Million Girls Moonshot | October Resources
The Indiana Afterschool Network is proud to be part of the Million Girls Moonshot initiative, working to inspire and prepare the next generation of innovators by engaging one million more girls in STEM learning opportunities through OST programs over the next five years. The Million Girls Moonshot is an initiative of the STEM Next Opportunity Fund.

The Million Girls Moonshot seeks to re-imagine who can engineer, who can build, who can make. See below for some information and resources that can help advance this goal!
Featured Webinars
Develop Professionally While Supporting Equity
Engineering Design Challenges Three-Part Webinar Series
Over three hour-long sessions this fall with Technovation, you’ll become an expert in leading engineering design challenges online that help students develop the following engineering mindsets:

  • use the engineering design process
  • work in teams
  • evaluate and iterate
  • persist and learn from failure
  • identify as engineers

Get ready for hands-on building during each session. You’ll be part of a supportive learning community. If you are looking for a way to step up your STEAM game in a fun and active way with your kids, this is for you. Help them think like engineers to build solutions to any sort of problem!

October 20, 2020 | 3:00 PM EST

In this webinar, we will explore the Equity & Inclusion Framework developed for the Million Girls Moonshot, focusing specifically on the concept of Broadening Participation. Broadening Participation relies on strategies such as engaging the community and using data and evaluation to inform programming. Presenters will describe the concept and related strategies, share relevant resources, and showcase examples of Broadening Participation in action in the afterschool field.
Best Practices & Professional Development
Best Practices, Resources, and Tools
Engineering Mindset #4 - Criteria & Contraints

  • Students Should Generate Criteria and Constraints - this article describes how students should generate criteria and constraints for engineering design problems - not just be provided to them because it allows for a more equitable and student driven experience.

  • Examining Young Students’ Problem Scoping in Engineering Design - this article describes how elementary school students define and express the criteria and constraints of engineering problems (problem-scoping). The authors show how children are able to think in complex ways to balance and consider multiple considerations when designing.

  • Meet the Criteria - this classroom video shows students working through a design challenge and balancing trade offs around what materials would be best given their criteria and constraints. They discover that some of the materials that would "work best" may be too costly.

Engineering Mindset #5 - Science & Math


  • Math Lessons Go Better With Engineering - This blog describes how math is an integral part of engineering. An engineering parachutes design challenge offers examples of how students practice math as they measure various aspects of their design and calculate their final evaluation scores.

  • STEM Integration in K-12 Education - this 3.5 minute video explores the value of teaching the four STEM subjects in an integrated way. All four of these disciplines are closely intertwined in the real world, and when students are taught in ways that highlight these connections, their education becomes more relevant and opens the doors to future careers.

Engineering Mindset #6 - Multiple Solutions

  • Cultivate Creativity in Your STEM Classroom - this blog gives an overview of the many ways you can create a learning environment that fosters creativity. When students begin to understand that there is no right answer to a design challenge, that multiple solutions are encouraged, they are given a freedom of thought and agency over their own learning.

  • Embracing Multiple Solutions is an Engineering Habit of Mind - this blog explains how the ability to generate multiple solutions to a problem is a skill that can help students succeed in every academic field, not just science and engineering. The ability to think flexibly and consider multiple solutions is a valuable, if not essential skill.

  • Priceless! - this video highlights one teacher's reflection on how rewarding it was to see all of her students come up with different solutions to the engineering problem.

Broadening Participation - Staff Recruitment & Retention


Together At Home
Additional Engineering & STEM Resources for Afterschool and Home
Engineering Mindset #4 - Criteria & Constraints

  • Defining Problems, Criteria and Constraints - this activity is designed to help students understand how criteria and constraints limit potential solutions to problems. It includes a practice worksheet to help students identify criteria and constraints in 4 simple scenarios.

  • Criteria and Constraints Practice - this worksheet requires students to identify criteria and constraints embedded in rules for entering a gingerbread house contest.

  • NGSS Engineering at Jet Propulsion Laboratory - this video highlights what real NASA engineers need to consider when designing spacecraft and the kinds of trade offs they often have to make. Working collaboratively in teams to prioritize limited resources is a big part of working as a NASA engineer.

Engineering Mindset #5 - Science & Math

  • Dance Pad Mania - a basic understanding of the science (electric circuits) is the first step in this fun student activity challenge. Youth review and build their knowledge of electricity as they plan and design a dance pad that has lights and buzzer.

  • How High Can a Super Ball Bounce? - in this activity, youth explore how engineers might use elasticity of material to help them design products. Working in pairs, they drop bouncy balls from a meter height and determine how high they bounce. Youth measure, record and repeat the process to gather data to calculate average bounce heights and coefficients of elasticity.


Engineering Mindset #6 - Multiple Solutions

  • Teaching Kids to Think Outside the Box - this activity promotes creative brainstorming by challenging students to come up with as many uses as they can for common, household objects. Items include a paper towel roll, a ruler, and an elastic band.

  • Brainstorming Possible Solutions - this lesson can be applied to any engineering design challenge and provides a structure for eliciting many ideas from a group of students. This plan offers techniques to help students to keep open minds and encourage all ideas during brainstorming.

  • Brainstorming - this simple PPT slide outlines guidelines for brainstorming. Recording all ideas and creating an environment where all ideas are accepted are examples of the guidelines that can support students in their ability to generate multiple solutions to engineering problems.

  • Online Parent Workshop - Brainstorm - this webpage is part of an online resource for parents and teachers who work with students on engineering projects. It provides tips and prompts that they can use with students to help structure a productive brainstorming session.

Broadening Participation - Youth Centric Strategies for Practitioners

  • Engagement Practices - this framework from NCWIT that emphasized “well-structured collaborative learning” and the importance of peer led instruction. 

  • SciGirls Family Guide for Engaging Girls - if you are looking for some fun, family friendly, yet educational STEM activities, SciGirls is here for you! Have fun designing a parachute or with a light bulb challenge at home.