Annual Report

2004-2005

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WHAT WE DO

WE keep girls engaged, confident and successful in science from kindergarten through college. We are especially committed to the participation and success of girls who will be the first in their families to attend college and/or from ethnic and racial groups that are under-represented in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Our goals include: • To increase girls’ confidence, understanding and enjoyment of the sciences in an effort to help

merge the gender and racial gaps in science and technology. • To create an environment where our girls see themselves as future leaders, where it is assumed that

our girls will go to college and where girls are encouraged to see themselves as potential scientists. • To increase leadership opportunities for girls in science and technology with a special commitment

to increasing participation and visibility of ethnic and racial groups who are underrepresented in technical and scientific fields.

• To create a community support network that offers girls leadership, mentoring and continuous

encouragement throughout their education. We build this support network by galvanizing girls and their parents, the public school system, local Universities and Colleges, and the myriad of scientific organizations and research centers throughout the Boston area.

GENERAL CLUB INFO:

• Clubs are FREE for girls in K-7th; Girls in 8th- 12th grade can work as Junior Assistants and receive a small stipend. • Clubs run for 9 weeks, one hour each week during the Fall and Spring semesters, including an end-of-year science fair. In addition, we offer free, hands-on science activities, lead by our Junior Assistants, to summer camps during the summer months. • Program Locations in 2004/2005: Science Clubs currently works with girls from seven different schools throughout Cambridge and a community church in Newton. The locations we serve are: Amigos, Baldwin, Cambridgeport, Cambridge Rindge and Latin, Fletcher-Maynard Academy, King Open, ML King and Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton.

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Our Approach combines: • Mentorship of girls by older girls and women in science

who provide positive role models. • Hands-on science every week through free after-school

science clubs for girls in kindergarten through grade seven. • Science leadership, job training and team-building skills

through our unique Junior Assistant program for girls in grades seven through twelve.

• A continuous program, year-after-year, that creates a sense of belonging, continuity and growth, where our girls move in stages from being club members to Junior Assistants-in-training, to Junior Assistants.

• Integral involvement of parents, community members and teachers as volunteers and staff in the clubs.

• Community support and involvement providing a sense of belonging and meaningfulness.

• A support network for girls in need. • Partnerships between local corporations, nonprofits,

community organizations and public schools.

In their own words: “Science Club for Girls is a great place for young girls to learn about science in fun, engaging, hands on activities together while learning. That’s what makes little girls want to go home and tell their parents how much they love SCFG and how much fun they had. We have had girls come up too us and say how much fun they had and how much they couldn’t wait for the class. When girls come to us and do this it encourages us to put more than 100% during Science Club for Girls.” -Written by two 8th grade Junior Assistants working with 3rd graders “The first day was a blast! We raced balloons down a designated track made of string. Occasionally you would hear a pop and a scream following it because a girl had blown the balloon too big. This was one project to show how to use energy in a contained way.”

-Written by 7th graders doing a Space and Rocket Curriculum

[MIT] Professor Young hasn’t just made this [Rocket Team] a learning experience for us, he's made us realize that this can be a fun career for some of us in the future. And, the future isn’t that far away. Girls from the Rocket Club: we can’t go back and say we haven’t learned anything in our years of middle and high school. Because we have, and it is about rockets!!!!

-Written by one of our all-girl high school Rocket Team members

regarding Rocket Team mentor and volunteer, Colonel Peter Young

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Program Expansions and Growth:

Science Club for Girls (SCFG) has expanded to offer girls in 7 Cambridge schools plus a community church in Newton free, after school science programs. In 2003-2004, we served a total of 265 girls. By the end of our 2004-2005 fiscal cycle, we will have served 330 students, with over 75 volunteers dedicating more than 1,400 volunteer hours. During our dissemination this year, we have targeted communities who serve girls most under-represented in the fields of science and technology. Our registration for the 2004-2005 year shows that we have been successful at responding to the needs of minority girls; 75% of girls registered in our program are racially or ethnically diverse. Each year since our incorporation in 2003, we have steadily increased the number of girls receiving quality, academic enrichment programs in the Boston-area. We aim to continue that growth. In addition, Science Club for Girls has solidified its organizational capacity. After our incorporation in 2003 and after receiving our non-profit status in 2004, we were able to unite all Science Club for Girls under one organizational structure. This union of all Science Club for Girls allows for more consistent programming, better fiscal management and use of local resources and better accountability. As of this year, Science Club for Girls works as

one unified organization to reach the common goal of providing girls with quality, after school science and leadership programs. We now provide these opportunities to Cambridge girls from the Amigos, Baldwin, Cambridge Rindge and Latin, Cambridgeport, Fletcher-Maynard Academy, King Open and

ML King schools. In addition to expanding to more schools, Science Club for Girls also expanded to become a year-long program. Last summer, we provided 15 adolescent girls with additional training and leadership skills via science and technology projects. During our summer program in partnership with the City of Cambridge Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program, our Junior Assistants worked on developing our curriculum, creating science activities with the Museum of Science Boston and/or filming a documentary on Rockets and Space. This documentary is currently being used as an educational tool in the Cambridge Public Schools. In addition, our Junior Assistants lead hands-on science activities with

summer camp kids in Cambridge. They planned, organized and lead six, one-hour sessions with 35 Cambridge Summer Camp kids (64% being of ethnic or racial diversity.)

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Community Outreach and Collaborations: We are also proud to have created and expanded the collaboration between the community of women scientists in the Cambridge area and the Cambridge public school system. This partnership has increased the opportunity for women scientists and university science majors to mentor and volunteer in the public schools. We unite the worlds of corporate professionals, academia and public school girls all within a few hours once a week. Our volunteers work directly with our young girls and Junior Assistants to inspire enjoyment, learning and encouragement. In addition, Science Club for Girls embarks on a variety of education and outreach in the community with the specific aim of dispelling the gender and racial myths in science and technology. This year, we held two Community Outreach events. The first event, held on November 2nd , was entitled “Corporate/ Community Partnerships: Mentoring Minority Girls for a Strong and Diverse Workforce.” This event highlighted our Junior Assistant’s accomplishments in science and technology because of the support of our corporate sponsors. Our second event, entitled “Addressing Gender and Science: Voices from the Present and Future,” gave Science Club for Girls members and volunteers the opportunity to address the discrepancies among the genders in success in science. Our JAs spoke to more than 100 attendees, including Cambridge Mayor Michael Sullivan, several City Councilwomen and a member of the School Committee. Both forums were hosted by Genzyme and attended by over 100 Cambridge residents, scientists, business people and academics

This was our third year offering community events focusing on mentoring girls in science and on dispelling the myth that girls can not be successful in science, math or technology. These forums give our girls an opportunity to display their own personal successes. Our Junior Assistants have an opportunity to shine as they present their work in the clubs. Watching the girls stand in front of a large adult audience, speaking of their experiences, makes us realize that the success of SCFG is linked to the personal successes of each girl.

City of Cambridge Mayor, Michael A. Sullivan takes a picture with SCFG Junior Assistants at our Corporate-Community Partnership event at Genzyme on November 2, 2004.

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Minority Student Outreach: Another major accomplishment during our 2004-2005 fiscal cycle has been our targeted expansions to schools with populations most in need of free, quality academic enrichment and mentoring after school programs. In ’04-‘05, 75% of girls enrolled in our programs were racially or ethnically diverse (includes girls from K- 12th grades.) Since our targeted expansions to multi-cultural and diverse schools in Cambridge, these numbers have increased by nearly 20% from our 2003 figures. This year, we expanded outside of Cambridge to Newton, Ma at the Myrtle Baptist Church. Myrtle Baptist, which evolved from within the community, was the first Black

church in Newton. As well, we expanded to Fletcher-Maynard Academy partnering with the Fletcher-Maynard Extended Day. FMA has over 62% of its students enrolled in free or reduced lunches. Our largest school site is the King School, which has 66% of its students on free or reduced lunch programs. In addition, two of our school sites have bilingual programs: the Amigos School is a dual immersion program in Spanish and the King Open school has a bilingual Portuguese program. Thus, they both have a large percentage of student whose first language is not English.

Fiscal Year 2004-2005 Constituent demographics by age and race:

Age Group: African

American Asian Caucasian Latin Native

American other Totals: 5-11 yrs 95 23 57 39 1 4 219 12-14yrs 35 8 18 23 1 0 85 15-18 yrs 14 1 6 2 0 0 23 Total: 144 32 81 64 2 4 327

327 total girls participating 246 total minority girls participating

75% minority participation

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Collaborating organizations: The same principal of support and collaboration that we apply to our after school programs is applied to our commitment to work with other local organizations. We have built a coalition in Cambridge of girls in the community, professional women, parents, museums, universities, biotechnology corporations and scientific and technological companies and research facilities focused on increasing opportunities for girls in Cambridge. Corporations such as Genzyme, Draper Labs, Biogen Idec, Novartis, Omega Naturals and Pfizer have all entered that informal coalition. In addition, our project has collaborated with other non-profits to gain better access to local resources. A few of the non-profits and city agencies which we collaborated with during 2004-2005 include The Museum of Science Boston, Intel’s Computer Clubhouse, Cambridge Community Television, Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program, Cambridge public schools and summer camps, MIT Media Lab and many others. Currently, we are in a partnership with the 21st Century Community Learning Collaboration. This partnership is dedicated to helping merge in-school and after-school learning in Cambridge. We are currently testing a pilot project that creates a liaison between teachers from the “school” and staff

from our “after school” program in order to best serve the developmental and academic needs of the children we work with. We have also expanded our peer mentoring opportunities for

our Junior Assistants. Through our partnership with Genzyme, 21st CCLC and Fletcher-Maynard Extended Day, we were able to extend the after school Clubs at FMA from 8-weeks to 11-weeks by having our Junior Assistants take on the sole responsibility of leading science activities without the volunteers. Both the teacher liaison and the peer mentoring projects are ways that Science Club for Girls is working to expand our ability to provide girls with quality science and leadership opportunities in collaboration with local resources and partnerships.

We believe that the greater Boston-area offers an ideal opportunity to create a model for other cities where the resources of universities, research institutions, and science and technology corporations can work together to increase the opportunities to underserved populations in their community, to increase science literacy and understanding, and to work towards increasing the number of women, especially minority women, working in technological and scientific fields. Science Club for Girls offers the perfect venue for this partnership.

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Evaluation and Survey Results: Our 2004-2005 survey results of 7th grade to high school girls have shown that SCFG has helped girls in the project gain a greater appreciation of science. In addition, survey results show that our girls not only understand the importance of science in today’s world, but they also understand the role that women can play in science. As well, girls surveyed said that Science Club for Girls has helped them gain important leadership and teamwork skills, which are critical for their future. What girls said about Science Club for Girls and science:

• 83% of girls said that SCFG had a positive effect on their attitude towards science.

• 85% of girls surveyed said that SCFG made them realize that science could be fun.

• 71% of girls surveyed said that they are more confident performing experiments and/or using scientific tools because of SCFG.

• 60% of girls surveyed said that SCFG helped them be a better science student.

• 79% of girls surveyed said that their understanding of science concepts is better because of SCFG.

• 92% of girls surveyed say that science is helpful in understanding today’s world.

What girls said about women and careers in science:

• 52% of girls surveyed said they want to have a career in science, math or technology when they grow up.

• 85% of girls surveyed are not intimidated by the boys in their science class.

• 85% of girls surveyed speak up in class because they understand that their opinions need to be heard.

• 98% of girls surveyed said that women can be as good in science as men.

• 75% of girls surveyed say that if they wanted, they could be successful at a career in math, science or technology.

• 98% of girls surveyed say they can be whatever they want to be when they grow up.

What girls said about Science Club for Girls and leadership:

• 87% of girls said they learned how to work as part of a team.

• 79% said they became more comfortable speaking in front of a group of people.

• 70% said they learned to solve conflicts and problems better

• 79% said that they learned to be more responsible. • 85% said they learned to manage time better.

Here is a run down of the academic and social life of girls surveyed:

• 48% of girls take or will be taking honors courses in high school.

• 46% of our girls’ parents went to college, but 96% of our girls plan on going to college.

• 46% of girls are involved in after school sports, 36% are involved in other academic enrichment programs, 10% have jobs, 10% are involved in other mentoring programs.

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Science Club for Girls’ Sponsors for 2004-2005:

21st CCLC Partnership, Biogen Idec, Cambridge Community Foundation, Caswell Foundation, City of Cambridge Mayors Summer Youth Program, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Draper Labs, Genzyme, Harvard-MIT Coop,

Harvard Society of Black Scientists and Engineers, Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium, MIT Community Service Fund, Never too Late Basketball, Novartis, Omega Natural Science, Pfizer, United Way of Massachusetts

Bay, Tom McGowan and Sherry Cline, Timothy Chow, and Other Individual Donors, Parents and Community partners.

THANK YOU TO ALL OUR SPONSORS… for helping girls realize the magic of science!

Science Club for Girls is an independent, non-profit organization. For more information, please visit www.scienceclubforgirls.org. Or contact our Program Director, Alejandra Pallais at 617-549-2442 or email apallais@scienceclubforgirls.org.