Science: It's a Girl Thing!

This project centres around facilitating access to fun science activities for those girls ages 4-8 and their parents "who like to wonder, question, & experiment, because science is important for all of us." The initiative is geared especially toward parents who blog and use other social media - such as Twitter and Facebook - to find and share information.

Science: It's a Girl Thing! includes a series of short, entertaining, and educational videos and free downloadable PDF activity cards for parents to use in working with their daughters. When complete, there will be 10 activity cards and 4 videos. The materials are available free of charge here and on the project's Facebook page. Regular updates, comments, videos, and links to materials on the Facebook page are designed to add interactive and dynamic features to the lessons. For example, conversation starters are offered for engagement, like this one: "Does your daughter's school actively encourage girls to participate in science and math? If so, tell us the things that they're doing right. If not, what do you think they could be doing better? We'd like to hear from you. Join in on our discussion page."

A core strategy is making science fun, accessible, and engaging for young girls and their family. The message is that science is not something intimidating or expensive, but, rather, can be "a family affair". Each of the activities in Science: It's a Girl Thing! creates physical science experiences that use inexpensive and recyclable items commonly found in most US homes - cooking oil, plastic bottles, empty boxes, and old socks. The activities are meant to illustrate that science and opportunities for discovery are all around us: "When you walk to the store and notice the different shapes that make up the sidewalk, the windows, the doors, the fences - that's science. When you bake a cake - mixing and dissolving ingredients, measuring out substances, turning liquids into solids at high temperatures - that's chemistry and physics. When you put together the coffee maker, program your iPod, mix with an eggbeater - that's technology."

AED wants to assure parents that they don't need a degree in physics in order to teach their daughter how to observe, explore, and solve problems through trial and error. Each activity is laid out like a recipe card and indicates the specific skills the activity develops, how much time to allow, what materials are needed, step-by-step activity instructions, how to expand the activity for different ages, and modifications for children with disabilities. The Videos section (on the Facebook page) allows parents to see some of these fun activities in action. Also, a 'Parent Program Guide' offers a full activity list and information and an introduction that explains why learning and understanding science is so important to daughters' development.

Designed around children's natural play activities, the hands-on experiments involve actions like pouring, sorting, categorising, measuring, and constructing, which AED claims provide a strong foundation for understanding more complex concepts later on. The activities reinforce the connection between play and science learning. AED points out that, as they play, children build skills such as cooperative learning, language and vocabulary development, large and small motor skills, and social-emotional growth.

There is a specific emphasis in some activities on debunking gender myths that may hold girls back. For instance, "Discovering How It Works" is accompanied by the following background: "When we think of the word 'tinkering' we usually associate it with a boy. We all have cartoon images in our heads of a boy who has taken apart an important family machine and is frantically trying to get it back together. Laugh as we may, that curious child is learning how things work, taking a risk, and problem solving about how to get it back together. Girls need to 'tinker' too, but typically don't have the same opportunities to do so. By assembling or disassembling these simple machines, you and your daughter will have a fun, hands-on experience with tinkering, technology, and the use of tools."

Early Education, Gender.

According to AED, research shows that students whose parents participate in their education achieve more, and have better attitudes towards school.

AED comments, "Your young daughter is growing up in a world where competency in science, math, and technology are essential for her future education and career choices. Hard as it may be to make the connection between your four, five, or seven-year-old and the grown-up person she will become, it is an important connection to make. Early childhood is the right time to start your daughter on a road that says, 'I can do this' and 'Science is for me.'"