PGE/SEP: TechGirl: A Website for Middle School Girls Interested in Science and Technology

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

TechGirl will be a fun and dynamically evolving website dedicated to helping middle school girls learn about science and engineering. It is intended to help them develop an appreciation for the beneficial impact of science and engineering on society, and to encourage them to consider possible careeers in science and engineering. This site will contain four major parts:1) Biographical sketches of women at different stages of their careers, including high school, college, beginning their careers, and at the peak of their careers, including a short bio and a fun/interesting description of a specific event in their career.2) Advice on developing their careers, from choosing courses and activities in high school to picking a college and major to finally choosing a career.3) Puzzles/Brainteasers designed to challenge the girls and expose them to different aspects of science and engineering.4) Engineering Encounters, a role-playing game where the girls simulate how their life could develop through high school, college, and their career. This game will present them with a series of choices, and then they choose a response which then results in different events occurring in their lives.TechGirl will be developed in close collaboration with two major programs at Arizona State University, the Women in Applied Science and Engineering program and the MInority Engineering Program. The design of TechGirl is based on extensive discussions with middle and high school girls, their teachers and counselors, college girls in WISE, engineers who mentor for WISE, and college students in the OMEP program. Those groups will continue to play a critical role in the development and assessment of TechGirl, so that it is designed as much as possible by girls and women for girls.