An intensive, innovative, sustainable and scalable STEM program for middle-school girls.
The Girl Scouts of Central Texas is establishing Texbridge, a weekly after-school program for middle school girls from economically disadvantaged and ethnically diverse populations in Central Texas. It is designed to increase participants’ awareness of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education and career choices and to encourage selection of STEM electives in school and in higher education. Read more.
Texbridge Highlights:
- Based on Techbridge, the successful outreach program of the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland CA.
- Presented at area middle schools by trained STEM teachers.
- Professional women from area corporations and higher education institutions participate as role models and mentors.
- The district coordinator organize sfield trips, summer camps and internships for girls, and professional development sessions for teachers.
- TAKS scores will be used as one of the measurement tools in determining the success of the program.
- Parent Nights, hosted by the girls, will increase parental involvment and support of girls’ desire to continue in STEM.
Plans to establish and grow Texbridge over the next decade in four distinct stages:
Stage 1: Start-up
This phase was launched in September 2008. The district coordinator worked with AISD to identify the right schools and the right teachers for Texbridge. The coordinator collaborated with UT to identify and recruit UTeach pre-service teachers who would be interested in apprenticing at the schools.
Once Texbridge teachers were recruited and trained, they began identifying students who would benefit most from Texbridge. We recruited and worked with students in 6th through 8th grades at each of the 2 middle schools.
The Webber Foundation has partially funded this stage of the program. We are always looking for additional support to cover some of district coordinator’s salary, recruitment materials and curriculum.
Stage 2: Pilot
The pilot program was offered at 2 AISD middle schools in Spring 2009. Teachers selected from a set of curriculum modules and presented the material they were most excited about. The Girl Scout district coordinator scheduled visits by trained role models (professionals from area corporations like 3M, IBM, Freescale and Dell). Based on the module chosen, appropriate field trips were scheduled. Participants hosted a parent night that they planned and designed. The Webber Foundation partially funded this stage of the project.
We are always looking for additional funds for development of evaluation materials, curriculum and acquisition of benchmark data from the Texas Education Agency.
Stage 3: Expansion
The current stage, scheduled for the 2009-2014 school years, invites a new cohort of students entering 6th grade to participate in the program while retaining the past years’ cohorts as they go through middle school and high school. New, age-appropriate curriculum is beinig developed, teachers are training and the program will be expanded to a high school within AISD. Internship and summer education opportunities, college preparation classes and college application help are offered to high school participants as appropriate. With the help of high school counselors and mentors, participants will be encouraged to pursue higher education in STEM. Information and assistance is provided to parents as some of them navigate the college application process with their child for the first time in their families. The district coordinators also work to connect students to sources of funding college education that are open only to Girl Scouts or through one of the sponsors of Texbridge.
This stage of the project is currently not funded and we are looking for long-term support and partnerships with funding organizations.
Stage 4: Replication
Scheduled to start in 2011, this parallel stage of the project seeks to replicate Texbridge in Waco and Bryan-College Station. Structured around the large universities at each location, we envision the program growing in these locations and incorporating the lessons learned in Austin. With a strong presence in 46 counties, The Girl Scouts of Central Texas is perfectly positioned to bring this unique opportunity to its members and to all girls in the region. This stage of the project is currently not funded.
Texbridge Success!
GSCTX and the whole Texbridge team is proud of the recent accomplishments at Burnet Middle School. Texbridge participants at Burnet Middle School competed in Lexus' Eco Challenge Contest and were selected as one of 16 winning teams from across the country.
The participants decided to organize a major school event called the Free Market for the Burnet Middle School Community. The three major goals of the project were
- Reduce the amount of usable goods that are being dumped into landfills.
- Increase awareness and educating our population through Eco Education Stations about key environmental issues in the Austin area and globally: Edwards Aquifer, Effect of Landfills, What Not to Throw in Trash (batteries, medicines, syringes, etc), How to Reuse Stuff
- Build a sense of community through the act of giving and sharing.
See the Web site regarding their project and progress. Congratulations!
