Go Green to Get Girls

1
Green Technology Improves Classroom Gender Equity

• Go Green to Get Girls

2
Who I Am

• Retiree
• Graduate student
• Recovering engineer
• Grandnanny
• SWE FY11 Outreach Chair
• Consultant
• Teacher
• Musician

3
Why I Care

• Seek to understand
• Why girls are approximately 50 of the
  population, yet at 110 ratio, they are
  significantly UNDER-REPRESENTED in most
  Technology Education secondary classrooms and
  technology based college programs.
• Why those figures havent changed that much over
  the last 30 years.
• What I can personally do differently to change
  that ratio.

4
What Do Girls Want?

• Varies, depending on age and cultural norm
• Top 5 across all age groups
• Fun
• Teams
• Make a difference
• Acceptance
• Flexibility

5
Survey Says

• When choosing a class to take, type of projects
  is more important than teacher
• Top 5 Project preferences
• Projects that help others
• Projects that help the environment
• Build a Dance Pad
• Recycled toy
• Home Design

6
Survey Also Says

• 40 prefer female technology education teacher
• Top 5 reasons they would choose to take class
• Working in teams
• Freedom to talk and walk around during class
• Get to design and build things
• Get to use creativity
• 1/3 of first-timers arent likely to take another
  class
• Top reasons they wouldnt choose TE as an
  elective
• Too much bookwork
• Too much math

7
Green Technology Projects

• Primarily use recycled materials from home or
  business
• Encourage creativity
• Often involve research
• Work both individually and in teams of two
• Do not involve smash and crash

8
Green Technology Projects

• Recycled Toy
• Cereal Box Marble Maze
• Cardboard Chair
• Prosthetic Device
• Home and Site Design

9
Recycled Toy (7th grade)

• Lesson on creativity and ideation
• Design Brief outlines objective, specifications,
  constraints and scoring
• Objective design and build a toy from recycled
  materials suitable for elementary grade children
• Specifications use recycled materials from
  home use graphic and verbal ideation
• Constraints size, safety
• Scoring can estimate before submitting

10
Cereal Box Maze (6th grade)

• Lesson on problem solving prior to activity
• Design Brief outlines objective, specifications,
  constraints and scoring
• Objective design and build a marble maze from
  cereal or other thin cardboard boxes
• Specifications use recycled boxes, tape, glue
  required travel time, direction changes, events
• Constraints size, support
• Scoring can estimate before submitting

11
Cardboard Chair (8th grade)

• Design Brief outlines objective, specifications,
  constraints and scoring
• Objective design and build a full size chair
  from large corrugated cardboard boxes
• Specifications teacher must sit in it, three
  scaled down models
• Constraints No tape/glue, size
• Scoring can estimate before submitting

12
Prosthetic Device (7th grade)

• Lesson on biotechnology, specifically prosthetic
  devices
• Design Brief outlines objective, specifications,
  constraints and scoring
• Objective design and build a model of a
  prosthetic device
• Specifications use recycled materials brought
  from home, must make sketches
• Constraints size, functionality
• Scoring can estimate before submitting

13
Home Design (6th grade)

• Lesson on floor and site plans
• Design Brief outlines objective, specifications,
  constraints and scoring
• Objective Using small box (provided), design
  and build a model home and site plan.
• Specifications LR, DR, KIT, 3 BR, 2BA, laundry,
  egress, floor plans
• Constraints rooms, size
• Scoring based on aesthetics, detailing,
  artisanship

14
Summary

• Most female engineers and technologists had some
  exposure to hands-on technology activities during
  K-12 years
• Girls are more likely to be interested and
  successful in activities that
• Help others or make a difference
• Allow them to work in teams
• Define the rules ahead of time (grading rubric)
• Allow them to be creative and use their hands

15
Resources

• Society of Women Engineers
• Activity Plans
• Role Models/ Activity Partners
• Funding (in partnership with SWE member)
• Scholarships
• www.aspire.swe.org
• National Lab Day www.nationallabday.org
• Mary Phelps mphelps2_at_ec.rr.com