Girls Experiencing Engineering: Evolution and Impact of a Single-Gender Outreach Program

Abstract

Abstract Girls Experiencing Engineering: Evolution and Impact of a Single-Gender Outreach ProgramAbstractThe Girls Experiencing Engineering (GEE) program is a fast-paced, interactive program thatseeks to instill young women with confidence, interest, and awareness of the wide array of careeropportunities within science, technology, and engineering fields. The GEE program began in2004 as a one-week session targeting 24 middle school girls and four math and science teachers.The program has expanded tremendously, with the 2010 program structured in a series of oneweek, 20-hour intensive sessions, accommodating 143 middle and high school studentparticipants, 20 peer mentors, and 21 middle and high school math and science teachers. Overthe course of the past 7 years, GEE has involved 641 middle school and high school students,along with 100 teachers and 128 high school and college mentors. Importantly, 85% of thesegirls represent minority groups traditionally underrepresented in math, science, technology, andengineering fields.The primary goal of the GEE Program is to increase the number of girls pursuing careers inSTEM fields by offering female middle school and high school students an opportunity toincrease their awareness and interest levels regarding existing and potential opportunities in thefields of mathematics, science, and engineering. Secondarily, the program seeks to create abroader impact by providing high school and middle school science and math teachers with newpedagogical methods and tools for use in their classrooms and by providing high school girlswith leadership training and practice opportunities through peer mentoring. Finally, the programincludes a goal of broadening knowledge of participants' parents about career opportunities inengineering.This paper outlines the program evolution and the lessons learned over the past seven years anddetails specifically the way in which the program has evolved to address the unique skills andneeds of the young women. Findings from the formal assessment of the program will bedescribed, in particular with respect to unexpected outcomes. Finally, future programmodifications and recommendations of the program developers applicable to other outreachactivities will be addressed, with specific examples from the GEE program used as illustration.