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!

If you are using these resources please fill out this quick survey so Vermont Afterschool can see how these resources are being distributed. Thank you! 

This month, in honor of Women’s History Month, MGM is celebrating the minds and contributions of female STEM leaders who have impacted not only their field, but the world around them in meaningful ways. In order for our world to solve some of our biggest challenges — public health, climate change, and cybersecurity — we must remove barriers for girls and women in all STEM disciplines so they can truly thrive!

Women’s History Month

• Girls STEAM Ahead with NASA Resources & Events Catalog: A searchable catalog of resources and events specifically catered to engaging girls in astrophysics and celebrating women in NASA and space history.
• State of Girls and Women in STEM, March 2021: This National Girls Collaborative Project resource presents a high-level summary of the most compelling statistics and research on the state of girls and women in STEM, focused on K-12 education, higher education, and the STEM workforce.
• Managing American Spaces Resource Toolkit for Women’s History Month: This toolkit contains lesson plans, discussion guides, posters, social media, and movies about the struggle for women’s equality in the United States, as well as, women’s rights globally.
• Mission Unstoppable episode featuring Dr. Harshini Mukundan: From the IF/THEN Collection free digital library of photos, videos featuring diverse women STEM innovators, this episode features microbiologist Dr. Mukundan and her mobile lab, the Portable Engineered Analytical Sensor with Automated Sampling.
• Mission Unstoppable episode featuring Dr. Luz Claudio: This episode features environmental research Dr. Claudio, who studies how the environment affects health.

Activities for Programs

• STEM Educators Academy Activity Toolkit from ExpandED Schools: This Activity Toolkit offers hybrid learning engineering design challenges, STEM facilitation skill builder videos, and engineering design activities categorized by content areas. 
• 30 Active Math and Activities for Kids Who Love to Move: These active math games get kids up and moving, using their whole bodies to learn facts and skills. Lots of these ideas can be adapted to suit a variety of math concepts, so choose a few to try out with your math students soon.
• 21 Cool Math Games and Activities for Kids in Elementary School: These cool math games and activities are perfect for lesson plans, at home learning, summer session, and more. Which one will be your favorite?
• Smart Skies: In these small-group NASA activities for kids 8-18, learners assume the roles of pilots, air traffic controllers, and NASA scientists to solve five Air Traffic Control problems.
• Pi Day Fun!: March 14^th is Pi Day (Pi=3.14)! Celebrate with one of these activities for grades 1-12.

Mizzen By Mott Moonshot Collection

The Mizzen By Mott app delivers inspiring and engaging activities that spark learning in young people. Supported by the Mott Foundation, Mizzen is available at no cost to afterschool professionals! Featured activities and playlists include:

• Helping the Planet for 3rd-5th Grade at Home: This playlist allows younger students to go outside and learn about ways to help the environment.
• STEAM Activities for Middle School at Home: This playlist gives middle-school-aged students fun engineering and design activities that can be done at home or in small groups.
• Make it Move Invention Camp: This curriculum explores transportation vehicles and mechanical things that move! The activities feature engineering and invention with hands-on, fun activities that end with the creation of an invention that improves the quality of life.

Download the Mizzen By Mott app today to access STEM activities at your fingertips!

Transformative Practices

Share the following resources about transformative practices with partners and programs in your state. Use them to create professional development for afterschool programs and educators in your state.

Equity and Inclusion

• Math Equity Toolkit: This toolkit layers professional development into “Strides” that educators can take along a path to equitable education. Topics include Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction and Creating Conditions to Thrive.

Engineering Mindsets – Math

• The National Center for Quality Afterschool – Math in Afterschool: The National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning developed professional development guides for four content areas of the toolkit: literacy, math, technology, and the arts. 

Families

• Math Communities: Math Communities creates a virtual community that provides free access to joyful collaborative activities designed by professional mathematicians and math educators for K-12 students, educators, and families.

STEM Transitions, Handoffs, and Coordination

• Brokering Youth Pathways: A Toolkit for Connecting Youth to Future Opportunity: This toolkit from the Hive Research Network shares ways in which various out-of-school educators and professionals have approached the challenge of brokering. We provide a framework, practice briefs and reports that focus on a particular issue or challenge and provide concrete examples, as well as illustrate how our partners worked through designing new brokering routines in partnership with our research team.