Eric.ed.gov – Working Together, Making Changes: Working in and out of School To Encourage Girls in Math and Science. Encouraging Girls in Math and Science Series.

This brochure, one in a series of four, is designed to assist people working in schools and in the community as they work together to encourage girls in mathematics, science, and engineering. Six sections discuss the reasons for and ways to work together to make changes. The first section describes what special programs can offer schools, and reciprocally, what schools offer special programs. The second section offers a rationale for making changes that will attract more women into mathematics and science related fields. The third section provides seven suggestions, based on evaluation and research, that help make collaboration work, and identifies five practices that, based on experience, should not be done. The fourth section presents a model that has enabled teachers to double the amount of hands-on science done in the classroom while retaining understanding. The final two sections suggest changes that need to be made in present classrooms. The suggestions include the need to: (1) make mathematics and science more of a hands-on experience; (2) provide girls with their fair share of time, attention, leadership, and opportunities in science and mathematics classrooms; and (3) challenge the stereotypes about what mathematicians and scientists are like. Resources include a list of seven successful projects whose goals involve increasing the participation of girls in mathematics and science. (MDH)