
website features more information about the event.”
Visit the Engineers Week Website >>>
http://eweek.org/site/News/Eweek/2007_marathon/index.shtml
B.Here’s some information about the CalWomenTech Project and the new
WomenTech Portal.
1) Welcome to the New WomenTech Portal: Tools for Technology Educators
to Recruit and Retain Women and Girls
2) Young Women’s Interest in Engineering Doubles
3) Women in Computer Science Program Retains 100% of Participants
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1) Welcome to the New WomenTech Portal: Tools
for Technology Educators to Recruit and Retain Women and Girls
The WomenTech Portal is an essential new resource on the IWITTS web
site, connecting educators with research-based articles on recruiting
and retaining women in technology. Here, you can read journal articles
in categories such as bridge courses, spatial reasoning, and learning
style, among others. These articles introduce educators to research on
the most effective strategies for recruiting and retaining women, and
include examples of programs that have had real results. Future phases
of the Portal will incorporate best practice case studies, student
recruitment tools, downloadable posters and marketing materials.
The WomenTech Portal is part of the CalWomenTech project, and is
available to everyone on the IWITTS website.
Check out the WomenTech Portal
http://www.iwitts.com/html/womentechportal_home.html
2) Young Women’s Interest in Engineering Doubles
One article from the Recruitment section of the new WomenTech Portal
explores a “Discover Engineering” workshop in a high school in Ontario,
Canada. After a successful summer day camp program, female faculty
members and university students from Ryerson University expanded their
outreach into area high schools. The presenters introduced students to
the human side of engineering, using activities that required student
teams to communicate well with each other to solve hands-on problems.
In a survey after the workshop, the number of young women expressing an
interest in engineering had doubled, with almost 40 percent of female
students considering pursuing engineering in college.
Read the full article about the “Discover Engineering” program (PDF)
http://www.iwitts.com/html/017anderson.pdf
3) Women in Computer Science Program Retains 100% of Participants
The Retention section of the WomenTech portal addresses how to keep
women in the technology classroom. One article in this section is about
The Women in Computer Engineering (TWiCE) program at Ohio State
University, which focuses on supporting female undergraduates pursuing
computer science degrees. Women in the TWiCE program explore a variety
of career possibilities in computing, and use their developing technical
skills to support community non-profits, local businesses and academic
research. TWiCE also provides a supportive peer environment, as well as
opportunities for students to act as role models and mentors to girls in
their community. Although the program is only a few years old, so far
100% of its participants have graduated in their majors.
Read the article about the TWiCE program (PDF)
http://www.iwitts.com/html/052bair.pdf