Techbridge Girls
Techbridge Girls (TBG) is an award-winning national nonprofit bringing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education to all girls across the U.S. For 20+ years, TBG has reengineered the way STEM education is taught, centering our girls’ brilliance and potential, emphasizing increasing STEM access, belonging, and persistence for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and all People of Color) youth from systematically marginalized communities.
To equip girls and gender-expansive youth to persist in STEM careers, we support educators (teachers, out-of-school time facilitators, and volunteers) in delivering high-quality, comprehensive, ready-to-use, equity-focused, gender and culturally responsive STEM programs. By providing educators with our unique lens to STEM education, we can provide exponentially more girls from marginalized communities with award-winning STEM programming than we could through a direct service program model. Each of our services equips educators with gender and culturally-responsive teaching tools to engage families to support their youths’ persistence and connects girls to BIPOC peers and role models from STEM fields to inspire and encourage.
STEM EQUITY LEARNING COMMUNITY:
Techbridge Girls will announce when applications are being accepted to join the next STEM Equity Learning Community. All out-of-school time (OST) supervisors and administrators for programs that serve Black, Indigenous, and Latina girls and gender-expansive youth will be encouraged to apply.
Join an upcoming Information Session : TBA
Through the STEM Equity Learning Community, participants will:
Explore how to use asset-based frameworks and practices to combat inequities in OST STEM.
Experience culturally relevant and gender-responsive strategies that increase STEM belonging and persistence.
Deconstruct identity and bias, equipping participants to engage staff in the reflection and action required to facilitate equitable STEM programming.
Develop STEM equity action steps for their OST program.
Become part of a unique national community of OST leaders who are growing the number of equitable STEM learning spaces.
Receive $1000 stipend for their participation in the learning community, evaluation, and research.
Techbridge Girls Programs
To equip girls and gender-expansive youth to persist in STEM careers, we support educators in delivering STEM programs. By providing educators with our unique lens to STEM education, we can provide exponentially more girls and gender-expansive youth from marginalized communities with award-winning STEM programming than we could through a direct service program model. Each of our services equips educators with gender- and culturally-responsive teaching tools to engage families to support youth persistence and connects girls to BIPOC peers and role models from STEM fields to inspire and encourage.
Register for an upcoming information session to learn more about our program offerings, Ignite, Inspire, and ChangeMakers: TBA
Ignite
Youth Inventors is an 8-session curriculum that inspires BIPOC girls and gender-expansive youth to become STEM inventors who change the world! Youth learn about young inventors, design and create their own inventions, and keep an Inventor's Log. Ignite engages students in STEM fields, fosters creative thinking and problem-solving, and provides educators with all the necessary resources. Unleash youth's creativity with Ignite and inspire them to be the innovators of the future!
Inspire
Inspire: Earth Engineers is designed to engage girls and gender-expansive youth in the excitement, joy, and belonging possible in STEM by exploring culturally relevant, story-based, hands-on STEM experiences. Inspire: Earth Engineers centers BIPOC contributions to STEM and empowers girls to use STEM to improve the world and help save the planet!
ChangeMakers
ChangeMakers builds STEM joy, excitement, belonging, and agency for 6th- to 8th-grade girls and gender-expansive youth through culturally relevant story-based out-of-school time learning. By centering BIPOC contributions to STEM, ChangeMakers activates youth to view STEM as a tool to positively impact systems, their communities, and their own lives. The 12-session curricula and pre-kitted materials lead youth through hands-on, experiential STEM, and story-based curriculum that centers role models, promoting group development, confidence, and belonging. The curriculum culminates in the Community Impact Project, which propels youth to apply their learnings and use STEM to make a positive change in their school community.
To learn more about our programming and to sign up for the upcoming Information Session, visit the Techbridge Girls Program Information Page.
Target Audiences: Educators who serve BIPOC girls and gender-expansive youth in 3rd - 8th grade(s)
Indicators of Success:
80% of girl participants will:
Express having greater problem-solving skills and increased STEM career knowledge
Express greater interest in STEM careers
Express interest in continuing with STEM enrichment activities
Demonstrate having developed an engineering mindset
80% of educators who receive training will report increases to their:
Understanding of culturally relevant curriculum and equity practices for TBG curriculum
Awareness of strategies to center marginalized identities within STEM education
Awareness of the ways multiple identities are often marginalized within STEM education
Confidence in teaching diverse STEM histories that center on the contributions of BIPOC peoples
Understanding of bias in educational settings and being able to name strategies to combat their own biases
Understanding of the power imbalance in the classroom related to their identities and position
Awareness of what it means to be an equity educator
Ability to create an inclusive and "safe" space for students to bring their whole selves
Comfort implementing the TBG curriculum
Understanding of STEM concepts in the curriculum
Understanding the Engineering Design Process as a tool for STEM exploration
