The 2019 AzCASE STEM Grant enabled  Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona to purchase 10 programmable Edison robots with accompanying mats, which girls use to learn programming.  One girl at the Boys and Girls Club Pascua Yaqui Clubhouse designed a robot that would assist in picking up litter in her community and recycle it; another at Gallego designed a robot to help the deaf community. At Doolen Middle School, girls took to the Edison robots quickly and with great excitement, challenging themselves and each other to make increasingly harder courses for their robots to follow. So many great ways to engage with this new technology! We're delighted to see the impact this grant is already having on girls in Southern Arizona.

View all of the 2019 STEM Grantees

Afterschool staff now can gain skills and credentials through a new micro-credentialing system offered by the National AfterSchool Association. In development for several years, the system allows front line staff to train online or seek out training and then demonstrate mastery by creating a demonstration video or providing documentation of the skills. The currently available credential is in STEM facilitation - the creation of informal STEM learning environments. The credential is divided into 10 skill areas, or micro-credentials, including how to successfully engage youth, create a positive learning atmosphere, ensure equitable participation and facilitate reflection. NAA worked with Click2Science, the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance and Harvard's PEAR (Partnerships in Education and Resilience) Institute to set up this credentialing system.

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