New Mini-Grants Awarded to Northwest Organizations
The Northwest Girls Collaborative Project is proud to announce the latest mini-grant awardees. Please check out the projects to learn more about the great work happening at these organizations. Mini-grant awardees will provide outcome information and presentations at the next NWGCP event, to be held in the fall. Stay tuned for a save-the-date announcement during the summer.

Got Curiosity - AWSEM Symposium for Young Women
Collaborating Organizations: AAUW-Ashland and AWSEM
Girls Served: Grades 6-8
AWSEM (Advocates for Women in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics) Southern Oregon University's Symposium for Young Women introduced 100 southern Oregon middle school girls to professional women role models and hands-on workshops in science, math, engineering, and technology.

Media Boot Camp
Collaborating Organizations: Reel Grrls and King County Superior Court Juvenile Probation Department
Girls Served: Ages 15-18
This three-day intensive project allowed low-income, "at-risk" teen girls with little or no prior video production skills to learn how to conceive, write, shoot, edit, and animate a short video piece. The project was designed to help the girls overcome "technophobia" in an all-girl environment by learning video production skills.

Hillsboro/Forest Grove High School Girls in STEM
Collaborating Organizations: Pacific University and AAUW-Hillsboro/Forest Grove
Girls Served: Grade 11
This one-day event was held at Pacific University for high school junior girls who demonstrated ability in science, technology, or math. Women in STEM careers described their work and how they moved from high school to their present status. The girls also toured the science facility at Pacific University.

Palouse Kids Judge! Neuroscience Fair
Collaborating Organizations: AAUW-Dayton, Palouse Discovery Science Center, and Graduate Women in Science - Psi Chapter (WA)
Girls Served: Grade 5
This grant sent 5th grade girls from Dayton, WA to the Washington State University (WSU) Neuroscience Fair to judge 24 science projects developed by WSU neurophysiology undergraduates. The program also helped the Dayton girls prepare their own science projects with AAUW mentors for their upcoming local science fair.

Women in Neuroscience
Collaborating Organizations: Graduate Women in Science - Psi Chapter (WA) and Palouse Discovery Science Center
Girls Served: Ages 15-18
High school girls in the Palouse region of eastern Washington and northern Idaho visited the newest exhibition, "Brain Power," at the Palouse Discovery Science Center and were recruited to become "Youth Explainers" at the science center. The girls learned about possible career choices in neuroscience and met with regional brain scientists.

Girls and the Environment: Connection to Pre-Service Teacher Preparation
Collaborating Organizations: WSU Spokane CityLab and the Woodland Park Zoo
Girls Served: K-12 Science Teachers
At the one-day "Girls and the Environment" (GATE) workshop at the Woodland Park Zoo (Seattle, WA), university science methods faculty members met with governmental agencies and informal science education representatives. The workshop emphasized ways to build confidence and competence of K-12 girls out-of-doors and in the study of environmental subject areas.

TechREACH: Girls/Mentors Soaring Together
Collaborating Organizations: Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology and the Museum of Flight
Girls Served: Ages 11-14
The Museum of Flight (Seattle, WA) partnered with TechREACH to provide an innovative and educational experience to create strong bonds between girl participants and their mentors. Activities included an interactive simulated space exploration mission, "a day in the life of a pilot," including a virtual flight, and a self-guided tour of the Museum galleries.

NGCP June Webcast
The Gender Chip Project
June 11, 2008
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific
How can we use media to inspire young girls to enter the science and technology fields? In this webcast, participants will watch a short clip of "The Gender Chip Project" and then discuss ways to use the film, accompanying online toolkits and curricula for their different stakeholders. When presented in a range of public settings - from professional group meetings to college peer clusters and presentations for high school students - "The Gender Chip Project" provokes deep and wide-ranging conversations among women in the STEM fields, and serves as a springboard to build awareness and affect change at the institutional and policy levels.
Register:
http://www.ngcproject.org/events/webcasts.cfm

Student Biotech Expo 2008
Creativity, Community, Bioscience
Bellevue, Washington
May 28, 2008
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
The Northwest Association for Biomedical Research's Student Biotech Expo is a unique science fair that engages high school students in creative ways to demonstrate their understanding of life sciences. The fair also connects the students to scientists and resources in the community. The mission of the Student Biotech Expo is to promote an understanding of bioscience research among high school students.
http://www.nwabr.org/studentbiotech

STORY TIME: Reel Grrls Spring Showcase
Market Theater, Post Alley
Seattle, Washington
June 1, 2008
5:00 PM
The Spring Showcase is a celebration and screening of the latest short films produced by Reel Grrls, the nation's first after-school media and technology training program exclusively for girls. A trailer for one of the films is available to view online. Tickets are $10 for adults and free for youth ages 19 and under. To purchase tickets online, visit http://www.reelgrrls.org/purchase.html.

Volunteer Scientists Needed to Judge Science Projects
Ballard High School
Seattle, Washington
June 5-6 and June 9-11, 2008
9:00 - 11:30 AM
Every year Biotechnology Academy students at Ballard High School give a presentation on an ethical issue in science. They prepare a speech, construct a visual aide, prepare a mathematical graphic, and present the information to their peers, teachers, and scientists from the community. Judges are needed for this fun and exciting project. Anyone with a science background is welcome to participate as a judge. For more information or to sign up, contact Ellen Reimer at elreimer@seattleschools.org or 206-252-1039 (after 3 PM).

NWGCP Forum
Oregon
Fall 2008
Details forthcoming over the summer

NWGCP Annual Conference
Seattle, Washington
Winter 2009
Details forthcoming over the summer

NGCP Program Directory - Register your Program Today!
The online Program Directory lists organizations and programs that focus on motivating girls to pursue STEM careers. The purpose of the directory is to help organizations and individuals network, share resources and collaborate on STEM-related projects for girls. When you sign up for the Program Directory you will enter your program description, resources available within your organization, program and/or organizational needs and contact information.
http://ngcproject.org/directory

Science of Music: Exploratorium's Accidental Scientist
How do opera singers sustain those high Cs? Is a birdsong music? Visitors can consider these and other queries through interactive exhibits, a "questions" section, and movies offered by the Accidental Scientist Music Web site. By browsing through the "Online Exhibits" area, visitors can experiment with innovative ways to make music.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/music

Celeste Baine's Engineering Education Blog
Celeste Baine of the Engineering Education Service Center has a new blog on marketing engineering programs, replacing the Engineering Education Advocate e-newsletter. The blog is about finding, educating, inspiring, and recruiting students in engineering and other technical fields. Short articles about engineering recruitment, retention, camps, events, or programs that could help others can be forwarded to Celeste on the blog site.
http://www.engineeringedu.com/celestes_blog

American Association of University Women (AAUW) members across the country are serving as Regional Liaisons for the National Girls Collaborative Project. These Regional Liaisons help the people involved in the NGCP to make connections - to one another, to resources on gender equity, and to AAUW.