Tech Savvy is a day-long STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) career conference for middle school girls and their parents. The program was started at the Buffalo, NY AAUW branch (read more here). This year, AAUW and the Praxair Foundation have sponsored 10 pilot sites around the country. AAUW Athens is proud to announce that our Tech Savvy event will be held Saturday, May 17, 2014 at Ohio University in Athens, OH.
Registration is open to girls in grades 6-9 and their parents. On-line registration has been extended to midnight on Sunday, May 4th. The cost for participation is $5 per girl with up to 1 accompanying adult. Registration includes two STEM workshops, a College Corner, Savvy Skills workshops, lunch and snacks, a t-shirt, and on-site parking. Click here for the registration form.
Parents will attend talks from college admissions and financial aid personnel, meet local employers in STEM fields, and attend a panel discussion with school counselors.
Workshop topics include:
- CSI Athens – Who did it? That is the question! Come to this workshop, process a crime scene and catch the criminals.
- Math, Science and Gambling? – Learn how games of chance and probabilities work with the roll of the dice.
- Dance Pad Mania – How do you make a Dance Pad? Be an engineer for a day and find out! Learn about the engineering design process while you work in a team to build a dependable, functional electric circuit (a dance pad).
- Bridge Building – Who designs bridges? Civil engineers do! See how. You will get to work in teams to build a bridge with toothpicks and gum drops. Compete to see who builds the best bridge.
- Decoding DNA – Scientists are detectives, looking for clues about how life works. DNA is called the blueprint of life, but why? Much of who you are is actually coded in your DNA. Find out how this works and how to use a DNA decoder to ‘read’ DNA.
- Restoring Rusty Rivers – In the lab, we will explore a healthy stream, repaired stream, and a stream polluted by Acid Mine Drainage through measurements of water quality and stream organisms.
- Physics is Phun – Play with toys and learn some basic physics principles.
Women are underrepresented in STEM fields, and Tech Savvy is designed to support girls in their STEM interests. AAUW has done research into why this gender gap is present, and you can read more in the Executive Summary or full report of Why So Few?
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