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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Next weekend: GO-GIRL Graduation

GO-GIRL: Gaining Options – Girls Investigate Real Life™
Project Presentation and Graduation
Winter 2010

Date: May 1, 2010
Location: Wayne State University


Schedule of Events

9:00 – 9:20 Girls arrive, prepare for final presentations
9:30 – 11:00 Parent CafĂ©- Room 10 College of Education
11:00 – 11:30 Parent welcome and Presentation of Final Projects
1st Floor College of Education Building
11:30 - 1:00 GO-GIRL Luncheon and Graduation
2nd Floor Ballroom Student Center Building

PLEASE NOTE: Due to limited seating, there is a 2-guest limit for each GO-GIRL


Questions? Please call Saundra Sumner at 313-577-0991
or
Email us at: gogirl@wayne.edu

Friday, April 23, 2010

Day 8

Saturday, April 17th

Today the GGs, in preparation of next Saturday's data collection from their surveys, learned about data collection and analysis. Specifically, they covered topics from categorical data vs. quantitative data, descriptive statistics, mean, median, and mode. They practiced analysis with graphs and discovered which graphs answered their research question. The software used to conduct the surveys and analyze the results, InspireData, was used to further explore the concept of mean and they practiced with the software how to find mean in data. After lunch, the GGs let loose on campus with their Campus Road Rally. 2 teams combined into 3 groups and the GGs were led on a wild chase around WSU's campus as they completed a university campus scavenger hunt where they took photos as proof of their findings. Though it was chilly, fun was had by all and the exercise was much needed after a tough morning of data analysis! :)

Monday, April 12, 2010

Saturday, April 10th Parent Cafe

Saturday's Parent Cafe covered some information regarding future career paths for girls and breaking down the gender barriers for science and math fields. As a group there was discussion about experiences and recommendations in motivating girls to stay on track for successful science and math studies/careers down the line.

There was also talk of the GGs futures beyond high school. Staying on track with science and math is important but some other things that colleges look for in an applicant were covered.

In addition, librarians came to show parents the online resource of www.mel.org. This resource is very helpful in so many ways. We encourage you to check it out and show your daughter. There are great links for age appropriate research from legitimate sources. The site also has great tools for parents that include but are not limited to health and other educational resources, etc.

We're looking forward to seeing our GG parents again at our third and final Parent Cafe, it falls the same day as the GGs graduation on Saturday, May 1st, 2010 from 9:30-11am in the College of Education, Room 10.

GG Day 7

Today was spent tweaking & finalizing the GO-GIRL surveys. It was exhausting but now they're up and live on the internet!

The girls will be analyzing their data on April 24th and we would like to reach as many respondents as possible.

We need your data!
Please take any or all of our surveys and pass them on (especially to any teenagers you know :-)!

Here's the URL info for taking the surveys:

Go to http://esurvey.inspiredata.com

Enter the Survey ID number and take the survey!

Team Name Research Topic Survey ID
S.W.A.G.G. Movies, Music & More 658116
B.O.U.N.C.E. Music 962823
The Stinging Roses Fashion 818809
Blazin’ Babes Body Image 219253
G.I.A. Fashion 594809
The Shining Stars Vacations 403891

We'll keep you posted as the GGs collect & analyze their data! :)

GG of the Week: Dr. Maya Angelou



Dr. Maya Angelou is one of the most renowned and influential voices of our time. Hailed as a global renaissance woman, Dr. Angelou is a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist.

Born on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, Dr. Angelou was raised in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. In Stamps, Dr. Angelou experienced the brutality of racial discrimination, but she also absorbed the unshakable faith and values of traditional African-American family, community, and culture.

As a teenager, Dr. Angelou’s love for the arts won her a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco’s Labor School. At 14, she dropped out to become San Francisco’s first African-American female cable car conductor. She later finished high school, giving birth to her son, Guy, a few weeks after graduation. As a young single mother, she supported her son by working as a waitress and cook, however her passion for music, dance, performance, and poetry would soon take center stage.

In 1954 and 1955, Dr. Angelou toured Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess. She studied modern dance with Martha Graham, danced with Alvin Ailey on television variety shows and, in 1957, recorded her first album, Calypso Lady. In 1958, she moved to New York, where she joined the Harlem Writers Guild, acted in the historic Off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's The Blacks and wrote and performed Cabaret for Freedom.

In 1960, Dr. Angelou moved to Cairo, Egypt where she served as editor of the English language weekly The Arab Observer. The next year, she moved to Ghana where she taught at the University of Ghana's School of Music and Drama, worked as feature editor for The African Review and wrote for The Ghanaian Times.

During her years abroad, Dr. Angelou read and studied voraciously, mastering French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and the West African language Fanti. While in Ghana, she met with Malcolm X and, in 1964, returned to America to help him build his new Organization of African American Unity.

Shortly after her arrival in the United States, Malcolm X was assassinated, and the organization dissolved. Soon after X's assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. asked Dr. Angelou to serve as Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King's assassination, falling on her birthday in 1968, left her devastated.

With the guidance of her friend, the novelist James Baldwin, she began work on the book that would become I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Published in 1970, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published to international acclaim and enormous popular success. The list of her published verse, non-fiction, and fiction now includes more than 30 bestselling titles.

A trailblazer in film and television, Dr. Angelou wrote the screenplay and composed the score for the 1972 film Georgia, Georgia. Her script, the first by an African American woman ever to be filmed, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

She continues to appear on television and in films including the landmark television adaptation of Alex Haley's Roots (1977) and John Singleton's Poetic Justice (1993). In 1996, she directed her first feature film, Down in the Delta. In 2008, she composed poetry for and narrated the award-winning documentary The Black Candle, directed by M.K. Asante, Jr.

Dr. Angelou has served on two presidential committees, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000, the Lincoln Medal in 2008, and has received 3 Grammy Awards. President Clinton requested that she compose a poem to read at his inauguration in 1993. Dr. Angelou's reading of her poem "On the Pulse of the Morning" was broadcast live around the world.

Dr. Angelou has received over 30 honorary degrees and is Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.

Dr. Angelou’s words and actions continue to stir our souls, energize our bodies, liberate our minds, and heal our hearts.

from http://mayaangelou.com/bio/

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

G^3 Cyber

Saturday, March 27th, 2010

Today was GG's second Operation Keeping in Touch event: GO-GIRL Goes Cyber (G^3 Cyber), and it was a success!

About 35 of our former GG alumnis from grades 8-12 reunited in the WSU Welcome Center, along with their families and friends, to join us for a fun day of cyber activity and Parent Cafe learning.

While the girls were busy working and playing, the GG parents joined us for a Parent Cafe which started off in the WSU Undergraduate Library. Here, with the help of WSU's librarians, the GG parents were introduced to MeL, the Michigan eLibrary. This great online resource can help parents and GGs in obtaining research and other useful information materials. Later, Dr. Sally brought parents up to speed on GG and upcoming GG events and opportunities. Finally, a WSU admissions counselor spoke with the parents about WSU and the college admissions process in general.

Meanwhile, the GGs were split into teams which traveled to different stations in State Hall, learning about how computers can be used to make meaning of very large amounts of data. They explored the power to create and share messages using animation software. Among other activities, the GGs learned about "data mining", made a game using the programming language Scratch, and learned about some of the things computer scientists do. After a midday break for a Subway lunch in the Welcome Center, the girls were back at play (work). They watched a video and toured the graphics & sensor network labs in State Hall. At the end of the day, we held a big game of BINGO using all of the terms we'd defined throughout the day. The GGs walked away with lots of knowledge, new computer expertise, prizes, and smiles from seeing their former GG friends.

We're so looking forward to our GG Reunion this upcoming Fall of 2010, keep an eye out for our postings as more information becomes available!!! :)

Thank you to all of our former GGs and families who attended, and thank you to the helpful and wonderful WSU Computer Science Department faculty & staff who made this possible, as well as Dr. Stephanie Brock, the WSU librarians, the WSU admissions counselors, and GG volunteers, it couldn't have been possible without you!

GG Day 6: Pharmacy Field Trip




Saturday, March 27th

A major day for GO-GIRL!

Our 2010 semester GGs took a field trip to the WSU College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

Each group of GGs had a pharmacy student lead them around the building. Each 5 sessions that the GGs attended exposed the girls to different fields in the health sciences.

In the Occupational Therapy (OT) session the girls made a bracelet or key-chain and tested how strong their fingers and hands are by squeezing a mechanism as hard as they could. Then they learned the average strength of girls their age. They learned why OT is important and why people do it.

In the Physical Therapy (PT) session, they learned about different exercises that they could do to work different parts of the body to improve their strength. They also watched a video about the different places that they could practice PT such as at schools with veterans.

In the Pharmacy the GGs learned what pharmacists do and they toured the CVS laboratory. They saw how drugs are prescribed and approximately how many different types of drugs there are currently on the market.

In the Analyzing session they practiced testing urine (actually Mountain Dew in this case), and they learned how to use test strips that test for diabetes. Here they got a chance to wear lab coats and lab goggles and learn about lab safety procedures.

Lastly, in the Physician Assistant (PA) session, the GGs learned what PAs do and they practiced their knowledge on a sample case about a man who didn't know what was causing him to have certain symptoms. After learning the symptoms of a stroke, the GGs were able to diagnose this man. They also heard a real heartbeat in order to monitor heart rate and use a stethoscope.

In each workshop there was a real doctor and WSU students studying those respected professions to assist the GGs in their learning.

Just a reminder: GO-GIRL will be meeting at its usual time on Saturday, April 10th: 9:30am-3:00pm in the College of Education.

At this time (Saturday, April 10th), we will also be holding a Parent Cafe to which all parents of GO-GIRLs are invited. The theme of the Parent Cafe will be Programs and Resources. Librarians will show you how you and your daughter can more effectively use library resources at home or online. In addition, we will discuss careers for your daughters that break gender molds. It should be an excellent chance to network and meet one another as well as have a rich conversation. The Parent Cafe will be held from 9:30-11:00am in the College of Education, Room #10.

Please note that the street/metered parking on WSU's campus is free on the weekends.

We're looking forward to seeing everyone again this weekend after a nice holiday break, hope everyone had a great vacation! :)