NASA Completes Pilot Program For One-On-One Virtual Mentoring Of Middle School Girls

Aug. 17, 2012

Sonja Alexander
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1761
sonja.r.alexander@nasa.gov


RELEASE: 12-284

NASA COMPLETES PILOT PROGRAM FOR ONE-ON-ONE VIRTUAL MENTORING OF MIDDLE SCHOOL GIRLS



WASHINGTON -- NASA's new virtual mentoring program is helping girls
get excited about careers in science and technology by working
one-on-one with agency professionals. Twenty-one girls in grades 5-8,
representing 12 states from New York to Hawaii, have completed a
pilot mentoring program called NASA Giving Initiative and Relevance
to Learning Science (NASA GIRLS).

NASA GIRLS is the first program to pair up girls with NASA female
mentors from the Women@NASA program using online video programs such
as Skype and Google Chat. Participants were selected from more than
1,600 applications.

"NASA GIRLS allows young students to work directly with women who
successfully have established STEM careers," said NASA Deputy
Administrator Lori Garver. "The program uses technology familiar to
the young generation and allows NASA to share its mission in regions
where there may not be a NASA center."

The mentoring sessions consisted of lessons in science, technology,
engineering and math (STEM). The last session focused on applying one
of the STEM subjects to two real-world events. The girls
mathematically calculated the shift of Earth's tilt caused by the
2011 Japan earthquake. They also computed the volume of SpaceX's
Dragon capsule, which in May became the first commercial spacecraft
to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.

The program included hands-on learning. During an engineering lesson,
the girls and their mentors were challenged to build a robot hand or
a Wright Brothers' model airplane while virtually connected.

NASA GIRLS aims to use commercially available technology to provide
convenient and meaningful mentoring in STEM subjects to inspire young
girls to learn how science and engineering can help them reach their
goal of making the world a better place. Recent data from the Girl
Scouts Research Institute shows that female mentors are important
when young girls decide to pursue advanced math and science courses.
Many of the NASA GIRLS mentors offered their mentees guidance after
the program, potentially forming long-term relationships that could
help young women make decisions about college majors and career
choices.

NASA will evaluate the results from the pilot year of the program to
offer a larger group of girls access in the second round. To learn
more about the program, visit:

http://women.nasa.gov/nasagirls

Women@NASA is a continuing, joint effort by NASA and the White House
Council on Women and Girls to relate STEM fields to young females.
For more information on the project, visit:

http://women.nasa.gov



and

http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cwg


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