Texas Women and Girls in STEM Summit
Breakout Session 5
3:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
 

Creating Circuit Paintings and Contemporary Art to Engage Immigrants, Refugees and K-12 Students in STEM
EER 2.850

Education is constantly evolving. In order to better serve the new culturally diverse student population, we must create accessible educational materials that engage all learners. The STEAM & Literacy program incorporates literature and contemporary art, to engage traditionally underrepresented groups in STEM careers; females, immigrants and minorities. We partnered with Posada Esperanza, a local non-profit that offers shelter to women and children from different countries, to visit students and their mothers once a month and create a contemporary work of art to take home or eat it. The visits consist of a bilingual story or folktale, a short math/science lesson and a contemporary art making project.

Presented by: Mariel Robles, M.Ed. Education Consultant (STEAM and Bilingual Programs)

How Young Women Can Be Empowered Through FIRST Robotics: First-hand Experiences from High Schoolers
EER 3.642/3.640

Hear from young women from Vandegrift High School's FIRST FTC robotics team, 7161 Hydra. Through robotics, these presenters have experienced all the ups and downs of being women in STEM, and want to share their stories with others who either are going on the same path or have been on the same path as them. Learn how they broke the barriers and hope to inspire others with the help of the FIRST program. 

Presented by:
Mia Thompson, Student, Vandegrift Viperbots FTC Team 7161 Hydra
Abby Pomerantz, Student, Vandegrift Viperbots FTC Team 7161 Hydra
Avery Galligher, Student, Vandegrift Viperbots FTC Team 7161 Hydra

Middle School Girls Peer-Mentoring Girls in Math
EER 0.706

Please join me in exploring an implementation strategy for making "girls peer-mentoring girls" successful in middle school. This STEM pipeline initiative actually works!

Math is at the core of STEM fields. Math does not come easily to all. The most critical factor which helps in learning and understanding math in middle school is the "teacher”. In middle school when a teacher identifies a few students who are good in math to become math peer-mentors, the benefits are ten-fold. It doesn't just strengthen math concepts for those identified peer-mentors, it also helps the teacher in every day classroom work, helps other students to work more efficiently and encourages other students to join the peer-mentoring/tutoring group.

Presented by: Priya Malhotra, Student (Senior), Founder/President Research in Math Club @ LASA, Liberal Arts & Science Academy, Austin, TX (Class of 2020)

Technology with Purpose: How Educators Can Deepen STEM Learning with Meaningful & Creative Curriculum
EER 3.646

Mouse's mission is to empower all youth to engage with STEM, creative technology, and computer science to make meaningful change in our world. To accomplish this, our work includes: Mouse Create, A learning platform offering STEM and creative computing curriculum where over 10,000 youth build projects and collaborate, and share a portfolio of their own projects. PD: Mouse trains K-12 teachers and educators, Mouse reached 1,108 participants during the 2018-2019 school year, of which 74% were women, and 24% were men. Through these trainings, last year Mouse has reached over 60,000 youth nationwide. Design League- a year-long, afterschool technology invention program for high school students and our Creative Computing Lab event series.

Presented by: Julia Barraford-Temel, Director of Network Success, Mouse

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