Small World Initiative Panel Discussion at the National Coalition of Girls' Schools' Global Forum on Girls' Education – 10:30am, Tuesday, February 9, 2016 at the Marriott Marquis in New York, New York, USA
Panel – From Classroom to Career: Innovative STEM Curriculum to Plug the Leaky Pipeline
Research shows that girls start out strong in STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math – courses but lose interest along the way, often referred to as the "leaky pipeline." This engaging panel will discuss an innovative discovery-based course – the Small World Initiative™ (SWI) – formulated at Yale University to encourage and retain girls in STEM and what additional actions your school can take to help links students to STEM careers. Formulated at Yale University in 2012, SWI centers around an introductory biology course that engages students in original hands-on laboratory and field research while addressing a worldwide health threat – the diminishing supply of effective antibiotics. As part of SWI, students from around the world isolate bacteria from soil in their local environments in the hunt for new antibiotics. SWI is already in 99 colleges and universities around the world and will be training its first cohort of high school instructors this summer.
Join us as Erika Kurt, President and CEO of the Small World Initiative, moderates an interactive panel discussion between pioneering science educators and industry. Barbara Fishel, Dean of Studies at The Hockaday School, will share how she is piloting SWI’s innovative science curriculum at the high school level and the impact it is having on her students. Nichole Broderick will discuss how to harness the power of active learning to achieve both educational and scientific goals and insights from Yale’s Center for Scientific Teaching. Finally, industry expert Janelle Anderson will weigh in on what your school can do to link girls to careers in STEM and build relationships between your school and industry.
Moderator
Erika Kurt, President & CEO, Small World Initiative
Panelists
Barbara Fishel, Dean of Studies/Director of Research, The Hockaday School
Nichole Broderick, Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and Institute for Systems Genomics, University of Connecticut; formerly Associate Research Scientist, Yale University
Janelle Anderson – Partner, CTI Life Sciences Fund; formerly Managing Director, MRL Venture Fund, Merck
