Imagine IT - Spring Update #2
I have started getting materials out during lunch time for girls to play with and it has really increased interest in the STEM group. There are now students that come up and ask if they can play with different materials and it has grown interest in the group. I think that allowing the group to be more of a free form has allowed for students to not feel like they are required to attend meetings but still allows for them to be immersed in activities. Thus far, students have been really interested in the Makey Makey set. The first couple of times that we got the set out I wasn’t prepared with different materials such as Play-Doh or celery sticks which actually allowed for students to become more creative. They were able to use some left overs from their lunches such as bagels and oranges to create a Pac Man game and make a bongo with one of their hands. The next couple of weeks I plan on providing them with materials as they ask so they can start taking the Makey Makey in any direction that they would like to go! More pictures coming soon!
|
Imagine IT - Spring Update #1
My goal for February - March was to work on making sure that there were women in STEM present at our school career fair. Since writing the timeline I have found out that our career fair if being hopefully postponed until June but may be cancelled. This means that my plan for the next month has changed from getting career fair participants to work on job exploring with students. Instead of bringing speakers to school, I am toying with the idea of starting “STEM pen pals”. I would team up each girl with a different woman in a STEM career they would like to explore so they can send a couple of emails back and forth. From here, each girl could present on what they learned about their job they are interested in and also hopefully form a relationship with somebody that could help them once they are in school with either ideas about what to do in college or internship ideas when they get older.
I also want to make sure that I keep working with the women in the club in order to explore their interest in STEM. The end of the semester was two weeks ago so it has been difficult to find times for us to meet as a group. This coming month I am going to work on the idea of having more informal meet ups during lunch periods. My office is in the library so it would be easy for me to have sporadic meetings during lunch periods that students have some free time to explore their love of STEM.
I also want to make sure that I keep working with the women in the club in order to explore their interest in STEM. The end of the semester was two weeks ago so it has been difficult to find times for us to meet as a group. This coming month I am going to work on the idea of having more informal meet ups during lunch periods. My office is in the library so it would be easy for me to have sporadic meetings during lunch periods that students have some free time to explore their love of STEM.
ImagineIT: Spring Timeline
Looking back on what I said in the fall, I would have started to recruit before the school year began. Once kids get into the school year they are quick to get into clubs they are interested in. The focus group with students allowed me to see how they wanted the club set up, but once I created the club it was hard to recruit students to join since most already had their after school plans solidified. I will use the fact that students already have their after school plans solidified to make sure that students are able to come and go to club meetings as they please and not feel as if they are missing out on all of the information.
My project can grow by getting more of the 9th and 10th grade students involved. Once there is a good base of 9th and 10 grade students attending, then I can also not worry about having trouble recruiting students for next year since they will mostly hopefully come back.
This semester I hope to see some of the other math teachers in my department also implementing some of the ideas that we have used in our STEM club in their classrooms. It would be easy for some of these ideas to be implemented through the use of Chromebooks that we have had donated to our department through Donor’s Choose or having the students that are involved in the club have some time in class to promote the club and some of our activities in class.
My wildest hope is that we run out of materials or room to meet during one of our meetings. I want to have so many girls interested in the group that I do not have enough supplies and I need to find a bigger meeting space. Another one of my hopes is that through this club a few of our students will have found a new interest in a STEM career to look into after they graduate. I also hope that I am able to connect students with people that may help them once they do graduate figure out how to be successful in the STEM field that they are now interested in.
My project can grow by getting more of the 9th and 10th grade students involved. Once there is a good base of 9th and 10 grade students attending, then I can also not worry about having trouble recruiting students for next year since they will mostly hopefully come back.
This semester I hope to see some of the other math teachers in my department also implementing some of the ideas that we have used in our STEM club in their classrooms. It would be easy for some of these ideas to be implemented through the use of Chromebooks that we have had donated to our department through Donor’s Choose or having the students that are involved in the club have some time in class to promote the club and some of our activities in class.
My wildest hope is that we run out of materials or room to meet during one of our meetings. I want to have so many girls interested in the group that I do not have enough supplies and I need to find a bigger meeting space. Another one of my hopes is that through this club a few of our students will have found a new interest in a STEM career to look into after they graduate. I also hope that I am able to connect students with people that may help them once they do graduate figure out how to be successful in the STEM field that they are now interested in.