IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2007 - 40

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Lovett saw this to some degree with
her own daughter, now a high school
senior. "Beginning in middle school, I
saw her self-confidence affect her opinion of how well she could do in math,"
says Lovett. "Without my encouragement, I think it would have been easy for
her to take courses requiring less critical
thinking skills. Girls and others who
may not have as much self-confidence
oftentimes opt out of math and science.
I think by doing so, they're missing out
on some exciting and fast-growing
career opportunities."
For counselors and teachers, the
WTIF initiated a High Heels, High Tech
workshop in 2004. High Heels, High
Tech is a two-day program for DISD
counselors and select math and science
teachers. Its purpose is to build awareness and coach attendees on STEM
careers and what courses students need
in order to prepare for those careers.
That same year, the group commissioned national gender equity expert Jo
Sanders to develop and lead gender equity training sessions for 18 DISD AP math
and science teachers. The program
expanded this year when the WTIF Fund
partnered with the College of Education
at The University of Texas at Arlington
(UTA) to launch a STEM Gender Equity
Institute. The plan is to move existing
gender equity programs from the incubation stage to a mature university program
for growth and development, integrating
both teacher education and in-service
training with the goal of systematic
change. Dr. Jeanne Gerlach, UTA's College
of Education dean, oversees the program.
"The ultimate goal is to get teachers
and administrators working hand in
hand to drive culture changes in their
schools," says Gerlach. "The teachers in

Page 40

the program meet monthly to learn new
teaching strategies. They also carry out
significant and original school-based
gender research. The program works by
creating leadership teams of classroom
teachers and administrators at DISD,
training in-service teachers, influencing
curriculums and ultimately increasing
the number of girls going into STEM
career paths."
"It's sometimes as simple as sprinkling in examples of famous women scientists," adds Lovett. "In some of our
first workshops, many science teachers
couldn't name an accomplished woman
scientist. Just like boys, girls need mentors and role models to follow."

Early Results
While the group considers their work to
be in the early stages, they are seeing
positive results within the Dallas school
district. Here are a few metrics and early
findings:
◗ In 2000, the AP physics pass rate was
more than 30 percentage points
below boys (11% versus 46%). In
2006, girls whose teachers participated in the gender equity training and
attended the physics summer camps
passed at the same rate as boys.
◗ The number of girls taking AP
physics exams has increased over
100% (57 in 2000 versus 117 in
2006).
Pulley says the group is confident in
its work thus far and will continue to
focus efforts on existing programs. "We
continue to monitor and measure
results such as AP enrollments and
exam scores," she says. "Ultimately, we'd
like to develop proven programs that
can be reproduced across the country.
And of course, we'd love to have some of

MORE INFORMATION ON WOMEN'S FUNDING
The Dallas Women's Foundation (DWF), created in 1985, has contributed more than US$7.5 million in
grants to nearly 700 programs serving women and girls in Dallas, Denton and Collin counties. For more
information, visit www.dallaswomensfoundation.org.
DWF is part of the Women's Funding Network (WFN), which has 120 member funds worldwide. Last
year, the WFN collectively invested more than US$50 million in grants to advance women and girls.
If you're interested in information about other women's funds that offer similar programs, contact the
WFN at www.wfnet.org.

IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE

WINTER 2007/2008

the women who were inspired and
encouraged by their early involvement
in our programs show interest in
becoming engineers for TI."
-Alesia Ritenour is a freelance
writer based in Dallas.

Monkey See,
Monkey Do
Interdisciplinary projects
capture students' imagination

Engineers get to work on some pretty
interesting science- and technologyrelated tasks but how many people realize that being an engineer equips one to
make a six-legged love connection, race
cars, and train monkeys?
Electrical engineers Matthew Heller
and Richard Colombo have worked on
these types of projects. As mentors and
project instructors to Tufts University
students in Medford, Massachusetts, the
two innovators bring interdisciplinary
project opportunities to engineering
undergraduates. The students, mostly
seniors completing projects required to
graduate, partner with Heller and
Colombo to work on various assignments. With their guidance, the students
are able to find creative solutions to
some pretty interesting problems.
In one instance, the university's biology department was conducting a study on
fireflies and was looking to mimic the
male firefly's "blinking" pattern. The solution? "I helped some students design a
device that imitated a male's flash patterns, and all the female fireflies came over
and tried to mate with it," explains Heller.
Another project had Heller, Colombo,
and some students convert the entire
Thatcher Island (off the coast of Rockport, Massachusetts) to solar power after
a pesky cable kept breaking.
"We took a really dynamic group of
students out to the island over the summer," recalls Colombo. "We put down 18
solar panels and two inverters that provide power to the houses out there."
Valery Thompson, a senior when she
worked on the project, was responsible

http://www.dallaswomensfoundation.org http://www.wfnet.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2007