TECH TEAM: A Project Based Technology Sequence for Middle School Girls

Etv Endowment Of South Carolina, Inc., Spartanburg SC

Investigators

Abstract

The Educational Television Endowment of South Carolina, in collaboration with the South Carolina Educational Television Network (SCETV), will carry out a program to increase middle school girls' enthusiasm for and understanding of technology and introduce them to women who work in science and technology fields. The project is a three-year pilot program called TECH TEAM that consists of afterschool technology clubs, workshops in computer applications at SCETV and Summer Technology Day Camps. Partners include the Girl Scouts of the Congaree Area, Inc., the Girl Scout Council of the Pee Dee Area, and the College of Education of the University of South Carolina. In addition to the girls themselves, TECH TEAM will train the club facilitators - teachers and Girl Scout leaders - in video and computer-based technologies, project based curriculum development and techniques for gender equitable education in an annual series of Saturday workshops. The TECH TEAM project will take place in three South Carolina school districts - the School District of Fairfield County, Richland District One and Marion District One - all of which are considered critical needs districts. Fairfield is a rural county in which 40.8% of the adults have less than a high school education and unemployment is at the second highest level in the state. Marion District One is in a poor, rural area in which 76% of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch, over 50% come from single parent homes and 75% are minority. Richland District One is an urban district. 80% of students are minority and 58% qualify for free or reduced lunch. TECH TEAM is designed to increase girls' technological fluency through a progressive sequence of technology applications in a hands-on, project based setting. In the first year, 2002-2003, the girls will videotape interviews with local women who work in the fields of science, math, technology and engineering. To locate their interviewees, they will learn and use research skills, including both informal and Internet-based techniques. The girls will edit their videos using a computer-based editing program, and broadcast them to schools across South Carolina via SCETV's Instructional Television Fixed Service (ITFS). They will host two-way call-in shows on the ITFS, allowing students anywhere in the state to respond and ask the girls questions. In the second year of the project, 2003-2004, the girls will create a Web site about TECH TEAM that will be integrated into www.knowitall.org, SCETV's Web portal for teachers and students. The girls will design the layout of their site and publish writing, post videos and contribute to a threaded discussion that will be developed for the site. In TECH TEAM's third year, 2004-2005, the girls will create a searchable database of their videos for inclusion on the site, adding dynamic elements that require the use of computer codes, so that they extend their fluency in the use of computer technology. They will learn about SQL (Structured Query Language), and they will develop CFML (Cold Fusion Markup Language) to make their databases Web accessible. In addition to the afterschool clubs, they will attend a series of Saturday workshops taught by SCETV programmers. During each summer of the project the TECH TEAM girls will attend a Summer Technology Day Camps at SCETV's Telecommunications Center in Columbia. The camps will allow all the participants to meet each other, work in SCETV's computer labs, and present their work to an invited audience. Throughout each year a video crew will document the progress of TECH TEAM on videotape and interview the participants. This material will form the basis of a CD-ROM to be produced for teachers' professional development. The CD will be mailed free of charge to every middle school in South Carolina and will be made available nationwide through SCETV's marketing division. Evaluation and assessment of TECH TEAM will be conducted by Dr. Kenneth Stevenson of the College of Education of the University of South Carolina. The impact of TECH TEAM goes beyond gender equity considerations to universal issues of technology education, teacher training, adolescent development, the design of afterschool programs, and partnerships between schools and informal education providers; TECH TEAM will advance understanding of these areas as they apply not only to girls but to all students and teachers.