Developing a Successful Parent Program in Conjunction with an Established K-12 Outreach Event - Main...

Developing a Successful Parent Program in Conjunction with an Established K-12 Outreach Event

Jessica Block & Stephanie Gillespiejtblock@gatech.edu, sgillespie6@gatech.edu Georgia Institute of Technology- Grad SWE

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Agenda

Program HistoryLogistics and StructureStem Gap and Gender BiasHands-on ActivityCollege PreparationIntroduction to EngineeringStudent PanelAssessment SurveysResources

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Program History

Georgia Tech hosts 4-6 100+ girl outreach events per year

Graduate students want to get involved

Parent program developed in Spring 2014, led and run by

graduate student SWE members

Since then, we have:

• Held 6 parent programs

• Had 97 attendees

• Had 12 unique volunteers

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Logistics and Structure

Reserve an extra room/space• Projector• Seating• Space/Resources for activity• Should be separate from any other activity rooms

Ensure you have separate volunteers for the program• Allows dedications to K-12 outreach AND parent program• Avoids volunteer burnout

Space and Volunteer Considerations

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Logistics and Structure

Work with existing event coordinators • After children are signed up, invite parents to the program• Informal RSVP to estimate activity supplies• Invite parents on-site to participate even if they didn’t RSVP

Be flexible• Parents may have other obligations and be in/out of the room• May have younger kids/siblings with them• Ensure parents understand the hours of the outreach event AND

the parent program

Recruiting the Parents

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Sample Schedule

9:00 am- Sign In/General Undergrad SWE Intros9:30- Intro and Overview of Schedule9:35- Gender Bias Presentation10:00- Intro to Engineering Presentation10:15- Hands-on Activity11:00- How to Get to College Presentation11:15- Panel Discussion12:00 pm- Wrap-up

Early finish allows parents to get lunch or watch last activity

(Regular outreach events run 9am-2pm)

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Gender Bias Presentation

30-minute presentation

Introduces the STEM gap, motivating the need for engineers in the job market

Majority of presentation presents information on biases that many women experience in a STEM workforce

Offers take-away tips for parents to assist the girls in handling these biases

Purpose

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Gender Bias Presentation

• Speaker Background• Generational Fast Facts• Girls in STEM• Our Current Situation• Issues Women Face in STEM:

– Beliefs about intelligence– Stereotypes– Self-Assessment– Spatial Skills– Implicit Bias

• Conclusion and Action Items

Material Covered

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Gender Bias Presentation

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Gender Bias Presentation

• Shared presentation has a narrative in the “notes” section for easy presenting

• Statistics should be updated EACH YEAR

• Read the executive summary of the AAUW report “Why So Few?” to be able to understand context and field audience questions

• Check resource links before sharing the presentation with any attendees

Tips for your presentation

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Introduction to Engineering Presentation

15 minute presentation

Goal to introduce parents to what an engineer does

Covers personality traits that engineers typically express

Overview of the different engineering specialties

Purpose

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Introduction to Engineering Presentation

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Introduction to Engineering Presentation

• Have fun with this!

• Poll the parents and include some trivia

• Highlight diversity of engineers

• Don’t forget salary and creativity!

Tips for your presentation

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Hands On Activity

45 minute session

Allows parents to participate in the engineering design process

Provide talking points for parents to share with their daughters

Don’t forget the science and design process discussion after the activity

Purpose

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Hands On Activity

• Newspaper Tables

• Egg-drop

• Tinfoil Boat

Activity Ideas

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Hands On Activity

• Choose an activity with minimal materials and easy cleanup

• Bring the science in! You can also have parents sketch out designs

• Pick one of the activities the students are doing as your parent activity

• You can also offer other activity resources for parents

Tips for your activity

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How to Get to College Presentation

15 minute presentation

Include specific state-wide requirements to graduate high school

Includes action items to help students prepare for college

Purpose

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How to Get to College Presentation

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How to Get to College Presentation

• Change the presentation to reflect your audience (middle school vs high school parents)

• Ask an admission counselor to come and give a SHORT presentation for high school events

• Update the presentation to fit your state and keep up-to-date

• Don’t forget scholarship resources!

Tips for your presentation

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Student Panel

45 minutes panel discussion with 4-5 graduate students or professionals

Allows parents to ask questions from graduates of a STEM degree program

Diversity of panelists allows for experiences of out-of-state studies and comparisons of different programs

Purpose

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Student Panel

• Brief background of each panelist- undergraduate program and school, funding, interests, and current position or area of study

• What made you choose your type of engineering?

• Did you ever think you were going to quit? What helped you persevere?

• How do you think your experience in STEM may have been different from your male cohorts?

Sample Starter Questions

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Assessment

Distribute a survey to parents to better your program

Allows you to send them presentations of interest

Also allows you to document your program’s success for award applications!

Purpose

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Assessment

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Assessment

• Print instead of email! You’ll get more responses

• Incorporate changes as you get feedback to fit your program’s audience

• Consider that each parent will have a different level of exposure to STEM prior to this program and will have their own take-aways

Tips for the survey

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Resources

-PDF guide with complete event overview and resources from each presentation/activity-Powerpoints for each session-Sign-In Sheet and Assessment Survey

Most are available online from We15 or the app with our section info.

Others are available via the following websites: http://jessicatblock.com/resources.htmlhttps://sites.google.com/site/stephaniegillespieportfolio/service/parent-program-resources

Use our resources as a starting point or feel free to edit!

Questions?

• Jessica Block & Stephanie Gillespie• jtblock@gatech.edu, sgillespie6@gatech.edu • Georgia Institute of Technology- Grad SWE

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• What do you think would be the hardest part of the parent program?

• What other material would you include in your parent program?

• How would you adapt the parent program for repeat- attendees?

Our questions for you?