After School Girls Science Club
CRASR has been engaged in providing female mentors to after-school programming since the 2012-2013 school year when a “Girls Science Adventure Club” was launched. This initial program met weekly at a local Waco ISD middle school cafeteria and was led by a Baylor female undergraduate science major. In 2014, CRASR was selected to be a SciGirls CONNECT partner, a national program funded by NSF focused on changing how girls think about science, technology, engineering and math. As a partner, CRASR hosted educator training workshops at the Baylor Science Building and other community locations.
CRASR’s after-school girls science clubs have expanded to four community sites and are facilitated by eight Baylor undergraduate mentors with an average weekly attendance of 10-12 girls in each club. At their weekly meetings, typically an hour in length, clubs perform engaging hands-on science activities, experiments, and investigations from a variety of curricula including but not limited to SciGirls. Club leaders and girls in the club have a high degree of autonomy and choice in their activities- each club is different, although all serve typically 5th-6th graders.
2020 COVID19 Update: Clubs are meeting online, with two schools (an elementary and a middle school) in Waco ISD, as well as during a Saturday series with Girl Scouts of Central Texas.
CRASR participates in the Texas Girls Collaborative Project which connects non-profits, K-12 schools, higher education institutions, companies, organizations and individuals across the state of Texas committed to informing and motivating girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
CRASR is open to partnering with any school or community site in McLennan County to host after-school girls science clubs, or in helping you build your own. Decisions about sites for the following school year are typically made in April or May.
Email Melissa_Mullins@baylor.edu for more information.
