This is a question we have been exploring here at Suffern Middle School. We have a well developed pre-Engineering program through Project Lead The Way called Gateway To Technology (GTT). It's an activities based program that is focused on challenge and inquiry. All of our students take 40 weeks of GTT before they leave Suffern Middle School. By all accounts we have engaging teachers and the students love being in the classes. We also have a high percentage of girls in our Accelerated Math and Enriched Science programs. It's about a 50/50 Girl/Boy split in those classes and performance on Regents Exams and New York State Intermediate Level Assessments are about equal as well.
There does seem to be more of a national awareness of how girls are performing in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) classes these days. A recent ASCD article talked about how to close the STEM Gender gap. The article does point out that there is little difference between boys and girls in math and science all the way through high school, but that only 11 percent of engineers and 27 percent of computer scientists are women. Today's New York Times met this issue head on by publishing an article called, "Bias Called Persistent Hurdle for Women in Sciences."
That leads me to an event we have planned here at Suffern Middle School. I'm pleased to announce our first ever Mother/Daughter Engineering Workshop. The workshop will be held on Saturday, April 17, 2010 from 8:00AM-12:30PM. There is a nominal charge of $10.00 per Mother/Daughter pair, which will cover all materials and snacks for the workshop. There are limited seats for Mother/Daughter pairs from Suffern Middle School. You can download the registration form at: http://sc.ramapocentral.org/education/school/school.php?sectionid=7
We are thrilled that the Workshop Presenter will be Celeste Baine from the Engineering Education Service Center. Celeste talks about finding, educating, inspiring and recruiting students into engineering or other technical fields. For more information on Celeste you can check out her blog at: http://www.engineeringedu.com/celestes_blog/.
There are also a number of great resources for women in science and engineering on her site at: http://www.engineeringedu.com/wieres.html.
I hope you will consider joining us for this unique and exciting event. Please check out the flyer and RSVP by April 9, 2010 if you are interested in joining us.
Brian Fox, Principal
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