Listen to the recording from this 11/15/07 event by clicking the website link, also view the attached ITEST IdeaBrief on this topic.

Register-Pajaronian
By Roger Sideman
One hour’s drive and a world away, the headquarters of the planet’s most visited and most profitable company on the Internet opened its doors Tuesday for some lucky middle school girls. Read more at the website.

The Providence Journal
By Gina Macris, Journal Staff Writer
PORTSMOUTH — In the darkened auditorium of Portsmouth High School, students and teachers joined Governor Carcieri yesterday in watching a computer simulation of the way heat affects atoms. The atoms changed from white to red as they gyrated in larger and larger arcs, going from a solid substance, to a liquid, and then becoming a gas. Click the attachment below to read more.

Glasgow Courier
By Samar Fay, Courier Editor
On a Sunday afternoon, about 30 middle school teachers are leaning over laptop computers, headphones clamped on. They frown as they struggle with a tutorial about building a GIS map of fossil sites around Fort Peck Lake. Click on the attachment to read more.

Daniels County Leader
Did you know that eastern Montana contains some of the richest fossil beds on Earth? Students and teachers from eastern Montana gathered at Ft. Peck along with faculty from the paleontology department at University of Montana to unearth dinosaur and plant fossils on a private ranch about 45 minutes southeast of Ft. Peck. Click on the attachment to read more.

The Barre Montpelier -- Times Argus
By Lisa Rathke Associated Press
MONTPELIER — Chris Fitzhugh plans to spend spring break building a copper and PVC-pipe model to show how temperature differences in the ocean can be used to generate electricity.

The 17-year-old from Peacham and his teammates — two in Mexico, one at St. Johnsbury Academy — are competing in the Global Challenge, a Vermont-based contest aimed at improving American students' math and science skills. Click the link below to read more.

Identifies ways to increase use of technology by young women and girls

Siobhan Bredin, project director of the National Science Foundation-funded ITEST (IT Experiences for Students and Teachers) Learning Resource Center at EDC, addressed the United Nations on February 28th, presenting five successful strategies – identified by ITEST projects - for encouraging young women and girls to pursue skills and careers in science and technology.

"The UN event is concentrating on increasing opportunities to learn about and pursue science and technology careers and on developing technical skills-both professional and personal-for women and girls," says Bredin. "My presentation will provide examples of successful initiatives from the ITEST project in the U.S. as well as examples from other countries."

Bredin's February 28th presentation was part of a UN-sponsored event, "Empowerment, Gender Equality and Development through IT," in conjunction with the 51st Session of the Commission on the Status of Women. The event brings together delegates from the UN, business and government, non-profits, and academia from around the world, to share ideas and connections.
In addition to sharing strategies from the ITEST program, Bredin will share work from programs established by her colleagues on the International Taskforce on Women and ICTs (ITWICT).

Bredin and her colleagues from the ITEST program-representing 71 projects across 33 states-have identified the following elements that contribute to participation by women and girls in technology and science:

• Using experiential learning approaches/connecting to real world: rather than simply focusing on how technologies work, all of these programs connect the use of technology tools with real world concerns and interests of the participants.
• Fostering persistence: successful programs encourage experimentation, trying different ways of doing things, not having a right or wrong answer.
• Communicating high expectations: successful programs have high expectations for their participants, which encourages increased self-esteem and achievement levels.
• Providing positive perceptions and role models: by connecting technology to real world situations and interests, successful programs counteract negative stereotypes about technology and science careers being "just for nerds," unattainable, or not related to helping people.
• Teaching 21st century skills: successful programs teach 21st century skills-not simply how to use a technology, but what can be done with it, critical thinking and problem solving skills, and ways in which participants can explore new ways to use technologies in their careers and lives.

In addition to information gathered from the ITEST program, Bredin will draw on material from the book, Cinderella or Cyberella: Empowering Women in the Knowledge Society, developed by members of ITWICT to highlight overseas initiatives that focus on gender and technology issues. One example from South India, features multiple groups of 10 women who each form a business-with government start-up funding-in one of three IT areas: data entry services, hardware assembly and sales, IT training for schools. As their businesses expand, they hire other women and men from the local community, and become self-sustaining.

Bredin will also participate in an expert panel, "Partnerships with Governments, the Private Sector, and Civil Society on the Use of ICT to Enhance the Learning, Empowerment, and Overall Performance of Girls," which is moderated by Amir Dossal, executive director of the United Nations Office of Partnerships.

At EDC, Bredin works in Education, Employment, and Community Programs. She is project director of the National Science Foundation-funded ITEST Learning Resource Center, which is designed to encourage young people – especially girls, African Americans, Hispanics, Latinos, Native Americans, and others historically under-represented in science – to pursue careers in the science, technology, engineering or mathematics fields. Bredin also leads a team at EDC to contribute to the National Girls Collaborative Project, which is designed to strengthen the capacity, impact, and sustainability of existing and evolving girl-serving STEM programs across the United States.

She is a Steering Committee member of ITWICT, a five-year initiative dedicated to achieving women's full participation and leadership in ICTs. Members include representatives from six continents and 39 countries.

Siobhan Bredin can be reached at: sbredin@edc.org.

Read the publication Engaging Girls and Women in Science, Technology; Engineering and Mathematics: The Future Workforce (PDF, 2.07MB)
http://www2.edc.org/itestlrc/Materials/engagegirlsapr06.pdf