Sponsors:
Program Information
Girls Get SET for Life: Science, Engineering, and Technology is a program sponsored by the The Discovery Museums in Acton, MA and Tufts University School of Engineering (Medford, MA) under a grant from Lucent Technologies Foundation. The program began in 1997 as Girls In Engineering: Hands-On Museum Exhibit Development under an initial grant from the National Science Foundation.
The goal of the project is to promote interest and aptitude in science, engineering, and technology in teams of middle school girls by developing and producing museum exhibits to be displayed in The Science Discovery Museum. Each team consists of five girls from grade six, seven, or eight, a science teacher from their middle school, a female student from Tufts School of Engineering, and a member of the Tufts engineering faculty. Additional support is provided by staff members from Tufts and Discovery Museum.
Each of the three teams design and construct a museum exhibit that focuses on a specific scientific or engineering principle. The exhibits are displayed in the Science Discovery Science Museum, where, throughout the coming year, the girls become the facilitators of activities involving their exhibits.
The middle school teams spent spring term participating in an after school science club for girls, and four weeks at Tufts in the summer developing their exhibits, learning about the scientific principles behind them, and developing basic presentation, display, and teamwork skills.
Successful completion of this project provides a model for collaboration between schools, universities, and museums thoughout the country, as well as developing a tool to promote interest in science and engineering in girls and young women.
For more information, please contact us!
Links of Our Sponsors:
Tufts School of Engineering [http://engineering.tufts.edu]
The Discovery Museums [http://www.discoverymuseums.org]
Lucent Technologies [http://www.lucent.com]
