Girls Involved in Science and Technology (GIST): A Summer Science Program for Local Public School Students Involving Hands-on Science and Science Literacy

GIST is a hands-on science program held at Georgian Court University (GCU) each summer for female students from Lakewood Public Schools (LPS). It builds upon and refines the summer program originally introduced in the summer of 2004 and continued in 2005. The 2006 program will involve up to 16 students each from 8^th, 9^th 10^th and 11^th grades selected by the teachers of Lakewood Public Schools. Each group will attend a week-long program with 35 hours of experiment-based learning. The content for the 2006 program is being developed in consultation with the science teachers from Lakewood Public Schools, a recognized high-needs school district. The students will be performing hands-on investigations under the supervision of GCU faculty on topics from biology, chemistry, computer sciences, ecology, mathematics, physics, and earth sciences. The experiments will have green science (i.e. respect for the environment) emphasis. The students will also write reports on the experiments. The program will be expanded to 12^th grade students in the summer of 2007. Evaluation methods for the program include written assessments by the students, progress of the students in their school science curriculum, and ultimately the number of students who choose a science major in higher education.

This program is being funded in part by