Educational Impact
SMART Girls Club is offered to 4th and 5th grade girls in five richly diverse Lincoln elementary schools: Elliott, Everett, McPhee, Prescott, and most recently, Hill.
SMART Girls Club is designed to help girls achieve positive youth development outcomes: intellectual ability, employability, and a sense of belonging and membership. Specifically, girls are motivated and able to learn in school, especially around sicence, math and technology courses. They are encourage to "reach for the stars" in these disciplines and given additional tools to do just that! In addition, they will be better equipped to think critically, creatively solve problems, and have academic success to graduate from high school. They will learn to work collaboratively with others, and as a result, will both value and be valued by their community.
SMART Girls Club is also involved in helping the community as service-learning is incoporated into our program. For example, last Spring, SMART Girls learned about water pollution and then marked storm drains, with "No Dumping, Leads to Streams" signs.
Empowering Young Women
SMART Girls Club offers science and math education to girls from diverse backgrounds. This program is needed bacause women and minorities continue to be underrpresented inscience fields. According to Srup and Froshel (2006), in the United State, women represent only 15% of the entire science and engineering workforce.
This after school program is ideally suited to engage and build girls' understanding and passion of science and math. Girls are psychologicaly and socially supported as they explore and learn about science and math. SMART Girls Club faclitators are knowledgeable about science and math, and work to create a supportive environment for cooperative learning. Girls work collaboratively to explore hands-on, open-ended porjects and investigations. Projects and activitess are tied to concepts the girls are learning in school, and we seek to make the material personally relevant to the girls.
Volunteering for SMART Girls Club
SMART Girls Club facilitators are undergraduate or graduate level scientists who share their studies the the girls. YWCA Lincoln staff invites university faculty and other professionals in science and technology to speak and lead club activities. If you would be interested in volunteering for SMART Girls Club, please contact Andrea Curtis at 402-434-3494 ext. 120 or email acurtis@ywcalincoln.org.
We hope this sounds like a wonderful opportunity for your 4th or 5th grader. Contact Andrea Curtis at 402-434-3494 ext. 120 or email acurtis@ywcalincoln.org to enroll your 4th or 5th grade girl today!
