Kids Thrive on Science: SDSC and Houston Girl Scouts Extend Successful In-School Program

ome of the girls come into the program with early signs of trouble: inattention, hostility, and even rebellion. But then the program draws them in. "It’s great to see these kids suddenly glue themselves to computer screens, focused, attentive, and engaged," said Abby Sibley of the Houston-area San Jacinto Girl Scout Council. Since September 2000, thousands of girls in Houston area schools have been engaged, for the first time in their lives, in the experience of enjoying math and science. The science enrichment program in Houston originated in San Diego, and it is one of the most important contributions of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) to the national Education, Outreach, and Training program of the Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Digital Scouting In its first two years, a program sponsored by the San Jacinto Girl Scout Council and the San Diego Supercomputer Center reached about 3,000 girls at 18 schools in the Houston, Texas, area. Fears that laptops used in the program would be intimidating proved to be unwarranted.

SDSC education director Rozeanne Steckler has teamed with the Houston Girl Scouts to bring science and hope to children considered to be "at risk." As it enters its third year, the Houston outreach program is gaining momentum.

"In our first two years, the program reached about 3,000 girls at 18 schools in the area," said Gladys Birdwell, director of community outreach for the San Jacinto Council. "We used modules that Rozeanne Steckler brought to us. Each class had a different topic, and the girls, from kindergarten through sixth grade, just loved it," Birdwell said. The modules were tested and used in county schools by Steckler and the Girl Scout Council of San Diego and Imperial Counties as part of an ongoing, in-school program called Girls are GREAT (Gifted, Resourceful, Extraordinary, Ambitious, and Talented). The lessons include inexpensive science and technology kits, all loaded into 35-gallon plastic buckets, for hands-on study of everything from fossils to butterflies, and solar clocks to robots.

Computer Class Girls at San Jacinto Elementary in Houston at work on the Girl Scout laptops.

Over the past year, Houston teachers, Girl Scout staff, and volunteers have carried on the original program, while Steckler and the San Jacinto Council piloted an expanded effort under funding from an NSF grant to Steckler’s program. "We bought 20 laptop computers and organized classes that let some 250 kids at five schools use them over a period of three weeks," said Sibley, who is in charge of the in-school programs and who also is community outreach membership manager for the San Jacinto Council.

Sibley and the teachers she trained, together with Girl Scout Council staff, managed the complicated logistics of transporting the laptops from school to school, from classrooms to libraries, and into use by groups of 20 to 25 girls. The computers were loaded with games and simulations that Steckler selected for their interactivity. "They had Sammy Science, Sim Tunes, Sim Town, Sim Safari, and other programs, which all require imagination as well as plain responses," Sibley said.

Fears that the laptops would be intimidating vanished immediately. "The girls just took to them instantly, and they were really sorry when the sessions were over," Sibley said. The laptop sessions on one day were followed the next by hands-on work with the science and technology kits. Each school had two hour-long sessions per day, one for kindergarten through second grade, the next for third through fifth grades.

For some girls, the sessions were their first encounters with computers. "We were particularly successful in the Baytown area, where the Girl Scouts have a partnership with the Gang Activities Prevention Program," Sibley said. "We’ve got a small summer program at San Jacinto, Carver, and Harlem elementary schools in Baytown, involving 46 girls, and we’ve been using the laptops in every school we can since the new year began in August. None of this would have happened without Rozeanne and the experience she brought from her programs with the San Diego Girl Scouts. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a working scientist take such a deep interest in fostering scientific awakening in children."

Sibley, a bilingual community outreach manager who has worked in the Girl Scout Council for a dozen years, also has a background in psychology and 12 previous years of experience dealing with teenagers in the juvenile justice system. "I came to the Girl Scouts because I saw that intervention would only succeed much earlier, when directed to the very young," she said. More than 80 percent of the inner-city school population is Hispanic, and the rest are Anglo, African-American, and Asian-American.

The program has won rave reviews from school principals. A letter from Principal Agelia Durand and Assistant Principal Vicki Sipe of Woodview Elemen-
tary said, "Woodview did not want to let another day go by without thanking the San Jacinto Girl Scouts for the wonderful opportunity you have provided for our girls, parents, and leaders . . . the past three years have been a huge learning experience. When the program first started . . . we had to really push to enroll 40 girls. This year, we have 103." The Woodview letter goes on to point out that the science and technology kits have enabled cooperative learning in small groups, empowering "future biologists, future engineers, even future saleswomen," and it concludes, "We have learned that we have a future."

"The lessons are relevant and fun," wrote Naomi Orozco Clements, assistant principal of South Houston Elementary School, in a letter. "It has been exceptionally exciting to have the girls working on the laptop computers. I observed them during one of their meetings. They were all involved in a wonderful learning experience!"

The San Diego County version of the program was evaluated in March 2002 by the LEAD (Learning through Evaluation, Adaptation, and Dissemination) Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, which evaluates the impact of NPACI-originated educational outreach programs. The LEAD report noted that the program "addresses key issues in the education of girls in science and mathematics." The report also states, "By providing opportunities for girls to collaboratively explore through hands-on science activities [the program] helps to engage girls in learning, develop more positive attitudes towards science, and increase their self-confidence. [It] serves a particularly important need in poor ethnic minority communities where resources are scarce and science education may not be emphasized."

"We have learned that a carefully planned program in enthusiastic hands can grow to touch an entire city," said Steckler. "We’re eager to expand into a third city next year, if the funding we’ve requested comes through. I’ve been particularly impressed by the way Abby has made a really scarce resource–just 20 laptop computers–work for so many girls in such a short time. She’s going to be able to provide them to 20 to 25 schools in the program during the next year, and I have no doubt that the results will call forth similar efforts in other area schools." –MM