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Pipeline Press for August 2008

National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity Education Foundation
PIPELINE PRESS
August 2008

Resources

Kiss My Math tries to make Pre-Algebra cool <link> .

NCWIT Talking Points discusses misconceptions about IT careers, how girls can prepare for successful admission to a relevant program in college, and how careers in IT provide meaningful work. <link>

Siemens Foundation: Math, Science, & Technology Awards <link>

Toshiba America Foundation: Grants for Science and Math Education <link>

Guide to Writing a Technical or Scientific Resume <link>

Save the Date!

STEM Equity Pipeline Webinar: Overview of the Five-Step Improvement Process <link>

Friday, September 5, 2008, 2-3 pm ET. 1-2 pm CT, Noon-1 MT, 11 am-Noon PT <link>

Effective Strategies for Working with Girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (Part 2) <link> <link>

September 10, 2008, 11 am-Noon Pacific <link>

Quick Links

STEM Equity Pipeline Project <link>

National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity <link>

Funded by a grant from the
National Science Foundation,
GSE/EXT: STEM Equity Pipeline Project,
Grant No. HRD-0734056

ARTICLES

Students Get Chance to Discover Career Potential
(Kristi Funderburk, The Daily Journal)
Weeks before they face the first day of high school, local students considered the options of their not-so-distant future: college and a career. Instead of the more typical how-to seminars, these students dissected animal specimens, engineered towers with spaghetti noodles and gumdrops, and created moving carnival rides with K'NEX, an interlocking toy construction set. The College Bound STEM Careers Pathways Project at Cumberland County College helps students realize their potential in careers like science, technology, engineering and math.

More Information <link>

Keys to Hiring Women in Science
Two sociologists who want to push the discussion beyond anecdotes and individual preferences think they have found evidence of steps that do make a difference in the recruitment of women for science faculty jobs. Specifically, they urge a focus on efforts to increase the pool of female applicants, and the importance of having a woman serve on the search committee.

More Information <link>

Girls Find Out Science Is Fun
(Abby Haight, The Oregonian)
Francis Rojina wants to be a surgeon, but for now her 14-year-old mind is delighted by anything scientific-including piecing together the puzzle of a solar hot-water system. Rojina's passion for the hows and whys of the natural world defies the stereotype that teenage girls are reluctant to study or pursue careers in fields that involve math, science and technology. For 18 years, the Oregon Institute of Technology has been nurturing such passions and trying to increase them with its Teen Women in Science and Technology camp.

More Information <link>

Girl Power! Summer Camp Grooms Tomorrow's Techies
(Julia King, Computer World)
It's 10 o'clock on a sunny April morning in Balboa Park. In a spacious Girl Scout cabin tucked away amid lush green palm trees, 20 girls ranging in age from 11 to 14, most wearing jeans and pigtails, are gearing up for today's camp activities. But there are no sit-upons or s'mores, potholders or paper crafts, just 21 laptops, two color printers, 10 digital cameras, two scanners and a palpable abundance of preadolescent energy and creative enthusiasm.

More Information <link>

Cleveland High School Opens Pre-Engineering Center
The success of a Cleveland Catholic school's pre-engineering program has led donors to fund a $3.4 million, 13,000-square-foot engineering technology center complete with a robotics lab. About a third of students at the all-boys school follow the pre-engineering curriculum, and 90% of those that do continue studying engineering in college.

More Information <link>

Algebra: It's Everywhere
(Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer)
Algebra is a language, a very precise language written in symbols, and it's everywhere: in nearly all electronic devices, every statistic and each Internet search engine - and, indeed, in every train leaving Boston. "You can store information using it. You can communicate information using it," Devlin said. "Google has made billions capitalizing on algebra." Yet our schools don't always do a very good job teaching it.

More Information <link>

Study: Science More Understandable When First Explained in Plain Language
Students taught scientific concepts in plain English before learning technical terms performed better on exams, according to a study by Stanford University's Bryan A. Brown and Kihyun Ryoo that is published in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching and written about in Education Week's Curriculum Matters blog.

More Information <link>

Skilled Engineers in High Demand in Michigan
(Nathan Bomey, Business Review)
As the automotive industry seeks to shift quickly toward a focus on hybrid and plug-in vehicles, executives are desperate to find engineers to develop these new technologies. The industry, faced with rapid changes in market demand as consumers switch to more fuel-efficient vehicles, is pressed to acquire enough talented engineers in a host of different areas, several company and university officials said. The shortage of engineers is a pressing problem for Michigan.

More Information <link>

Wanted: Next Generation of Defense, Space Engineers
(Richard Burnett, Sentinel Staff Writer)
The nation's defense and space industry is facing a potential engineering crisis as retiring baby boomers leave the work force. Lured by the buzz of a Google or an Apple, many young engineers would rather go into commercial high-tech jobs than tap out computer code for the next rocket system, experts say.

More Information <link>