Engineergirl: A Website To Introduce Middle School Girls To Engineering
- Conference
- Location
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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Publication Date
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June 22, 2008
- Start Date
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June 22, 2008
- End Date
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June 25, 2008
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Women in Engineering
- Page Count
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7
- Page Numbers
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13.497.1 - 13.497.7
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--4218
- Permanent URL
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https://strategy.asee.org/4218
- Download Count
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371
Paper Authors
Bevlee Watford Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Dr. Bevlee A. Watford is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and founding Director of the Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech. A professor of Engineering Education her research interests are in developing and implementing programs to enhance the success of undergraduate engineering students. She is also involved in providing pre-college opportunities for middle and high school students to increase their interest and future participation in the engineering profession.
Catherine Didion Association for Women in Science
Catherine Didion is a Senior Program Officer at the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Her portfolio is the Diversity of the Engineering Workforce program with a charge to provide staff leadership to the NAE's efforts to enhance the diversity of the engineering workforce at all levels including the diversity of those being prepared to enter the future workforce. In addition to her duties at NAE, in March of 2007 Didion became the Director of the Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine. Didion is an internationally recognized leader and expert on issues of equity and gender in science and engineering. She was the editor for Women in Science Column for the Journal of College Science Teaching from 1993-2002.
Patricia Paddock NYC Department of Education
Patricia J. Paddock has developed online educational resources for a variety of formal and non-formal educational institutions including The United Nations, Girl Scouts of the USA, and the New York City Department of Education.
Suzanne Jenniches Northrop Grumman
Suzanne Jenniches, a 33-year veteran of the Northrop Grumman Corporation, currently serves as Vice President and General Manager of the Government Systems Division. The division encompasses 17 operational sites, seven in the US and ten in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. These operational sites supply governments around the world with Postal Automation Systems, C4ISR and Tactical Communications Systems, Air Traffic Management, International Infrastructure and Air Defense, and Homeland Defense. Mrs. Jenniches is very active in the support of engineering and education. She is past president of the national Society of Women Engineers and was awarded the Achievement Award, in June, 2000. Since 1997, she chairs the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) “EngineerGirl!” website.
Annette Gildea Gildea Media Group
Annette Gildea is the Founder and CEO of Ollie Interactive, an award-winning Internet design and marketing communications studio based in Northern Virginia. Her professional interests include development of intuitive user-interface design for new media and web 2.0 social networking applications. Ms. Gildea is serves on the Board of Directors for Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia, and has appeared as a guest on NPR’s “Diane Rehm Show” to discuss the social influence of the Internet and new media on young women in America.
Katie Gramling Diamax
Katharine Gramling is Director of Strategic Services at Diamax Information Systems. As a senior business analyst, she works with associations and not-for-profit institutions to develop web strategies and design websites that achieve project and organization objectives.
Greta Zornes Tulane University
Greta Zornes recently completed her PhD in Environmental Health Sciences at Tulane University in New Orleans. She is active in Engineers Without Borders and is currently involved in a project in the community of Amayo, Nicaragua. Currently a fellow at the National Academy of Engineering, Greta is working with the Diversity in the Engineering Workforce (DEW) program supporting the Engineer Girl and Engineer Your Life projects. Greta is employed as an engineering consultant with CH2M HILL.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
EngineerGirl! A Website to Introduce Middle School Girls to Engineering
Abstract
In 1997, the National Academy of Engineering launched the EngineerGirl! website (http://www.engineergirl.org/ . The intent of this website is to actively target the gender gap in engineering through marketing efforts aimed at middle school girls. This paper and the associated poster present the EngineerGirl! website, its various facets and activities, and presents data which indicates how well it is utilized and received by girls in the 6th through 8th grades.
Introduction
Initially launched in 1997, the EngineerGirl! website is an interactive, engaging means of informing and encouraging diverse young women to explore careers in engineering. It was designed with the assistance of middle and high school young women from across the United States and Canada who worked together on the Girl’s Advisory Board (GAB). The result of their initial efforts was a website that brought together role models of women engineers who provided real world examples of how they became engineers. The primary theme of the EngineerGirl! website is to focus on how girls can make a difference in society through becoming engineers.
In 2004, the GAB was again assembled through a series of on-line chats. The results of their analysis of the then current website indicated their desire for a more interactive, engaging website. They also participated in pilot testing of website template designs. The result is the EngineerGirl! website in its current format – an interactive, informative medium which encourages young girls to both learn about engineering and imagine themselves as an engineer. Emphasis is placed on providing content that inspires the young women and that challenges them to make a difference in the world through pursuing engineering careers. There are numerous sections of the website, some of which are detailed below.
Gallery of Women Engineers
This section of the website highlights successful women engineers in a variety of professions. It includes profiles of over 110 women engineers, some historical and some current. For example
• Emily Roebling (1843–1903), an engineer who oversaw day-to-day construction of the Brooklyn Bridge after her engineer husband fell ill • Grace Murray Hopper (1906–1992), an engineer involved in the development of the first computers • Shruti Pai, a biomedical engineer who works for the Center of Excellence for Limb Loss Prevention and Prosthetic Engineering • Ayanna Howard, who worked on the next generation Mars rover while employed at NASA Jet Propulsion laboratory
Watford, B., & Didion, C., & Paddock, P., & Jenniches, S., & Gildea, A., & Gramling, K., & Zornes, G. (2008, June), Engineergirl: A Website To Introduce Middle School Girls To Engineering Paper presented at 2008 Annual Conference & Exposition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--4218
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