January resources from Million Girls Moonshot

Quality Trainings

Audience: For programs and program staff in your state

Share with Network STEM Staff, Key Partners, and Program Leaders in your state interested in becoming Dimensions of Success Certified. More information found here.

Dimensions of Success (DoS) Certification Training
January 26th-27th, 2022; 10am - 4pm ET
Registration deadline: January 19
Experts: PEAR DoS Trainers
Register

Dimensions of Success (DoS) Recertification Training
February 1, 2022; 1pm - 4pm ET
Registration deadline: January 25
Experts: PEAR DoS Trainers
Register

Audience: For network stem/moonshot staff & after school educators  

ACRES is a nationally acclaimed coaching program that builds knowledge and skills so after school educators, librarians and anyone who works with youth in out-of-school settings can confidently facilitate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) experiences for youth. More information found here.

ACRES January Cohort: Asking Purposeful Questions

Questions are the beginning of a path towards discovery, imagination, and STEM exploration. How can we help youth expand and clarify their thinking and develop their reasoning through the questions we ask them? This module is designed for educators who have some experience facilitating STEM learning and would like to grow in their practice within a supportive group of other educators. *The expectation is that you will be live at all three sessions and active member of this coaching cohort. While funding is still available, stipends are offered to participants who complete feedback surveys before and after a module. You do not get a stipend solely for participating. Be sure to check with your coach before you start the course, to see whether you are eligible for a survey-stipend. Stipends are limited and not guaranteed.

January 19, February 9, and March 2, 9, and 16 3:30-5pm PT/6:30- to 8:00 EST

Register

Transformative Practices

Audience: For network stem/moonshot staff, partners and program providers

Application: Share the following resources about transformative practices with partners and programs in your state. Use them to create professional development for afterschool programs and educators in your state. 

Equity and Inclusion

• Toolkit: Math Equity Toolkit - This tool kit layers professional development into “Strides” that educators can take along a path to equitable education..  Topics include Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction and Creating Conditions to Thrive. 
• Article: The Importance of Equity in STEM Education - The National Inventors Hall of Fame discusses identifying and delimiting implicit biases, and increasing cultural awareness. 

Engineering Mindsets

• Blog: Math Lessons Go Better With Engineering - This blog describes how math is an integral part of engineering. An engineering parachute design challenge offers examples of how students practice math as they measure various aspects of their design and calculate their final evaluation scores.
• Activity Toolkit: STEM Educators Academy Activity Toolkit from ExpandED Schools - This Activity Toolkit offers hybrid learning engineering design challenges, STEM facilitation skill builder videos, and engineering design activities categorized by content areas. 

Incorporating Role Models

Role Model profile videos and photos: The following assets are free profile videos and photos of IF/THEN Ambassadors. These can be used in marketing, presentations, social media, embedded on websites, during conferences, and more. 

For Networks: 

Role Model profile videos and photos: The below assets are free profile videos and photos of IF/THEN Ambassadors. These can be used in marketing, presentations, social media, embedded on websites, during conferences, and so much more.

Role Model Profile Videos and Photos

For Programs: 

• Videos: Adele Luta Long Profile and Adele Luta On-the-job 
• Videos: Jasmine Sadler On-the-job and Jasmine Sadler STEM Journey
• Video: Mission Unstoppable: How Do Planes Stay in the Air?
• Video: Can a Satellite Drop From the Sky Into Your Backyard?! | Curiosity Camp
• Activity Sheet: Camp GoldieBlox Activity Sheet: DIY Model Satellite 
• Myria Perez Role Model Resources:
  • Myria Perez Fieldshot and Myria Perez Long Profile, Myria Perez STEM Journey
  • Video: Digging Up Fossils Science Experiment with Paleontologist Myria Perez
• Posters: This Is What A Scientist Looks Like poster featuring Myria Perez who worked with paleontologist Louis Jacobs to unearth never-before-seen fossils from Angola.

Families

• Toolkit: Engaging Families in Mathematics Education - Families are a child’s first educator and this role does not halt on day one of school. Families lay the foundation for future educational success. Researchers have identified four best practices for engaging families effectively in mathematics education.
• ??Toolkit: Community Math Night Facilitators’ Toolkit - The Appalachia Regional Education Laboratory (REL) developed this toolkit to help K–5 elementary school educators plan and implement the Community Math Night program to engage families in interactive math activities, build positive math attitudes, and create a community of educators, students, families, and other caring adults to support math learning. The toolkit includes planning and organizational resources, relevant research, and step-by-step instructions and printable materials for the interactive activities.

STEM Transitions, Handoffs, and Coordination

• Toolkit: Brokering Youth Pathways: A Toolkit for Connecting Youth to Future Opportunity from the Hive Research Network - This toolkit shares ways in which various out-of-school educators and professionals have approached the challenge of brokering. We provide a framework, practice briefs and reports that focus on a particular issue or challenge and provide concrete examples, as well as illustrate how our partners worked through designing new brokering routines in partnership with our research team.

Activities For Programs

Audience: For programs and youth

Application: Share the following STEM activities with programs and families for additional STEM learning in your state. 

• Activity Toolkit: STEM Educators Academy Activity Toolkit from ExpandED Schools — This Activity Toolkit offers hybrid learning engineering design challenges, STEM facilitation skill builder videos, and engineering design activities categorized by content areas. 
• Student Design Activity: Take Flight - Using everyday materials, youth engineer a glider that can fly straight for 15 feet.
• Student Design Activity: Keep Your Cool! Design Your Own Cooler Challenge - Youth design a cooler that will keep a bottle of water cool using the engineering design process. They test their prototype and graph their results to determine the effectiveness of the solution.
• Student Design Activity: Design a Watercraft - Youth engineering a small boat out of straws and plastic wrap that can hold weight.
• Student Design Activity: Get it Write! - Youth engineering a writing device (pen) using everyday materials. They think about both the (water soluble) "ink" and the delivery mechanism.

Additional Professional Development

Audience: For networks and programs

Application: Share the following training opportunities with partners and program leaders to build their understanding of engineering, equity and inclusion, and STEM. 

Webinar: Innovative Strategies from the Field: Leveraging the IF/THEN Collection NGCP Collaborative networks across the country have been using resources from the IF/THEN® Collection to enhance their programming and STEM activities. Join us as we hear from several Collaborative leads and local educators who will showcase what resources they used, how the resources were utilized, and how their youth engaged with and experienced the IF/THEN® Collection.

Mizzen By Mott Moonshot Connection

Audience: For network stem/moonshot staff, partners and program providers

The Mizzen By Mott app delivers inspiring and engaging activities that spark learning in young people. Supported by the Mott Foundation, Mizzen is available at no cost to afterschool professionals! Encourage partners to download the Mizzen By Mott app to access STEM  activities at your finger-touch!  You’ll find it in Mizzen here.

Featured Activities & Playlists

• Playlist: STEM Activities for K-5th Grade in Small Groups - This playlist is a great mix of engineering and science activities that are easy and fun for small groups of students.
• Playlist: Science Notebooks for 3rd - 12th Grade - Keeping a notebook can help your students think and act like scientists and engineers. Sample these easy-to-implement strategies and lessons to bring science notebooking into your program.
• Module: S.INQ Up Earth and Space for 6-8th Grade - Earth and Space is an inquiry and exploration-based curriculum that uses hands-on activities focused on the relationships between the earth, the solar system, and human impacts on our global environment.