STEAM Newsletter – Diverse Role Models and Mentors
March 23, 2021
Welcome to CAN’s second monthly STEAM newsletter!
This month, the Million Girls Moonshot continues to focus on diverse role models and mentors as a strategy to strengthen equity and inclusion across the Networks and in STEM programs. They dive deeper into how programs can incorporate STEM role models and provide examples of role models in action. Whether you are inviting a role model to visit your afterschool program, organizing a panel of STEM professionals, connecting with a role model virtually, or viewing a role model video, these resources ensure a positive, impactful experience for the participants and the role models.
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In This Newsletter:
Intel Future Skills Educator Academy
Monday, March 29, 2021; 1:00pm PST
Middle School educators are invited to participate in an Intel Future Skills Educator Academy virtual training! Intel created Future Skills to ensure that future generations have access to the skills needed for a lifetime of problem solving and discovery through STEAM learning.
By the end of the training, middle school educators will have developed a deeper understanding of design thinking, know more about each Intel Future Skills project, and be ready to deliver Intel Future Skills content with youth in their program. The hands-on and interactive training will be facilitated by the Intel Future Skills team and everything educators need to participate in the training will be mailed to their home.
Let’s Invent for Educators
Wednesday, March 31, 2021; 8:00am PST
The Lemelson-MIT Program and MIT’s J-WEL pK-12 are offering a free, professional development opportunity for educators to engage in activities needed to launch students on the pathway to inventing. Learn how to find and define problems, and design and build novel, useful and unique solutions that improve the lives of others. The session is geared to primary/secondary education teachers who teach students aged 11-13.
March 31, 2021, 8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time
Join the Explorer Classroom with National Geographic!
Every other Wednesday at 1 PM PST
In collaboration with the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, National Geographic is providing another year of afterschool exploration through science, storytelling and research, we’re providing enrichment opportunities for both youth and afterschool professionals!
This spring, educators and young people can attend the Explorer Classroom show LIVE, every other Wednesday at 1 PM (PST), to hear world-renowned Explorers chronicle their adventures underwater, in the mountains, through the forest and many other natural landscapes. Youth are encouraged to ask questions and engage with Explorers through an interactive Q&A session.
Engineering for Good: Youth Media Challenge
Deadline: June 2021
Lunch Bites is joining with KQED to share the Engineering for Good: Youth Media Challenge with educators in your community!
Engineering for Good gives students the opportunity to show off their creative problem solving through the engineering design process. The challenge asks students to identify a problem in their community and communicate their solution through media. The project-based curriculum is aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
Submissions will accepted until June 2021.
Toolkit: Creating Connections with Role Models: The Power of Collaboration
Designed by Techbridge Girls in collaboration with the National Girls Collaborative Project, this guide is designed to help Networks and programs understand why role models are critical to closing the gender gap in STEM. This “recipe for success” describes how programs can: incorporate role models into STEM programs, find role models, and train role models to work with youth.
Promising Practices and PD Opportunities
Check out the latest promising practices and PD opportunities MGM has to share this month:
The Afterschool STEM Hub
Includes communication tools related to making the case for STEM afterschool and equity and inclusion.
Videos: Role Model Profile: Dr. Ciara Sivels
The below assets are free profile videos of IF/THEN Ambassador and nuclear engineer, Dr. Ciara Sivels.
- Long profile of Dr. Ciara Sivels
- Short profile of Dr. Ciara Sivels
- Short profile 2 of Ciara Sivels
Together at Home: Parent and Family Resources
Student Activity: Design a Space Capsule – This activity amplifies four engineering mindset habits of practice: evaluate and iterate, persist and learn from failure, work in teams, and identify as engineers as students work through their engineering journal.
Student Activity: Engineer a Stringed Instrument – This activity amplifies three engineering mindset habits of practice: balancing criteria and constraints, apply science and math, and envisioning multiple solutions as students work their engineering journal.
Mizzen by Mott
Mizzen By Mott inspires, engages and sparks learning in young people. Supported by the Mott Foundation, Mizzen is available at no cost to afterschool professionals! Please be sure to download the Mizzen By Mott app to access the activities below.
- Mizzen – Design a Crew Module
- Mizzen – Build An Extension Arm
- Mizzen – Build Your Own Roller Coaster
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: