Vermont Afterschool is proud to be part of the Million Girls Moonshot initiative, working to inspire and prepare the next generation of innovators by engaging one million more girls in STEM learning opportunities through OST programs over the next five years. The Million Girls Moonshot is an initiative of the STEM Next Opportunity Fund. The Million Girls Moonshot seeks to re-imagine who can engineer, who can build, who can make. See below for some information and resources that can help advance this goal!
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Activity Playlist
Looking for a sequence of activities you can implement in your afterschool program today? Say goodbye to googling or searching on Pinterest. Use the following activities to support youth in building an engineering mindset:
- Celebrating Pride Month in STEM: To celebrate Pride month, we’ve rounded up resources, networks, blogs and more from the Science Council membership.
- LGBTQ in STEM: A guide that focuses on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and more (LGBTQ+) people, organizations, and history in the fields of STEM. The guide includes resources, articles, podcasts, and events.
- Historical legacy of Juneteenth: Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day and Liberation Day, is an American holiday celebrated annually on June 19. It is the oldest, national commemoration of the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the U.S. Celebrate with your youth with these resources from the National Museum of African American History.
- 26 Experiments for Spring!: Celebrate spring with these free science and engineering lessons, projects, and activities for enriching hands-on STEM related to spring weather, flowers, plants, and more!
Transformative Practices
- International Women in Engineering Day: Organized by Women’s Engineering Society, this day (June 23, 2023) is an international awareness campaign to raise women’s profile in engineering and focus attention on the career opportunities available to girls in engineering.
- Room to Read STEAM Powered Careers Collection: Room to Read’s STEAM-Powered Careers collection presents 10 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics-themed books to inspire first through third graders about the wide variety of groundbreaking and exciting STEAM careers that they can start exploring right now. Created in collaboration with scientists, staff and faculty from the University of Southern California (USC), the collection explores topics ranging from polar science to gastroenterology to nanotechnology and more.
Webinar
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Hiring Interns or Teen Leaders for the Summer?: Click2ComputerScience’s new asynchronous course, Teens Learning to Lead, is a great way to help new interns get prepared for working with youth. It is a leadership course for high school and college-aged people designed for participants to complete on their own, or with a team. We recommend that teams who will be teaching together over the summer complete the course together. Participants will need a computer and a journal for reflecting on their learning. The reflection points can be the basis for discussions with a supervisor. mentor or coach that will help participants learn and grow as leaders.
This is a self-directed online learning experience offered at no cost by Click2ComputerScience. The course is divided into four units with a culminating experience that lets participants apply what they have learned. See Teens Learning to Lead for yourself.
