Montgomery County program encourages girls' interest in technology
Sixth grader Mollie Fink has a budding interest in technology, but her father is positively wired.
Eric Fink, a network engineer turned business development specialist for Lockheed Martin Corp. in King of Prussia, has an iPhone, a BlackBerry, and a four-computer household, and he craves an iPad. When anything breaks at home, he's the dad who can fix it.
So when he heard about the Girls in Technology Summer Academy in the Colonial School District, he encouraged Mollie to enroll.
It wasn't a hard sell.
"I wanted to find out more about all the things I can do," said Mollie, 11, of Lafayette Hill.
Teachers and administrators in the Montgomery County school district are counting on that curiosity. Colonial's Girls in Technology pilot program is designed to encourage middle-schoolers to consider a field of study - and potential career path - that is still boy-centric.
The two-week summer camp, which concludes on Friday, introduces girls entering fourth through eighth grades to robotics, digital photography, programming, gaming, animation, and Web design.
"We know from academic profiles in math and science that girls are just as capable, so there's a disconnect between capability and involvement," said MaryEllen Gorodetzer, an assistant superintendent with the district.
Eric Fink, a network engineer turned business development specialist for Lockheed Martin Corp. in King of Prussia, has an iPhone, a BlackBerry, and a four-computer household, and he craves an iPad. When anything breaks at home, he's the dad who can fix it.
So when he heard about the Girls in Technology Summer Academy in the Colonial School District, he encouraged Mollie to enroll.
It wasn't a hard sell.
"I wanted to find out more about all the things I can do," said Mollie, 11, of Lafayette Hill.
Teachers and administrators in the Montgomery County school district are counting on that curiosity. Colonial's Girls in Technology pilot program is designed to encourage middle-schoolers to consider a field of study - and potential career path - that is still boy-centric.
The two-week summer camp, which concludes on Friday, introduces girls entering fourth through eighth grades to robotics, digital photography, programming, gaming, animation, and Web design.
"We know from academic profiles in math and science that girls are just as capable, so there's a disconnect between capability and involvement," said MaryEllen Gorodetzer, an assistant superintendent with the district.
Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/education/20100624_Montgomery_County_program_encourages_girls__interest_in_technology.html#ixzz0rrkDjPkU
Watch sports videos you won't find anywhere else
TOP STORY
A federal court judge in Philadelphia ruled Thursday that the Lower Merion School District broke no law when it imposed a redistricting plan that deprived nine South Ardmore students of their choice of high school.
SPECIAL PROJECTS
The Inquirer's annual survey of education in the region, with a searchable database of school and district information, and multimedia profiles of area students and high schools.
With the dropout problem in Philadelphia at crisis proportions, a chance-of-a-lifetime program offers 40 select students a shot at breaking the cycle of failure. But can they take advantage?
RECENT STORIES