A Stellar 1st day of GO-GIRL!

Saturday, February 2nd, 2013

Well, we are off and running! Just looking at the girls in their groups by the end of the day today, you would never know that they were perfect strangers this morning.

The day was spent getting to know one another and the mentors.  What better way to do get to know one another than to play icebreakers!

One of the icebreakers was called, "Honey if you love me, will you please smile for me?" In this exercise, all of the students stood in a circle while one student went to someone she hoped she could make smile (the point of the game being not to smile, but that was near impossible for everyone-the giggles were contagious!). If the participant smiled, the smiler (then "it") would continue to ask someone else this question and hope that the next person would smile. This activity broke the ice between girls who were not to familiar with each other and were out of their comfort zone. It was a very easy-going first day that helped the girls get comfortable with everyone and their new environment. By the end of the day, the girls went from being strangers to forming long-term friendships! The laughing and giggling was heard from every classroom throughout the day as more games and icebreakers ensued.

Also, the girls learned about graphs and how to analyze and interpret them, which will come in handy later in the semester as the girls will be researching a topic, administering surveys, and analyzing data. At noon, the girls enjoyed a buffet-style lunch in the Towers dorm dining hall. After lunch, the girls went back to their classrooms, paired up with a partner and were given a Macbook. They used the computers to take an online survey regarding futures careers and other interesting topics.

Finally, the girls came up with team names for their groups. We're proud to present our GO-GIRL groups for the Winter 2013 semester:

Group 1 (Mentors Becky & Taylor): Queen Bee Yellow Jackets
Group 2 (Mentors Macy & Radha): Invincible Investigators
Group 3 (Mentors Jodi & Mary): TTYL (Talented Team of Young Ladies)
Group 4 (Mentors Fayzha & La'Shana): FBI Girls (Fabulous, Beautiful, Intelligent)
Group 5 (Mentors Nina & Sarah): SM&ART (Science, Math, and Art)
Group 6 (Mentors Melissa & Terrel): H4 (High Heels High Hopes)

Looking forward to our 2nd day! :)

GO-GIRL 2011 Day 9

Saturday, April 9th, 2011

Here we are on Day 9! Phew! We've come a lo-o-o-ong way and now we're finally putting together all of the concepts we've discussed this semester. We're analyzing our data as we speak, taking a look at our results from our online surveys and drawing conclusions. Some of us are finding that our research results match our hypotheses while some of our hypotheses have been proven wrong, but we are all learning! It's quite tiring doing all of this thinking on a Saturday so we're going to need a refreshing lunch break soon-we're going to have pizza, salad and pop-it should do the trick in helping us finish out the afternoon putting together our Power Point presentations of our results and findings. These are the presentations that we will wrap up today, and in the morning of next week's Graduation day, that we will showcase to our friends and family. We're so excited to examine and contemplate our findings and share them with everyone next week!

The information about next weekend's final day of GO-GIRL, our Graduation Ceremony, is below:

Gaining Options – Girls Investigate Real Life™
Project Presentation and Graduation
Winter 2011

Date: April 16th, 2011
Location: Wayne State University

Schedule of Events

9:00 – 9:20 Girls arrive, prepare for final presentations
9:30 – 11:00 Parent Café- Room 10 College of Education
11:00 – 11:30 Presentation of Final Projects
1st Floor College of Education Building
11:45 - 1:30 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 the GO-GIRL Hot Line at 313-577-0917 or Email us at: gogirl@wayne.edu

We look forward to seeing you there! :)

GO-GIRL 2011 Day 8

Saturday, April 2nd, 2011

Well, we are winding down our GO-GIRL semester now. This morning was spent exploring data collection. We reviewed different types of graphs and questioned which type of graph may be the best for our individual survey projects. We also refreshed our memory on mean, median, mode, and percent count. We're working up to compiling our data into a final Power Point project that we'll begin organizing next week. Lunch was spent at the Towers Dorms, a favorite for us all because it is served buffet style so we get our own choice for lunch! Then, last but very far from least, we went on a WSU Campus Road Rally. It was like a treasure hunt that led us all around the campus searching for clues as we took photos at each answer location. The Road Rally was a great opportunity to explore campus and get to see the different types of buildings on campus. We always thought the campus was so big and confusing but now we have a good grasp on what it's actually like! We're looking forward to coming back next week to complete our research projects! :)

Go-GIRL 2011 Day 6

Saturday, March 12th, 2011

A super busy day as we all scrambled to wrap up our GO-GIRL surveys! We all contributed to writing the survey questions and typing them into the InspireData program, the program we're using to publish the surveys to the web! It was stressful trying to get them all in before lunch but we all managed to have them complete by the end of the day, phew! The information for taking the surveys is below:

GO-GIRL Surveys

Instructions:
Go to http://esurvey.inspiredata.com
Enter the Survey ID # and take the survey!

Teams:

C.R.A.Z.Y. (Creative, Real, Active, Zany, Young) Awesome Ladies
ID# 993022
Pretty Girl Swag
ID# 951360
BCM (Beautiful Classy Misses)
ID# 477419
P3 (Pretty, Powerful, Pre-Teens)
ID# 610413
DGAO (Diverse Girls As One)
ID# 583556
Scientists With Style
ID# 336141
Pink Saturdays
ID# 960985

After we wrapped up our surveys and worked on our team posters and cheers, we headed over to the WSU Mort Harris Fitness and Recreation Center which is right nearby the College of Education on the WSU campus. There we had Little Caesar's pizza, salad, cookies, and pop. Then we were able to run around and play! Some of us played basketball, there was also a volleyball game, we could walk on the track, hula hoop, or play any number of other activities and games. Mostly we would run around and play until we were hungry or tired and then we'd chat before running around and playing some more, it was so fun!

GO-GIRL 2011 Day 3

Saturday, February 12, 2011

We are well on our way to learning about research. One of today's activities consisted of talking about the notion of bias. We discussed what it means to be biased and we came up with some definitions. We discovered it is basically another way to say "unfair." We talked in our teams about whether or not we have ever experiences bias in any way. We also took part in a physical activity where we moved around the room and sorted ourselves according to categories. Our mentors asked us a series of questions and we sorted ourselves in response. This helped us understand creating good category systems for our survey question answer choices. We also discussed hypotheses and predictions. Lunch was provided care of McDonalds in the WSU Student Center. A fulfilling and educational day for all! :)

GO-GIRL 2011 Day 2

Saturday, February 5, 2011

We are really getting on a roll now! Day 2 was a wonderfully tiring first day! The GGs built a chain of their strengths, an activity led by a few of our fabulous mentors. This chain represents all of the awesome qualities and talents our GO-GIRLs possess, which are endless! Then in groups of teams, the GGs and their mentors discussed surveys and some issues that come up when creating or conducting a survey, this is all in preparation of the surveys the teams will be creating, compiling data from, and assessing the data. This in mind, they also had an opportunity to maneuver the software they'll use to do all of this- InspireData. Lunch was busy and the food from McDonalds was running late but thankfully everyone was patient and eventually everyone satisfied their hunger that had been building all morning! In addition to all of the other activities today, the GO-GIRLs and their teams have created their team names and the themes of their surveys, which are as follows:

Team 1 with Mentors Alisha & Lanae: C.R.A.Z.Y. (Creative, Real, Active, Zany, Young) Awesome Ladies. They will explore body image!

Team 2 with Mentors Deloris & Elizabeth: Pretty Girl Swag. Their theme is body image!

Team 3 with Mentors Brenda & Jared: BCM- Beautiful Classy Misses. These GGs will cover technology!

Team 4 with Mentors Lisa & Lisa: P3 (Pretty Powerful, Pre-Teens). Team 4 went with Fashion!

Team 5 with Mentors Alison & Desiree: DGAO (Diverse Girls as One). Body image and fashion will be complete Team 5's research!

Team 6 with Mentors Carolyn & Sarah: Scientists with Style. These GGs will explore peer pressure!

Team 7 with Mentors Tamara & Winnie: Pink Saturdays. This groups of gals wish to learn about music and how it affects mood and behavior!

We are well on our way into this semester of GO-GIRL and we are so pleased for all who could join us! Please keep checking back for weekly updates and more as we continue on with our projects and learning! And always feel free to email us at gogirl@wayne.edu to let us know what you'd like to see on the blog! :)

GO-GIRL 2011 Day 1

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Day 1 down, 9 to go! And we're off to a running start! The mentors were energetically awaiting the GGs' arrival at the bus stop drop-off point with pom-poms and signs to greet the girls and their parents. GO-GIRLs started out the day with our version of BINGO, Personality BINGO. Along with the granola bars and juice, this really got us all going! Then GGs broke into pairs or threes within their teams and completed an "All About Us" venn diagram, comparing and contrasting themselves with their partner. After the mentors modeled their introductions, the GGs had an opportunity to introduce their partner to the rest of the group. It was a jam-packed morning, everyone was quite hungry by the time lunch rolled around! Lunch was served in the WSU Student Center, it was sandwiches, potato salad, a cookie, and soda. Our first session also included a GO-GIRL-themed Power Point Presentation as well as a fun round of GO-GIRL Jeopardy, where GO-GIRLs had a chance to learn all about the GO-GIRL program. We found out these GGs are very competitive! Everyone also had a chance to take a survey, similar to one they will create and extend to others as a part of their final project. Overall, today was a great glimpse for the GGs into the GO-GIRL future and a nice chance for the GGs to get to know one another! :)

GG Day 4

Every day we are learning more about social science research here at GO-GIRL! Today was filled with activity! In groups, everyone discussed "bias" and how to identify bias in asking survey questions. Each group worked to acknowledge any potential bias in sample questions and then had a chance to test their knowledge and create their own unbiased survey question. Also, the GGs practiced putting answers into categories. This will help organize survey results of the final surveys for the semester. And finally, the GG groups put their heads together to work on their final research project. A few of the things they talked about were what populations they would want to survey to learn more about what they find interesting concerning this topic, what questions they could ask to learn more about the topic, how they think people they survey will answer these questions, and then they came up with a prediction statement. We'll keep working on these research topics every week but so far we've made some great progress!