As part of the Million Girls Moonshot, Vermont Afterschool is promoting the broad resources collected and produced by the STEM Next Opportunity Fund. The Million Girls Moonshot is a new initiative that aims to “inspire and prepare the next generation of innovators by engaging one million more girls in STEM learning opportunities through afterschool and summer programs over the next 5 years.” Learn more about how we’re involved in Vermont with the Linking Engineering to Life project here.
Toolkits and other resources:
The Million Girls Moonshot has created an Engineering Mindset Toolkit and other written resources that can be incredibly helpful in how you help your students develop an engineering mindset. The toolkit includes:
- An Equity and Inclusion Framework
- An overview of the 10 Critical Features of an Engineering Mindset
- An outlined pathway of possible opportunities that third space programs could provide to scaffold the process of developing as a STEM thinker and learner
- An extensive STEM and Engineering Resource Catalogue which provides links to many, many diverse and useful activities, and other resources
- Easy engineering mindset activities to do with your students
Engineer Mindset Webinars:
In addition to the written resources, there are a number of webinars available as well. The audience is for program staff who are leading out-of-school time STEM learning experiences.
- Engineering Practices Support Equity Part I: Recording and Engineering Mindset Activities
- Engineering Practices Support Equity Part II: Recording and Engineering Mindset Activities
- Engineering Practices Support Equity Part III on Tuesday, November 10, 12:00-1:00 pm PT/3:00-4:00 ET (register here)
Part 1 in the series focused on developing an engineering mindset in “equitable ways that encourage engagement and participation of girls and other underrepresented youth.” Part II built on those concepts using more specific practices. And Part III will round out the discussion of engineering practices through the equity lens.
Additional webinars topics include Equity and Inclusion as well as Engineering Design Challenges. Check them all out on the Million Girls Moonshot Webinars page.
As more resources emerge, Vermont Afterschool will continue to share them via blog posts like these. If you have any questions or would like more information, please reach out the Sam Graulty (sam@vermontafterschool.org). Thank you and stay inquisitive!
