On April 25th, the 5th annual g4g Day@Southcoast was hosted by the Kaput Center for Research & Innovation in STEM Education at UMass Dartmouth. A day of science and technology for girls aged 10-15 brought 150 students from SouthCoast schools and each young greenlight girls got to attend two workshops for the day out of a number of cool themes that make us wonder… how do they manage to choose only two?! Workshops included:
“Math in How You Move”; “Imagineering Engineering”; “Engineering a Robot to Solve a Rubik’s Cube” ;“Tiny Critters with Giant Impacts”; “The Math Behind the Magic”; “Etiquette in Cyberspace”; “Investigating Science Outside Your Back Door”; “Mind Games”; “Make Your Own Video Game”; “Line Design Art”; and “Lego factory”
From the words of Beste Gucler, who is our Project Leader for this event but also holds a plethora of roles in Research & Mathematics Education at UMass:
“The event was very successful, fun, and educative as the girls listened to our keynote speaker, engaged in various workshops, and interacted with the panelists consisting of role models involved in the STEM fields. The weather was beautiful, the lunch was delicious and the girls had many interesting questions for us to answer.”
In celebration of International #girlsinICT day this year (held on April 23rd), a special workshop “Etiquette in Cyberspace” is worth mentioning. Inspired by Brent Rubell, who founded the academic organisation, Computer Security Club at UMass, the idea is to help students break into the field of information security. Workshop leader, Semirah Dolan describes it best:
“Like the physical world we live in, the customary code of behaviour in society or etiquette is as vital online, aka Cyberspace. This workshop showcased the Internet Etiquette (Netiquette) with examples of positive impacts or negative consequences, some hilarious and some serious. From the workshop, the young ladies took home the means and tools to protect the security and privacy of their space and others’. They learned know how to keep themselves updated with cyber security skills that could land them a promising career.”
A special THANK YOU to Beste for leading such an amazing team – it couldn’t have been done without you!
Some words of gratitude to the UMass team: Robert and Gili from the Mathematics Education program; Kaput Center Executive Board Members, Nicholas and Paul; Dr. Chandra and keynote speaker Dr Tracie; panel members – Rochelle, Maggie, Sheila and Paul; and all the great volunteers, workshop leaders and UMass faculty and staff… thank you for giving your time to this inspiring event and always supporting our cause!
And finally, a special mention to greenlight for girls’ Board of Director, Sarah Thomas, for continuously inspiring the Southcoast area and encouraging such amazing events!
See you next year!! :-)
