Community Update

Calling on women in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)
For the past six years the Westborough and Shrewsbury Public Schools have been offering a conference that includes approximately 200 sixth, seventh and eighth grade girls. This conference gives girls an opportunity to participate in hands on science workshops. The workshops are STEM based (science, technology, engineering and math) and are taught by female professionals in STEM careers. For example, in the past we have had veterinarians,college professors, engineers in a variety of fields, pediatricians, dental professionals, computerprogrammers, psychologists, X-Ray technicians, nurses, EMT’s, chemists, environmentalscientists, robotics teams and many more. Students participate in a panel discussion in themorning, attend three workshops based on their top five choices, and have a snack time breakwith their peers and the workshop leaders.We are in need of female STEM professionals to conduct these hands on workshops for our girls.If you are interested see the attached letter. Please respond to either Pam or Lisa byFebruary 11, 2014.Feel free to forward this information to other female STEM professionals that may be interested.Thank you for your consideration.Women In Science (WIS)Women In Science (WIS)Spring Conference April 5, 20149:00 am to 12:30 pmGibbons Middle School, Westborough, MADear Potential Workshop Leader,Hands-on workshops are the “meat and potatoes” of the WIS conference, asthey provide an opportunity for these girls to learn from female professionals inscience, technology, engineering or math (STEM) careers. As a workshop leaderyou will be engaging a small group of 10-15 girls in a fun, informative workshopincluding hands-on activities for the girls. Your workshop will run three times overthe course of the day with three different sets of girls. The goal for theseworkshops is to show the girls that math, science and engineering can be fun.They may become more curious about math-related careers and see that acareer in the sciences and engineering is something they wish to pursue. It’s thehands-on versus lecturing technique that produces these positive, often lifechanging,results!During your workshop at Gibbons Middle School, we encourage you to talk aboutyour background and why you pursued a STEM career. These girls, 6th, 7th, and8th graders from Shrewsbury and Westborough, want to hear about you!You have the opportunity to design your workshop based on your own personalareas of expertise and create a fun title for it. If you would like to run a workshop,but do not have any ideas, we will be happy to help you come up with a funworkshop for the girls.Later on, we will also need you to provide us with a list of special equipment andessential items you may need to run your workshop.A suggested timeline for the 50 minute workshop:5 min. Introduce yourself; talk about your job5 min. Overview of activities; group girls for rotations25 min. Girls rotate through activity stations if applicable5 min. Examine final product of their experiment/activity5 min. Clean up5 min. Wrap-up discussion with the girlsWomen In Science (WIS)Spring Conference April 5, 20149:00 am to 12:30 pmGibbons Middle School, Westborough, MAThank you for your time and consideration of joining us in this great endeavor toinspire young girls through this conference. Please email one of us if you areinterested in presenting a workshop. We will provide you with more informationonce we have confirmation of your workshop.Shrewsbury Contact:Pam Poitras (PPoitras@shrewsbury.k12.ma.us)Westborough Contact:Lisa Greenwald (greenwaldl@westboroughk12.org