Spice up STEM with SciGirls | Calling Museums and Science Centers!

Do you want to spice up your girl-focused science programs?

SciGirls is seeking museums and science centers for the pilot year of our Museum Affiliates Program! Our Affiliates Program will help science centers and museums enhance their existing girl-focused programs by providing multimedia educational resources, professional development training, and ongoing support.

Learn more about the SciGirls Museum Affiliates Program – and how to apply -- in a webinar on December 17, 2009, at 1:00 pm CST (2:00 pm EST): http://ngcproject.org/events/events.cfm?eventid=159. The RFP and application can also be found at this site.

Sign up now!

SciGirls Extrodinaire | Javiera Guedes, Astronomer

Javiera Guedes, a grad student at the University of California Santa Cruz, is star-gazing with a mission! She is heading up a project exploring potential Earthlike planets near Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to Earth.

Guedes is part of a team using a telescope in Chile to investigate whether habitable planets are out there. Guedes is optimistic: "It's so close to us, and the position of the other stars is such that it should be very possible to find a small planet." But close is a relative term in the universe... in this case, more than 4 million light years away!

SciGirl Extraordinaire | More on Nobel Prize winner Dr. Carol Greider

One of the things that can be important for young girls considering a life in science is seeing women mentors who are balancing a career and family. After all, girls want to know that science doesn't mean a life spent alone in labs!

CNN's recent coverage of Nobel Prize winner Carol Greider offers a great example of a life lived fully. This CNN story gives a great overview of Greider's background, including how she told her kids she won the Nobel Prize and if they went to school that morning. (Nope!)

Women have won the Nobel Prize a total of 41 times in the history of the award, so Greider is in some rare company. But it's important to note that the scientists girls are introduced to don't need to be stars in their fields. Everyday working scientists can show girls that finding fulfilling work in STEM fields is an obtainable goal.

In fact, SciGirls incorporates this kind of mentoring into each of its episodes. When our shows air in 2010, you'll meet engineers, designers, biologists, and robot whizzes. Each has unique insights to share with girls about how they found their life's work. And soon enough their stories will be seen by millions of viewers across the country. You go, SciGirls!

Thinking pink?

SciGirls was interested to see this post on pink tools. We've had out own design discussions about pink. In a nutshell: Should Izzie embrace the pink?

Ultimately, we decided to open the SciGirls palette beyond the pink-purple haze. We wanted to fight the "pinkware" stereotype found in many girl products and let SciGirls identify with whatever colors strike their fancy.

But it's crazy that the pink discussion follows on up the ranks to products for women. Perhaps that's because the grown up audience is so completely split on the topic. In the blogger's informal survey, she found half the women liked the idea of pink tools and half said, "No go." Go figure!

SciGirls Extraordinaire | Jacquelyn Gill

Jacquelyn Gill, a Ph.D. candidate in Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has analyzed lake deposits in Wisconsin and New York to come up with some new data and thinking on large-animal extinction in North America.

Her research is pretty complex, but a recent New York Times article gives a great synopsis.

Kudos to Gill and her research mates at UW Madison. We expect a long and distinguished career from this SciGirl!

Smart Pet Investigations

OK, this is a silly post, but it's Friday, so here goes!

Years ago DragonflyTV shot a segment in which 3 girls tried to determine if their cats were left of right-pawed. (It's still a pretty cute episode: Pick a Paw by Cleo, Brittany, and Molly)

Meanwhile, SciGirls thinks they might have been asking the wrong research question. Perhaps a better inquiry might be: "Is your cat an ambidextrous piano player?"

Zombie Cockroaches!

Happy Halloween from
Radiolab!