Behind the Scenes: The Birth of SciGirls

By now you’ve heard about SciGirls, the innovative TV series for ‘tweens coming to PBS in 2010. But did you know that this TV show is an outgrowth of a DragonflyTV outreach initiative called SciGirls?

DragonflyTV is an Emmy-Award Winning science TV show produced by Twin Cities Public Television (TPT). In 2004, the National Science Foundation gave TPT a grant to support the creation of a DragonflyTV outreach program targeting girls: SciGirls. The goal of SciGirls was to encourage girls’ interest in science through community-based programs that drew on the resources of DragonflyTV and key findings from research on gender and education.

Select DragonflyTV videos of women scientists and girls doing inquiry-based investigations were repackaged as “SciGirls” DVDs. Companion SciGirls Activity Guides were created as well, containing instructions for hands-on inquiry experiences based on the videos and a summary of the latest research on how to encourage girls in science. DragonflyTV distributed these resources to science centers, PBS stations, schools, and girl-serving organizations nationwide along with grants and professional development training to support their use.

Since 2005, DragonflyTV’s SciGirls outreach programs have been implemented in 25 communities, reaching more than 5,000 girls in grades 3 through 8. Each SciGirls outreach partner custom designed programs – whether they were summer camps, science clubs, or special events – that used SciGirls videos and activities to encourage girls in science.

These outreach programs were an outstanding success. But it became clear that DragonflyTV’s SciGirls outreach program – and all the other successful STEM enrichment programs for girls – could only reach a small fraction of the girls who need this kind of encouragement. TPT envisioned developing a broad-based, multimedia strategy that could inspire and enable girls in every American community to discover the excitement of science, technology, engineering and math. That is the vision of the new SciGirls television show!