Science Cafe', Girls in STEM: Supporting Your Daughter's Creativity

News item published on: 2015-10-22 10:41:43

Science Café on the Gulf Coast, a collaboration between The University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Libraries, Harrison County Library System, Long Beach Public Library, and Hancock County Library System,will host "Girls in STEM: Supporting Your Daughter's Creativity" on Thursday, October 29, from 6 –7:30 p.m. in the Think Center in the Gulf Coast Library

Women are traditionally underrepresentedin the STEM fields—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—and employment numbers for women in STEM are not growing. Join us as Dr. Cwikla discusses her research with school children and education and explores what you can do to support girls’ interest in STEM.

Julie Cwikla has been awarded over $6 million dollars in federal funds to support her ongoing research in STEM education and is a National Science Foundation Early CAREER Award Recipient. In  2005 she founded Project WetKids and has designed, led, and studied professional development for mathematics faculty in higher education, directed an out-of-school interdisciplinary STEM program for middle school students and their families, examined veryyoung children's intuitive understanding of fraction concepts, studied teachers' use of handheld technology in the mathematics classroom, designed interdisciplinary lessons for middle school classrooms, and designed a research program to help organize andalign undergraduate programs in engineering. She has authored over 30 publications in mathematics education, STEM education, and teacher education. Dr. Cwikla has made more than 60 presentations at international and national conferences and over the past decade she has provided professional development courses and workshops for K-12 mathematics teachers in five different states.

The Science Café offers those with minimal background in science the chance to meet and discuss scientific issues in a relaxed social setting.  Admission is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Adrienne McPhaul, Librarian for Science and Technology and Nursing at the Gulf Coast Library, at 228.214.3467 or e-mail adrienne.mcphaul@usm.edu.