Northwest Valley Branch

e-Currents  February, 2012, page 4

Potpourri

 

 

 

 

 

Deadline for submitting material for the  March   e Currents is  February7th, 2012.

 sylviabaauw@cox.net                                                                                                                                                                                          

 

 

 

 

 

                                              Branch Project

 If you were at the September General Meeting, you heard about our Branch Project.  The STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) initiative is very important for our future generations.  Last year our Special Interest Group worked with the Dysart Unified School District.  They will continue this partnership with three goals: 1. volunteering to help students prepare for the Science Olympiad; 2. working with schools to prepare for a Career Night; and 3. creating a resource list of guest speakers to go into individual classrooms to speak about their own careers.

 

     

Branch Project for 2011-2012:  STEM  

STEM was selected by the co-Presidents Elect last May as the Branch Project for 2011-12.  We are building on the program begun last year by STEM Interest group members who visited several elementary and high schools in the Dysart Unified School District, met with teachers and administrators, and co-sponsored a joint meeting with the League of Women Voters at which Darcy Renfro, Vice President for STEM, AZ Science Foundation, spoke.  We also distributed fifty copies of the AAUW research study, “Why So Few, Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math?”
      Co-Chairs Betty Eldridge and Elizabeth Rielly presented a power point on STEM at the September branch meeting.  Beginning in October, we held regular monthly meetings.   Programs currently underway include monthly visits by five to seven AAUW members to the Mountain View Elementary School Science Olympiad Club.  The Club, composed of thirty 7th and 8th grade boys and girls, is studying a range of scientific topics in preparation for regional and state competition.  The project will continue in January, February, and March 2012.  Please join us if you are interested in interacting with students under the guidance of gifted teachers.  You need not be a science major or a former teacher.
      In a parallel activity, the AAUW STEM group has assisted West Point Elementary School teachers in planning for a STEM Career Night for 7th and 8th graders. This event took place on January 24, 2012.  Parents were invited to view projects created by the students especially for this occasion.  AAUW members assisted that evening.  On our “do-list” is the creation of a Speaker Resource List for use by administrators and teachers in the DUSD.  Please provide us with your suggestions.  Forms for this purpose are available on the NWV branch website and at branch meetings.  
      The STEM Project participants would like to thank Dr. Cyndi Miller, Assistant Superintendent of the DUSD and a NWV branch member, for her continuing support of the Branch Project.
                                Elizabeth Rielly and Betty Eldridge, Co-Chairs