Girls Inc. and the staff and students at the McEnroe Reading and Language Arts Clinic at the Gervirtz Graduate School of Education celebrated a successful Curie-osity Project collaboration on May 31.
Girls shared their take-aways from the pilot project, which engaged girls in grades 4-6 in research and inquiry-based activities with women scientists and engineers within the UC Santa Barbara community.
Tina McEnroe presented girls with draft copies of their book – the culmination of their interviews with female scientists and engineers. Girls also designed artwork, which was on display at the celebration, for each scientist based on her respective field of study.
Books will be available to the public soon for on-demand printing.
We are proud of our 25 4th-6th graders who can now add “published author” to their lists of accomlishments!
The Curie-osity Project name was inspired by the work of Marie Curie, the physicist and chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize twice for her work in radioactivity.
Twenty-five girls from the Girls Inc. of Greater Santa Barbara After-school Program visited the UCSB labs and research site each week throughout the semester to interview women from a variety of scientific and engineering disciplines and learn about their work. The girls, led by UCSB undergraduate students who are facilitating the hands-on, minds-on activities at the university, then focused on the ultimate, collaborative goal of publishing a book about the interviewed women that have made significant contributions to their respective fields.
Special thanks to Diana Arya, GGSE faculty member and Director of the McEnroe Reading and Language Arts Clinic, and Jasmine McBeath, project coordinator, and all of the UCSB and Girls Inc. facilitators for their roles for an incredibly special program.