March 16, 2010
2pm EST, 1pm CT, 12pm MT, 11am PT

Webinar - How to Market Your CTE STEM Program: Tell Your Story to the Right People the Right Way and Get the Right Results

Presenter: Jill Chan, MBA, Account Executive, Phillips Design, Sacramento, CA
Phillips Design has done extensive work in education. www.phillipsdesign.com
This webinar will help you to understand the dos and don'ts of successful marketing and to learn a focused strategy to create communication pieces that work! It will provide marketing strategies and examples to recruit and retain females in CTE STEM programs. Learn to:

• Determine your marketing objective
• Identify your target audience
• Consider the appropriate message
• Decide the best method to communicate

(please register for this webinar before the event is supposed to start - once you register, you will be sent an e-mail with a link to the webinar)

April 12-15, 2010

NAPE Professional Development Institute and STEM Equity Pipeline Leadership Institute
The Doubletree, Crystal City, Arlington, VA.

The path to economic security and equity is challenging. The goal of the NAPE Professional Development Institute is to provide opportunities to better prepare educators and workforce development professionals to meet this challenge.
Learn from a plethora of experts on topics such as increasing the participation of women in STEM careers, implementing best practices for ensuring the success of special population students, designing nontraditional programs of study that lead to postsecondary transition, creating pathways out of poverty through the green economy, and MORE! Come dialogue with federal policy makers about how public policy affects your state and local education and workforce development programs. Tour local programs where innovation is leading to increased success for special population students. Network with equity professionals from all over the country with whom you can share best practices. Join a professional learning community where you can continue learning throughout the year. Participate in the beginning of a series of visioning activities to create a new future for equity in education and workforce development. Early Bird Registration closes February 12, 2010!!
(More Information)

December 14, 2009

Subtle Micro-Messages Impact the Success of Women and Girls in STEM
(Presenter: Dr. Robbin Chapman, Manager of diversity recruiting for the School of Architecture and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA)
Micro-inequities are those subtle "micro-messages" that devalue, discourage, and dismiss women and girls as exceptional scholars, scientists, and engineers. To increase women in STEM careers requires examining practices to ensure equitable treatment in the classroom. During these two webinars learn:

• About micro-messaging, micro-affirmation, and micro-inequity.
• Practical, hands-on techniques to recognize, challenge and educate others about micro-inequities.
• Strategies for sending micro-messages that fuel positive behaviors and outcomes for women and girls in STEM fields.

Session 1 provides the building blocks to understanding micro-messaging and its impact on communication and performance.
Session 2 delves deeper into the core concepts plus gives participants tools for taking action to diagnose and devise interventions in micro-inequities that they perceive in the classroom and workplace.
(Please register for the archived sessions 1 & 2 webinars. Once you register, you will be sent an e-mail with a link to the webinars.)

Documents for Session 1:
(PowerPoint Slides for Session 1)
(Small Slights Article.pdf)
(Rowe-micro-affirmation.pdf)
(Rowe-Article-Long.pdf)
(Micro-Messaging Worksheets.pdf)

Documents for Session 2
(PowerPoint Slides for Session 2)
(Research on Bias and Assumptions.pdf)
(Resources Webinar II.pdf)

February 24, 2010

STATEMENT FROM JOHN LOCK ON LEMELSON-MIT INVENTION INDEX
Clifton Park, NY - Today, John Lock, CEO of Project Lead The Way released a statement in response to recently released data by the Lemelson-MIT Invention Index which finds among other things that:

• Two-thirds of students age 12-17 chose hands-on individual projects and hands-on group projects as the type of classroom-based educational methods they enjoy most -- highlighting the need for non-traditional learning regardless of the setting (in schools every day or after school programs).
• In the classroom, educators play a powerful role in exciting teens about STEM. More than half of students (55 percent) said they would be more interested in STEM simply by having teachers who enjoy the subjects they teach.
• Mentors play an important role too, as 43 percent of students said that role models in STEM fields would increase their interest in learning about these areas.

Lock stated, "What this data shows is that not only are students interested in innovation and STEM-fields, but there are things we can and should be doing as a nation to spur their interest in becoming the next generation of innovators.

"The Obama Administration's 'Educate to Innovate' initiative is a smart and good start in that it encourages after school STEM activities and competitions for students. But without real hands-on, project-based learning happening in the classroom every single day, we are selling students short - as well as our country's economic future.

"As a nation, we need to be doing more to provide students with hands-on learning in the classroom. We need to provide teachers with the training, tools, and resources they need to challenge students to solve problems and think critically. And finally, there are thousands of businesses that are eager to offer educators their employees as mentors during the day and in the classroom who can help attract more students to STEM-related careers.

"This is exactly what Project Lead The Way's leading STEM education program does during the school day for over 300,000 students at over 3,500 schools for hundreds of hours - and this is where our leaders need to focus their efforts next if we truly want to 'Educate to Innovate' American students."

(More information)

February 12, 2010

Computer Engineer Barbie Has a PhD In FUN (And Breaking Down Stereotypes)
The Vote Is In: Barbie Unveils Her 125th and 126th Careers For the first time ever, Barbie asked the world to help her select her next career. Over the past few months Barbie did research around the world and also conducted an online voting campaign, calling upon the world to vote for her doll's next career – Barbie has asked her Twitter followers and fans on Facebook to help her with this important career decision.

But that's not all! Consumers loudly campaigned for another Barbie career. The winner of the popular vote is Computer Engineer. Computer Engineer Barbie®, debuting in Winter 2010, inspires a new generation of girls to explore this important high-tech industry, which continues to grow and need future female leaders.

(More information)