What is engineering? How do engineers solve problems? How do we help youth learn about and do engineering that is relevant to their lives? In this community of practice, participants will be introduced to the basics of engineering and leading engineering activities with youth. Sessions will be organized around the 10 Practices for an Engineering Mindset, and will include engineering activities, developing engineering activities for youth, and learning specific skills to facilitate engineering activities with youth. Specifically, participants will focus on the following mindset practices:

Leveraging their 20-year history and expertise, Techbridge Girls will offer three different program models - Ignite, Inspire, and ChangeMakers - that provide program staff with training and curriculum and youth with hands-on experiences, with broad STEM content and career exposure, and social/emotional development activities.

Teen Science Café programs are a free, fun way for teens to engage in lively conversations with STEM experts that explore the advances in science and technology that affect their lives. In these events, teens socialize over teen-friendly food and drink and have a lively conversation with local scientists and engineers about current cutting-edge developments in their fields, all in a relaxed and informal out-of-school setting. Teen Science Cafés are for teens, by teens.

A core group of Teen Leaders, with the committed mentorship of an Adult Leader, plan and run the café programs. They welcome as diverse of a teen crowd as possible—diverse in ethnicity, culture, gender, and motivations for learning about science. Teen Science Cafés are not just for the science geeks; they are for all curious teens. Along the way, teen organizers gain a host of leadership skills. Cafés are typically run about an hour and a half once per month during the school year.

Presented by: Technovation

Looking for hands-on project-based STEM activities for your students? Technovation will guide you through our suite of free design challenges on our Curiosity Machine website. Educators around the world access Technovation resources to help their students become more adept at problem solving in open-ended engineering situations. In this training, participants will practice some design challenges and test our understanding on the different ways we can facilitate these design challenges. Although each group of students is unique, the Curiosity Machine design challenges can be implemented in multiple ways. Looking for single day activities or multi-day projects? Come learn how you can modify the same activity to fit different needs like age groups, in-person or virtual learning, and more. Come ready to sample doing a part of a design challenge yourself.

Are you looking for more resources to support STEM learning in your afterschool programs? Join us to learn more about the IF/THEN® Collection and resources specifically designed for afterschool and summer learning. In this webinar participants will tour the IF/THEN® Collection, explore the new afterschool portal, and learn about new activities designed for afterschool programs.

This webinar will focus on engaging and supporting girls and young women in mathematics. We will learn from an AAAS IF/THEN® Ambassador who uses mathematics to positively impact society and share best practices and resources to help make the M in STEM meaningful and accessible in afterschool.

Presented by: Technovation

Artificial intelligence can be fun, hands-on, and connected to real life, even for kids. In this training for educators of upper elementary or middle school students, Technovation will showcase our Curiosity Machine artificial intelligence lessons. With these free lessons, help your students learn, play and create solutions to real-world problems with Al. Learn what Al is, how it works, and how your students can use it to solve a problem they care about through our 10-lesson challenge. This is a great program for educators with and without STEM backgrounds!

Over two 75-minute sessions with Jobs for the Future (JFF), you’ll learn how to use JFF’s free Possible Futures (PF) Engineering and Design curriculum unit to introduce students to careers that require an engineering mindset. How? The interactive lessons for grades 6-10 have students assume the role of professionals in the engineering field as they learn to prototype, iterate, and innovate. Thinking as young professionals, students are introduced to the design process, develop problem-solving and research skills, and learn to foster an engineering and growth mindset. JFF, a national nonprofit aimed at promoting economic advancement for all, designed the Possible Futures curriculum with a focus on STEM to help rethink how youth start to explore college and career options and to prepare them to make meaningful decisions about their future.

Get ready for interactive sessions that are designed to be a supportive learning community. You will be introduced to the 20-lesson unit and do some deep dives into lessons that use the engineering and design process to solve real-world problems. Participants will walk away with the knowledge and strategies they need to make the PF Engineering and Design unit work for their program.

Join the National Girls Collaborative Project and GoldieBlox as they explore the new episodes of Camp GoldieBlox and accompanying activity guides. In this webinar participants will learn about new resources from GoldieBlox designed to inspire the next generation of girls in STEM.

Part 2 of how to use JFF’s free Possible Futures Engineering and Design curriculum unit to introduce students to careers that require an engineering mindset. How? The interactive lessons for grades 6-10 have students assume the role of professionals in the engineering field as they learn to prototype, iterate, and innovate. Thinking as young professionals, students are introduced to the design process, develop problem-solving and research skills, and learn to foster an engineering and growth mindset. JFF, a national nonprofit aimed at promoting economic advancement for all, designed the Possible Futures curriculum with a focus on STEM to help rethink how youth start to explore college and career options and to prepare them to make meaningful decisions about their future.

Presented by: Technovation

Calling all educators who are interested in teaching your students how to solve global problems with technology! While Technovation’s global program is tailored for girls, educators around the world are using this curriculum with all their students. Take your exploration of open-ended design challenges with your students to the next level by learning about this multi-week opportunity for students to dive deep into coding or AI and a passion project that could change the world and themselves. This program will prepare students not only to succeed as a STEM learner but as an entrepreneur as well.

The IF/THEN Collection is the largest free resource of its kind dedicated to increasing access to authentic and relatable images of real women in STEM. In this library, you'll find thousands of photos, videos, and other assets that authentically represent women in careers as diverse as shark tagging, fashion design, and training Olympic athletes:

These assets highlight different aspects of working in STEM. These can be used in marketing, social media, and in programs to attract and sustain girls in STEM programs.

The IF/THEN Collection® features resources highlighting STEM professionals who serve as IF/THEN Ambassadors, and also includes activities that can be used in afterschool and informal STEM programming. Join us as we showcase these resources designed for educators working in a wide variety of educational settings.

The Mizzen By Mott app delivers inspiring and engaging activities that spark learning in young people. Supported by the Mott Foundation, Mizzen is available at no cost to afterschool professionals! Encourage partners to download the Mizzen By Mott app to access STEM activities at your finger-touch! You’ll find it in Mizzen here.