2015 Grants

THE YOUNG WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP NETWORK (NEW YORK CITY)

Social computer game design platform

For the past six years, we have given grants to The Young Women’s Leadership Network, an inspiring organization that is providing quality education to hundreds of young women at several schools in New York City. (You can read more about them at http://www.ywln.org/.) This year we will continue our support for “Globaloria” at two of TYWLN’s schools. Globaloria is an online learning platform that engages students in science, math, and computing through game design.  Students learn high-level coding languages (such as Java and Flash/ActionScript), game design, computational thinking, social media and digital literacy. It’s an exciting new way to teach computer coding skills and it has a social component: students design and create computer games, then share them with other students on the Globaloria system. 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. (You can learn more here: http://www.globaloria.org/.)

Our support for Globaloria over the past two years has been a big success. As TYWLN reported last year, the students “gained an understanding of the design process first-hand – from an idea to a finished product. Through game design, the girls have been able to make connections with other subjects including literacy and science. One of the most important things that students gained from Globaloria was to see how activities that are fun can also require a lot of hard work, perseverance, and attention to detail.”

Globaloria also provided some of the students with an entree into the world of developers off-line. TYWLN students attended the 2015 Games for Learning Summit (hosted by the U.S. Department of Education and Games for Change), and the PC Spring Expo, where they were able to showcase their games alongside top game developers in New York City.

This program is a great match for the Foundation’s mission. This year we are continuing our support for Globaloria at two TYWLN schools, one in the Bronx and one in Astoria. The grant is for $8,800 (total).

THE GIRLS’ MIDDLE SCHOOL (PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA)

The Jennifer A. Kay Foundation has supported several programs at The Girls’ Middle School since 2010. (You can learn more about GMS here: http://www.girlsms.org/) This year, we’re happy to renew our support of an excellent field trip we have supported in the past, and to add three new grants.

Exploratorium field trip

This year, we will again support a field trip for the entire 8th Grade to the Exploratorium in San Francisco, a science museum that focuses on hands-on, interactive exhibits. (http://www.exploratorium.edu/) GMS science teachers integrate the lessons learned at the Exploratorium into later classroom instruction, and when students are required to do a science project for the annual GMS science exhibition, the students are given the option of explaining one of the exhibits they saw at the Exploratorium. The trip has proven to be a successful way of making science more accessible and interesting to the students.

The grant is $1344, which will cover all 67 students in Grade 8.

Build-a-circuit kits

One of the core concepts of electronic computing is the representation of data and programs in zeros and ones. For many students (and adults!), the process of conversion remains mysterious. Enter the Chibitronic circuit kit, which enables a science teacher to demonstrate how those zeros and ones are actually an abstraction of the electrical signal going through a computer. (To learn more, go to http://chibitronics.com) These kits -- which use conductive copper tape and LEDs mounted on stickers (no soldering required) -- enable students to create simple circuits with batteries and LEDs. The 8th Grade students at GMS have started to use these kits and GMS reports that “the students are completely engaged and have even been asking for more advanced circuits.” These kits were designed by a woman affiliated with the MIT Media Lab and are a great match for the Foundation. We will fund a kit for each of the 67 students in 8th Grade, plus 3 kits for instructors, for a total of $2100.

Field trip to NASA’s Ames Research Center

The Ames Research Center is a major NASA research facility located at Moffett Federal Airfield in California, not far from the GMS campus. The entire 8th Grade class at GMS will take a field trip to the Research Center, where they will tour the fluid dynamics labs, observe the autonomous helicopter in action, and visit the virtual flight tower.  The grant is for $812.

Research and development of a computer science program for the 2016 Global Forum on Girls’ Education

From time to time, the Foundation gives grants that support educational research rather than direct instruction of young women. These grants help to advance teaching of math and science for all young women. This year, we’re proud to support a research grant to GMS.

The Global Forum on Girls’ Education will be held in February in New York. It will bring together educators, advocates, researchers, authors, and related-industry leaders from all over the world. Several current and former GMS computer science teachers submitted a proposal to conduct a panel discussion at this event, titled “No, It’s Not an Elective! Seventeen Years of Teaching CS as a Required Class.” The Forum accepted the proposal from a very competitive field of submissions. The presentation in February will discuss how the computer science curriculum that GMS has developed over the past 16 years “uses research-based best practices to engage every girl, every year of middle school, in computer science concepts, allowing them to channel their natural interests in technology towards solving important problems. Additionally, the presenters will examine how computer science can partner across disciplines to provide meaningful learning opportunities for girls.” The presentation is an opportunity for a broad range of educators, all of whom have some connection to our target educational sector, to share best practices and benefit from each other’s experiences. We are hopeful that our investment will pay off for many Forum participants in the future, and for GMS as well.  The grant is for $1800, which supports 60 hours of time developing the presentation.