2013 Grants

THE YOUNG WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP NETWORK (NEW YORK, NY)

Social computer game design platform

For the past four years, we have given grants to The Young Women's Leadership Network, which has several schools in New York City. (For more information, please go to www.ywln.org.) This year, we will be supporting a new program at TYWLN that taps into an exciting new way to teach computer coding skills. Globaloria is an online learning platform for K - 12 that offers courses in science, math, engineering, game design and computer coding. (You can learn more here: www.globaloria.org.) It also has a social component: students design and create computer games, then share them with other students on the Globaloria system. Other students then play and critique the games -- including games designed by students at other schools. It is an ingenious way to develop STEM knowledge and computing literacy.

Globaloria offers schools a turnkey education solution designed to be integrated into the regular school day. Students learn high-level coding languages such as Java and Flash/ActionScript, which handle memory management, operating systems, and other fundamentals that make the computer work. Teachers receive yearlong professional development in the form of a three-day training, monthly virtual Webinars, bi-weekly mentorship and curriculum coaching, and progress reports. Globaloria also offers game design competitions.

Students learn computer coding, game design, computational thinking, social media and digital literacy. They also learn how to participate in a social learning network, to research, construct and design an interactive media product, to work in teams, to master a variety of professional tools (MediaWiki, Blogger, GChat, AdobeConnect, etc.), to develop presentation skills and to publish original content on multiple platforms.

This year, the Foundation will support the cost of providing Globaloria in one classroom in TYWLN's Bronx school, which is $7,500 for the entire year. We're excited about this new project and look forward to seeing the results!

Ecology field trip to the Berkshire Mountains

For the past three years, the Foundation supported a three-day environmental science workshop and academic field experience for the entire 7th Grade of the Astoria, Queens school (about 75 students), at an 85-acre nature preserve. The program was such a success, last year we doubled the number of young women who could go on the trip: we funded not only the 7th Grade of the Astoria school but also the 7th Grade at the Brooklyn school as well. All told, 138 young women participated last year. Like the Marin Headlands trip at GMS, this trip is a great way to take science education out of the classroom and introduce young women to appealing science activities. We are therefore proud to sponsor this trip again, and to sponsor both schools again.

On this trip, the students are introduced to ecological topics in the classroom prior to the trip, including basic concepts of watersheds, bio-diversity and human impact on the natural environment, among other topics. They then go on a three-day overnight retreat at an 85-acre preserve of natural woodlands in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, where environmental educators teach the students in small groups. This is the first wilderness experience for many of these young women. They study diverse ecosystems (woodlands, waterfall and bog) and they gather water samples and measure weather conditions. In addition to their activities, they receive academic lessons on topics such as forest ecology, geology, wetlands exploration, and organic gardening.

In the past, TYWLN has reported that "Each year we find that [the] students leave this program with a greater understanding of the processes involved in an ecosystem and enhanced knowledge of how to use a systematic approach to analyze environmental issues. The classroom 'comes alive' through these outdoor field experiences. For our urban student population, this retreat is academically and personally life-changing."

We're delighted to support this trip again, for both schools. The grant is $16,000, and will pay for the entire 7th Grades from the Astoria and Brooklyn schools (approximately 135 students) to attend.

THE GIRLS MIDDLE SCHOOL (PALO ALTO, CA)

The Girls' Middle School is a girls-only school in Palo Alto, California. Its small but diverse environment provides girls in Grades 6 to 8 with an engaging, supportive environment in which to learn. For them, single-sex education "is not merely a matter of separating girls and boys: it's about making sure girls take center stage and applying insights from research on how they grow and learn." (You can learn more about GMS here:www.girlsms.org).) The Jennifer A. Kay Foundation has supported several programs at The Girls' Middle School since 2010. This year, we're happy to renew our support of three excellent field trips we have supported in the past.

Exploratorium field trip

The Exploratorium (www.exploratorium.edu) in San Francisco is a science museum that focuses on hands-on, interactive exhibits -- and for that reason it's a good fit for the Foundation's mission. Last year, the_Foundation funded a field trip for the entire 8th Grade at GMS to go to the Exploratorium for a day. The GMS science teacher then used the exhibits that the young women saw on the field trip to reinforce ideas and examples in the classroom. The teacher also used the trip to introduce new ideas that were studied later in the year. Finally, the students were asked to do independent science projects, and were given the option of explaining one of the exhibits they saw at the Exploratorium.

The trip last year was a big success, so we're happy to fund it again this year. The grant is $1,473, which will cover all 63 students in Grade 8.

"Indoor skydiving" physics field trip

Another day-trip that was a big success last year (and the year before too) was a field trip to an "indoor skydiving" facility. We funded the entire 8th Grade at GMS to visit a facility called "iFly." The girls conducted experiments within the flight chamber: for example, they determined the terminal velocity of various sports balls and observed the flight patterns of non-uniform objects. They listened to a lecture on the physics of the wind tunnel and of flight generally. And then... they got to 'fly' in the wind tunnel!

We think this is a great way to make flight physics understandable, and we're delighted to be funding this trip again, for the entire 8th Grade (63 students). The grant is $3,588.

Geology field trip to the Marin Headlands

Our third grant to GMS is for the entire 6th Grade at GMS to take a field trip to the Marin Headlands in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. All 63 students will spend three days and two nights on the trip, during which they will learn about geology and plate tectonics on one of the world's most famous geological features: the San Andreas Fault. The girls will learn about types of rock, types of plate boundaries, and the methods used in field science. They will collect and analyze geological data. They will also collect water samples and observe organisms under a microscope. They will even go on a night hike and study a beach ecosystem that relies on bioluminescence. The young women will tie their learning from the trip to classroom work on map-reading skills, modeling of the Earth's interior, and study of volcanoes.

The trip is good example of teaching science outside a classroom. We supported this trip last year, and are delighted to support it again this year. The grant, which covers the entire 6th Grade (67 students) for three days and two nights, is $20,285.