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Increasing STEM Diversity through Community Involvement: Females Excelling More in Math, Engineering, and the Sciences
- 3. Abigail G. Garrity PhD Candidate, Neuroscience Program University of Michigan Co-President, FEMMES
- 4. It takes a community to educate our students, especially in the STEM fields.
- 5. Overview: Who is FEMMES • Saturday Science Capstone Events • After School Events • Populations We Serve • FEMMES Outcomes
- 6. Overview: FEMMES Strategies • Increasing awareness about Women and Girls in STEM • Involving the community in STEM education • Developing successful hands-on activities • Creating a network of women in STEM at the University level • Engaging underserved communities in STEM
- 8. The lack of girls and minorities in STEM is not due to a deficit in ability, but rather a deficit in access, opportunity, self-efficacy, encouragement, and inspiration.
- 9. Saturday Science Capstone Events
- 30. FEMMES Students and Volunteers
- 31. Who We Serve: Students
- 32. Who We Serve: Students
- 35. FEMMES Outcomes
- 36. FEMMES Outcomes
- 37. FEMMES Outcomes
- 38. FEMMES Outcomes
- 39. FEMMES Outcomes
- 40. Increasing Awareness about FEMMES and Girls and Women in STEM
- 44. Involving the Community in STEM Education
- 45. Strategies for Increasing Community Involvement • Media about FEMMES calling for community action • Fundraising from local businesses
- 46. Fundraising from Local Businesses
- 47. Strategies for Increasing Community Involvement • Inviting local women in STEM to lead activities, speak on career panels • Community outreach events
- 48. Ann Arbor District Library Saturday Science Event
- 49. There are so many people seeking a way to get more involved in STEM education, and FEMMES provides them with a way to do this.
- 50. Developing Successful Activities to Engage Girls in STEM
- 51. Keys to an engaging activity • Hands-on, active learning • Uses materials the girls can engage with • Combines fun with learning
- 56. It doesn’t take much more effort to make an activity hands-on, and it often speeds up the learning process.
- 57. Keys to an engaging activity • Activities touch on topics learned in school, but demonstrate them in new ways • Make real-world connections • Role models
- 58. FEMMES Keys to success • Participate with the girls • Establish a baseline level of knowledge for each girl and the group • Ask open-ended questions • Don’t just give answers – make students engage (even if they get it wrong) • Incorporate take-homes
- 60. Bringing out girls’ inner scientist • Team-building and get-to-know-you activities help to break the ice • Incorporate problem-solving by getting the girls talking to one another • Acknowledge all answers from every girl. Give everyone a chance to contribute. • Encourage the girls to ask questions and be inquisitive.
- 61. Facilitate a supportive and engaging environment • Active, cooperative learning • Supportive, not competitive • Allow for personal, intentional reflection after each activity
- 62. Support and expand what is learned in the classroom • Follow state guidelines for each grade level to ensure support for what participants are learning in the classroom • Have career-focused elements
- 63. TEACH WHAT YOU LOVE AND THINK IS AWESOME!
- 65. “I want every girl at my school to do this. It was the best Saturday of science!”
- 66. Creating a network of women at the University level
- 67. Why do women get involved with FEMMES • The chance to mentor young girls • The opportunity to teach and influence • The ability to get young girls involved with and excited about STEM at a young age • The potential to help young girls realize science isn’t too difficult and is accessible • The possibility of helping underserved communities engage with STEM
- 68. Reigniting and inspiring enthusiasm for STEM “If you have a bad day at the lab and then you see someone who thinks all science is cool, it re- sparks that feeling you had that made you want to do science.” “You can have so many failed experiments in lab but when you hear these talks, you remember why you wanted to do this.”
- 69. “What I like so much is I can step back and see someone learning it for the first time.” “The job it [FEMMES] does is really important and no one else is doing it.” “I did a similar program when I was in middle school and my hope is I can touch someone in the same way I was impacted.” Giving back to the community
- 70. The chance to “flex our science muscles” “I’m involved with other science-related organizations on campus, but only FEMMES gives me the chance to flex my science muscles.” “Getting the chance to break down difficult concepts so the girls really demonstrate they grasp the information…”
- 71. Connecting with like-minded women for a common purpose The chance to “link up with like minded women who do things differently [in science fields].” “cool… to see what graduate students are doing and helpful to learn from people who are older than you and share the same interests.”
- 72. Engaging underserved communities in STEM
- 73. Building relationships with schools • Face to face visits with school administrators • Engage with teachers • After school activities to maintain relationships with schools and girls
- 74. Engaging girls from underserved areas • Start small – friends tell friends • Provide bussing or assist with arranging carpools • Build ongoing relationships and stay connected • Understand cultural differences and ensure cultural relevancy
- 76. Best practices in STEM Programming for Girls • Female role models and mentors • Girl specific, girl only • Foster a cooperative, community environment • Demonstrative of concepts learned in school • Allows for practical, hands-on learning • Give take-homes to encourage learning after the event
- 77. Learn more on our website: FEMMES.studentorgs.umich.edu agarrity@umich.edu @abigailgarrity After school activities how-to guide up soon!
Editor's Notes
- Thank you so much for joining this session today. FEMMES stands for Females Excelling More in Math, Engineering, and the Sciences. FEMMES was started in 2006 by Victoria Weston at Duke University and a chapter was started at U o f M in 2011. We have been growing quickly since then. Grow the community participatory model of educating our students. FEMMES is our start.
- Thank you so much for joining this session today. FEMMES stands for Females Excelling More in Math, Engineering, and the Sciences. FEMMES was started in 2005 by Victoria Weston at Duke University and a chapter was started at U o f M in 2011. We have been growing quickly since then. Grow the community participatory model of educating our students. FEMMES is our start.
- Grow the community participatory model of educating our students. FEMMES is our start.
- To give you bit of an overview of what I’ll be talking about today, first I’ll tell you about our Saturday science capstone events. Then I’ll describe our after school activities and the purposes they serve. Then I’ll talk about the populations we serve – both the girls who are FEMMES participants as well as the volunteer women at the University level
- Then I will share the strategies FEMMES uses for increasing awareness to the need for more girls and women engaged in STEM fields Our belief that involving the community in STEM education is key to achieving equity in STEM fields How we develop successful hands-on activities
- Middle school is a key juncture for girls. Interest in STEM begins to wane at this level and students start to make decisions that will affect their future. Age 9 (4th grade) girls start falling behind in STEM related classes due to lack of interest. Role models for girls are key. Correcting negative stereotypes & perceptions as being boring or inaccessible. Having access to and being able to Utilizing external science opportunities has a special, lasting impact on girls interest in STEM.
- Through my time as a girl and now a woman in STEM, and after having worked with girls from all over Michigan, I’ve learned that the lack of girls and minorities in STEM is not due to a deficit in ability, but rather a deficit in access, opportunity, self-efficacy, encouragement, and inspiration. FEMMES has two types of events that aim to set girls on a path to loving STEM. In both activities the girls get to be scientists right along side us for the day.
- Our Saturday Science Capstones occur once per semester and bring girls from over 40 schools to U of Ms campus for hands-on, experiential learning activities related to all fields of STEM.
- Saturday Science Events kick-off with a keynote speaker who is herself a woman in STEM, who shares her journey from 4th grade or younger to the present. At our most recent capstone on March 22, we had over 200 girls attend.
- After the keynote speaker, the girls then break off into smaller groups and rotate through 4 different hands on activities throughout the day. This is Professor Ann Miller teaching about cell division.
- The girls participate in a wide array of activities that are fun and engaging but also related to things they learn in school. Liquid nitrogen is one of our favorite ways to teach the girls about states of matter.
- Professor Deanna Gates from the school of kinesology and students from her lab taught about how the brain controls muscle movement using EEGs. One student from her lab was very open and willing to share her experiences using prosthetics and how they improved her life and the girls were able to ask questions and learn so much from her.
- Here the girls are learning about chemiluminsence and afterwards they got to make their own glow sticks.
- Then lunch time comes around. As you’d expect, we provide a free, healthy lunch that we get at a deep discount from one of our sponsors. The girls then create murals that create group unity and bring art into the science realm. One of our volunteers came up with this activity and we were able to quickly implement it.
- Here is an example of one group’s mural.
- And the girls were really proud of their murals. This was during an awards ceremony at the end of the capstone to celebrate all that the girls had learned throughout the day.
- We make sure we have a real breadth of activities for the girls to participate in. Here is an engineering activity run by the U of M chapter of the Society for Women Engineers.
- And math with rubix cubes!
- The girls are really involved in everything from Botany
- To engineering
- To DNA analysis.
- And of course there are exciting explosions!
- The activities give the girls a chance to interact with college and graduate level women and professors in all STEM fields. The girls get to ask questions and see women in these fields who are excited about what they do.
- FEMMES provides teaching opportunities for graduate students to help them learn and practice lay audience communication and give back and engage with the community.
- Our after school activities take place in schools in Southeastern Michigan where we bring hands-on activities to the girls.
- Our after school events are ways for us to promote our Saturday science events in schools we’re trying to build relationships with, and ways for us to give girls hands on applications for things they are learning in the classroom. Here is our squishy circuits activity where girls are learning about electricity and circuits. Prof Ann Marie Thomas was looking for a way to teach her daughter about electronics – developed the kit with a student in her lab Can buy online
- And here is a live demonstration of the different states of matter. As you might guess, they’re illustrating gases here!
- This is at Ypsi Commuinty middle school in Ypsilanti. The girls are using slime to explore states of matter.
- Our executive board is made up of undergraduate and graduate students at U of M.
- Our students come from over 40 schools in Michigan and we’ve had students travel as far as 4 and 7 hours to attend our events. To me that says we need more of these kinds of events. We work hard to reach beyond the intellectual hub of Ann Arbor and all of our after school events are outside of ann arbor in more underserved and diverse areas like Ypsi and Detroit.
- We work hard to ensure participation from schools with underserved minorities in the STEM fields, and 66% of our participants are students of color.
- Another important aspect of FEMMES is the volunteers that are a part of our Saturday science events and after school events, and those on our executive board. One thing that consistently impresses me is how many women, both undergrads and grad students, want to be involved with FEMMES. We have about half undergraduates and half graduate students on both our eboard and in our larger volunteer base. We currently have 32 women on our executive board, which has been growing exponentially since 2011.
- These are our volunteers at one of our after school events at Estabrook Elementary School in Ypsilanti. There are so many women who want to be involved, at these kinds of events we often have a 1-3 ratio of volunteers to girls.
- Partnered with school of social work for this
- We worked with the U of M School of Social work
- Increase in fields of study in college 14 - technology 13 - engineering 3 - science 21% wanted to be a scientist before the capstone, and 27% after the capstone. 14% thought STEM was “awesome” “good” or “cool” (up from 8%) 13% of girls thought “learning new things” was the best part of the capstone
- One key thing we hope to do is to increaese awareness in our communities of the crisis in STEM education and the need for more diversity in the STEM fields.
- We made a special effort to increase attention to the issues of lack of diversity in STEM, and raising awareness about FEMMES and the work we do. We received media attention in the Ann Arbor news, we were the front page of the Michigan daily, and we were interviewed on Michigan Radio’s Stateside program in an interview that came out last week. All of these helped us to get more parent and teacher attention to our work with the goal of getting more and more students to participate. We’re also here presenting on our best practices!
- This is a picture of Rep. Adam Zemke from Michigan’s 55th district who we met at an education advocacy event on campus. He joined us for our capstone in November and stayed for the entire afternoon.
- He was generous enough to bring us a special tribute to FEMMES that was signed by himself, State Senator Rebekah Warren, and Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder.
- Media about FEMMES calling for community action Fundraising from local businesses Inviting local women in STEM to lead activities, speak on career panels Community outreach events
- Media about FEMMES calling for community action Fundraising from local businesses Inviting local women in STEM to lead activities, speak on career panels Community outreach events
- Media about FEMMES calling for community action Fundraising from local businesses Inviting local women in STEM to lead activities, speak on career panels Community outreach events
- A huge lesson we’ve learned from working with the community is that you won’t believe how many people are looking for a way to get involved – just waiting to be asked – and are thrilled to help us out.
- Extend learning beyond the walls of the classroom & give real world applications to the science they learn in the classroom.
- Real world connections Focus groups with girls at the event revealed that the girls loved: Getting to meet new people Getting to learn new things you don’t learn in school The chance to do fun activities that teach you things Getting to take materials home Hands-on activitites
- Real world connections Focus groups with girls at the event revealed that the girls loved: Getting to meet new people Getting to learn new things you don’t learn in school The chance to do fun activities that teach you things Getting to take materials home Hands-on activitites
- Maybe you could mention the 1-on-1 type dialogue, getting them to ask questions and test hypotheses, or even the handouts we were given to generate talking points
- YOU WILL BE SURPRISED WHAT THEY CAN DO! THEY ENGAGE WITH STEM IN WAYS YOU MIGHT NOT EVEN IMAGINE THEM CAPABLE
- Real world connections to STEM are important at university level too
- We know the crisis in STEM education isn’t due to a deficit in ability, but rather a deficit in access, opportunity, self-efficacy, encouragement and inspiration. STEM education – and a diversity in the STEM workforce – is an issue that’s incredibly important to our community, our economy, our country as a whole, and the future of science and technology more generally.
- We make a special effort to bring together a diversity of girls and focus particular attention and effort on ensuring that we have girls from under served areas and places where these opportunities aren’t necessarily found as often. As such, we put a lot of effort into coordinating logistics and fundraising so we can provide buses to places where girls without rides to and from campus wouldn’t be able to participate.