Girls, Math & Science Partnership Launches Program to Promote Math & Science Careers for Teen Girls

Innovative toolkit seeks to inspire girls toward non-traditional careers

PITTSBURGH .– The Girls, Math & Science Partnership (GMSP), a program of Carnegie Science Center, today launched Can*TEEN, a new program intended to close the gap in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers for girls ages 10 and older.

An innovative toolkit using eight illustrated female characters to lead girls through an exploration of science careers and opportunities, Can*TEEN includes CDs for each STEM discipline featuring profiles of female role models, activities, and information on STEM classes and scholarships as well as classroom tools like a periodic table, calculator/ruler, and journal.

“In creating Can*TEEN, we provide a whole new way of thinking about the way girls become engaged in careers focused on each of the STEM disciplines,” says Jennifer Stancil, Executive Director of the Girls, Math & Science Partnership. “By helping girls see themselves as agents of change first, we allow girls to freely explore these non-traditional careers fields on their own terms, with the idea that as women they can change the world by using science.”

GMSP was created in Pittsburgh in 1999 by The Heinz Endowments in collaboration with the Alcoa Foundation and Family Communications, Inc., to address issues regarding girls, their participation in science, and the expansion of their opportunities in and influence on the science and technology workforce. Through its popular website www.BrainCake.org, as well as a host of interactive, high-interest science-based programs, GMSP has caught the attention of thousands, serving more than 43,000 participants in 2008 alone with cutting-edge online and onsite programming.

www.BrainCake.org.

Can*TEEN takes a unique approach in addressing girls by using Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences to help provide an entry point to learning. The eight featured Can*TEEN characters guide the user through the four STEM fields, providing unique and interesting personas for girls as if they were part of a larger narrative. This same technique will be used in the companion online space, www.BrainCake.org, as a platform for social action.

“GMSP has recognized that girls approach science in a much different way than boys do,” said Ron Baillie, Carnegie Science Center Co-Director. “GMSP programs have been developed around the best practices in the science for girls and how they relate to science, and Can*TEEN is yet another program that will open doors for girls to explore career opportunities in math and science.”

Can*TEEN is made possibly by a $75,000 grant from the Motorola Foundation with additional support from Google, Bayer’s Making Science Make Sens program, WGBH-Boston, The Saturday Light Brigade Radio, The Alice Project at Carnegie Mellon University, and Engineer Your Life.

For more information, please contact Mike Marcus, Carnegie Science Center Assistant Director of Marketing & Community Affairs at MarcusM@CarnegieScienceCenter.org or call at 412.237.1657.