| Friday March 28th Event at Technology Center of the Piedmont – RSVP; Location and Directions | Directions and Parking for Tech Savvy event on Saturday | ||
Tech Savvy for Girls – in Greensboro. During the last 4 years The American Association of University Women (AAUW Greensboro) has partnered with the University of North Carolina
Greensboro (UNCG) to offer highly successful summer offerings for both high school and middle school girls in the area of Information Technology (IT) activities. This year we are “stepping up” to offer a one day “Science, Math, Engineering and Technology (STEM) Day on Saturday, March 29, 2014 at UNCG. The event will be held in the Science Sullivan Building. Parents not attending the event can drop-off their students outside the building. One parking pass per registered family will be given for those attending the event. Parking will be at the McIver parking close to the Science Building.
Background:
Tech Savvy is a daylong science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) career conference designed to attract girls in sixth through ninth grade to these fields and to inform families about STEM education and careers. The AAUW Buffalo (NY) Branch, led by former branch president Tamara Brown, launched the first Tech Savvy in 2005 at the University of Buffalo. In eight years, the program has served more than 2,000 girls. Founder Brown was named a 2011 Champion of Change at the White House by President Barack Obama.
2014 TechSavvy Program in Greensboro
AAUW Greensboro Branch in Collaboration with UNCG has been selected to be one of ten such pilot sites across the United States to be patterned after TechSavvy – Powered by AAUW. Funding will be from both PRAXAIR and local entities. Local University collaborators with UNCG this year will be: NC A & T State University, the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering and Guilford College. Other AAUW branches to be involved are AAUW-Winston Salem and AAUW-Statesville.
The Tech Savvy program at UNCG will incorporate several key features:
- Local female teachers, professors, and professionals lead hands-on workshops.
- Girls learn about a variety of STEM professions.
- Girls gain “Savvy skills” i.e. critical non-tech skills such as public speaking, presentation, and building a successful resume will be covered during the day.
- Adults can learn about the activities the girls receive as well participate in sessions to learn about how to support girls in STEM and plan for higher education.
Tech Savvy Activities
Following are sample hands-on activities that the girls will experience during the daylong event:
- Create animations and video games using MIT’s “SCRATCH” software – Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu) is a programming environment that was designed specifically to allow people to quickly begin creating their own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art. It is a project of the MIT Media Lab’s “Lifelong Kindergarten Group,” and is widely used to enable students to explore their digital creativity.
- Develop Android mobile applications using Google AppInventor (http://beta.appinventor.mit.edu/about/) which uses many of the same ideas as Scratch to create an easy-to-use programming environment, but is specifically designed to create apps for Android smartphones and devices. Have a great idea for a simple Android app? Learn how you could turn that into reality using AppInventor!
LEGO® Robotics – work with robotic sets that allow your student to bring their toys to life.- Natural Nanomaterials: Students will realize the correlation between nanostructures and properties of natural nanomaterials they use on a daily basis.
- “Smart” Papers: Students will be exposed to the hidden technologies embedded in “simple” things like paper. After this experience they will be able to recognize the smart papers in their everyday lives.
- Am I a Scanning Probe?: Students will simulate the function of a scanning probe microscope using their own natural sensors…fingertips.
- Shrink Me: Students will gain a sense of the nanoscale through analysis of objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye.
- “Do Physics and Understand”
- Radio Marconi! – Build your own radio from scratch using basic components.
- Building Generators and Motors – Learn how generators and motors (ubiquitous in modern life) function by building simple models:
- using an extension cord as a jump-rope to produce electricity
- using simple loop of coil as an armature and a horse-shoe magnet to rotate a pinwheel
- Half of a half – Use pennies to model radioactive decay.
- PHun with Liquid Nitrogen – Demonstrations with liquid nitrogen to illustrate low-temperature effects on everyday objects.
