Impolite Company

Women in Science: Letters to Our Daughters Project

Just passing along a little tidbit that sounds pretty interesting from Isis the Scientist over at the On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess blog.  She's trying to put together a collection of her scientific forbears--women who came before her, paved the way for her and inspired her to pursue a career in science.  From what I've read, there's a very sad dropoff of interest in science and math by girls as they transition into their teenage years--part of the socialization process that informs them what they're supposed to be interested in.  So I'm thrilled at all steps taken to strengthen a connection between young women and the sciences and I think that Isis's idea is a good one, The Letters to Our Daughters Project:

When I was a graduate student, I took a physiology class in which I was given the assignment to recreate my scientific family tree. When I did, I found that my family tree is composed some brilliant scientists. But, my family tree is also composed entirely of men, plus me. The same is true of the tree from my postdoc. I have scientific fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, but no aunts, grandmothers, or mothers. As I considered my career path in science, I found myself wanting and needing the perspective of more senior women scientists.

The inspiration for my Letters to Our Daughters Project comes from my hope that we can recreate our family tree here, creating a forum where the mothers and aunts in our fields (which I hope to not limit to physiology, but that's where I'll start because that's who I know) can share their wisdom with us. I think there is a wealth of information among these successful women and I hope to use this forum to share it with young scientists who are yearning for that knowledge.

Meat and You, Partners in Freedom

I had a "crazy friend" tell me the other day (yesterday) that she doesn't eat "red meat" just "fish and poultry".  So, until the good people NextGenAgra finally get around to inventing the fabled Steer Fish, I'd like to pass along this video of a very informative educational film that will hopefully convince her that she's being a "Grade A Moron" (two minutes):

Phil Hartman, The Simpsons were never the same after you left us.

Bullying Legislation

I always feel ill-equipped in thinking about the issues surrounding bullying in our public schools.  I went to a Christian school all the way from kindergarten up through high school graduation (class of 12!) and though we had kids who were ostracized and the usual kid interactions, there wasn't a lot of unchecked bullying that went on.  So I want to leave this post wide open for anyone in the education industry or parents of school-aged children to comment and give some of their perspective.  In theory, I approve of bringing more of a focus on bullying and giving educators both more incentive to address it and more tools with which to address it, I'd just like some feedback from others with more insight. 

Equality Texas is putting on a big push for their newest version of their anti-bullying legislation designed to address the growing problem of bullying and include areas of bullying (including electronic) that were previously ignored.  Here's their list of changes in this years version, Sticks & Stones May Break My Bones, & [I think this should be "But"--gms]  Bullying Should Never Hurt Me:

expands the definition of bullying by including bullying by electronic means such as computers, cell phones, text messaging, and instant messaging.

expands the current definition of bullying to include incidents that occur off school property if the communication is likely to cause a disruption to the educational environment of a campus.

provides for the movement of the bully to another classroom or campus, at the discretion of school administration. Currently, the victim is required to move to another classroom or campus.

expands the mandatory sexual harassment policy that school districts are required to have to include bullying.

requires notification of the parents or guardians of both the victim and the student who is bullying or sexually harassing another student.

expands the state's Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) reporting requirement to include incidents of bullying, harassment, and sexual harassment.

Thanks to Capitol Annex for raising this issue!  You can get more information or take action via the Equality Texas website. 

You can read the Public Education Committee's legislative analysis of the bill here:  Bullying on Campus Bill Analysis. 

Read the full text of the bill here (five pages of pdf text--which is pretty short and easy to read for legislation):  An Act Related to Bullying and Harassment in Public Schools.

Please weigh in with your perspective on this legislation!

Overcoming

Two of my dearest friends are great inspirations to me, not only because they are bright, intelligent, funny and engaging, not only because they are loving and involved parents but largely because they were able to overcome some pretty limiting circumstances early in their lives to get where they are today.  Both of them grew up in communities where there wasn't any emphasis on scholarship, not a lot of excitement for things like literature and art, and yet both of them found their own way to richly diverse lives with plenty of creativity and intellectual curiosity.  To put it in rather bland, made for the internet terms, neither of them had the most stable of home lives.  And so when I think of these two and what they've become I'm always at least a little bit awed that they were able to do so despite their early obstacles and I'm always more than a little bit proud of them.

Spike Gillespie has a nice post today talking about her own upbringing and how she was able to find her own way despite circumstances conspiring against her being anything more than beaten down secretary with a gaggle of kids at home.  It resonated with me because it reminded me of my friends and because it sounds like she's moved beyond bitterness over what might have been, while acknowledging the obstacles she had to negotiate on her way.  Welcome to Harry Potter High School:

Like my son, I too, found my passion early, wanting very much to be a writer from the age of 8. An excellent student, I ranked fifth in my graduating class. And I was accepted at a prestigious private college, one I would not be able to attend. My father believed college was for posers. Even if he’d had the money to send me to school, it wasn’t an option he would’ve been interested in. The map he drew for me involved staying a small town girl, finding a husband, and cranking out babies. If I was going to get a job as I waited for a spouse to materialize, then, like two of my three older sisters, I could be a secretary.

Women's History Month: Women in Science

I'm not very hip to keeping up with what month is in terms of what we're supposed to be saluting, but I just ran across a good post over at Science Women that is an interview with the writer's mother, a biology professor who first started teaching back in the dark ages of 1974, back when only 10% of the students in high school and college math and science classes were women.  It's always good to be able to look back and see where we've come from when we're evaluating where we are now--just like electing an African American president doesn't mean we've fixed the whole racism thing, the fact that we're getting higher numbers of women in the sciences doesn't mean we've fixed the gender bias thing, but we are making progress.  Trailblazing Teacher and Role Model:  An Interview with a Woman Scientist Who Went Before:

Over the course of two hours, I had a wonderful conversation with this woman scientist, who earned her PhD in 1974. Her research focused on ecology, and after a two-year stint at a private liberal arts college, she spent the rest of her career at an undergraduate only public institution. She taught 36 classes in 32 years, averaging 6-8 different courses per year. She never had any help from teaching assistants, so she did all of her own grading, lab prep, and lab teaching. And she also raised two kids, most of the time as a single parent. My interviewee would like to remain anonymous, so for the purposes of this post we'll call her "Dendro." Most of the time, I simply call her Mom.

Seven Year Old Fights Back

Last Saturday, one of the parents in my 'wee ones' class of 6-8 year old karate students pulled me aside and told me about a teachable moment she was wondering if I could follow up on.  Her daughter and a friend had been approached by strangers as they were walking a few hundred feet from one girl's house to the other's house.  It turned out to be a relatively benign interaction but it sparked conversations about talking to strangers and who a stranger is, especially as there was a story in the news about a man trying to grab a seven year old in a nearby part of town.  I finally found the story in the Statesman today, 7-Year Old Girl Fights Off Attacker--the girl and her ten year old brother were flying a kite:

The girl told police the man had approached the children without saying anything and grabbed at the girl.

The girl kicked and punched the man until he let go of her and ran off.

Neither child needed medical attention, police said.

I don't always respond to requests for what to do in a given class, though I'll grant you that the request usually comes from one of the students and involves playing games for the entire class.  But this seemed like a good idea, particularly since we like to talk to the kids about self defense issues anyway, so we spent ten or fifteen minutes talking about who they should talk to when their parents aren't around and how they can tell which adults are ones that their parents trust.  Some time in the next couple of weeks I hope to talk to them about things they can do to fight back if something ever happens to them and when that's appropriate. 

It's funny, when I was on the radio show Friday the moderator asked something to the effect of, are there things that you do in your children's classes to get the parents involved.  I mentioned how we always encourage parents to watch our classes and that we have many parents who do so but I didn't mention one of the most important things we try to do, which is to mingle with the parents after the class and talk to them about what's going on in their kids' lives. 

Teaching young children is such a difficult alchemy and often you'll see atypical reactions from a child in class and you won't know what it is that's caused them to be more withdrawn or aggressive than usual.  Contact with the parents is an incredibly important part of the process--it helps you figure out why certain approaches don't work with an individual child, gives you a heads-up when kids aren't feeling well or may be tuckered out and most importantly, makes karate class more of a collaborative effort.  It helps us reinforce lessons the parents are trying to teach in their homes and lets the parents know what we're trying to do with their children.

The White House Garden

Anything that we can do as individuals, the government just comes along and does it bigger.  Take kitchen gardening for instance.  I spent a fun Sunday digging a new raised bed in my front yard (second in the front yard, plus the potato bed in the back yard--I'll post some pictures soon), dreaming of putting in a couple more this spring to have ready for fall production, fighting back the grass that was threatening to take over some landscaping and finishing up some basic landscaping work.  Good times.  And, of course, this morning I come on line and get it flung in my face that the Obamas are putting in ten times the garden space I'm going to have. 

Now maybe if I had a kitchen staff and a gardening staff I could put that much land into production (oh, I'd need more acreage as well)--okay, I might need children volunteering to help out as well.  So unfair.  So bitter.

But I am on the bandwagon that touts the idea that having a substantial organic garden at the White House is a cool thing and if you want to find out more about the gardening going's on, you can see some pictures of a way-overdressed Michelle Obama digging in the dirt at The White House Blog:  Spring Gardening, take a peek at the White House Garden Layout (extensive!) and a little summary of the plans at Obamas to Plant Organic Vegetable Garden.

Texas! (The Lege and Science Education)

Wow--I love it when I spend a little bit of time away from the blog and return, only to find that the Texas Lege is considering more crazy bills.  Chronic:  Habitually Updated Buzz writes about a couple of them in Creationist Bills in The Lege.  The first bill seeks to reverse the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's decision refusing to certify the Institute for Creation Research's application to offer a master's degree in science education online.  I think their decision was based on the fact that the school wouldn't be teaching science so how can it offer master's degrees on teaching science, or something silly like that:

Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, has come up with a simple enough way to deal with that: Write a bill (HB 2800) saying that the board no longer has authority over private “schools” that do not accept state or federal funding.

Hurray!  Now I can privately fund my crystolology school and offer that master's program in alligning crystals and your chakras!!

The other sweetheart of a bill also attempts to overturn the decision of a board that supposedly is an expert in education and replace their decision; the story was broken by our bloodhound at the Lege, Vince from Capitol Annex in his post Bill Would Make "Strengths and Weaknesses" Teaching of Evolution State Law:

A bill filed Friday in the Texas House of Representatives would make an end-run around the curriculum setting authority of the state’s elected State Board of Education and codify the requirement that the “strengths and weaknesses” of scientific theories–including evolution–be taught in Texas public school classrooms.

Capitol Annex followed up on this second bill yesterday in this post, TFN President Calls on Lawmakers to Reject Christian's Anti-Science Legislation:

“Lawmakers should call this the ‘Kill Science in Texas Act,’ Miller said. “It would open the door to teaching public school students almost any notion that someone wants to portray as ‘science,’ regardless of what school administrators and real scientists have to say about it. It’s a sure way to put Texas on the fast road to being a national laughingstock.”

Check out the Texas Freedom Network.

"Just Say Don't Know"

The Texas Freedom Network has started a campaign to push for real sex education in Texas schools that teaches the facts rather than falsehoods and educates rather than simply try to frighten kids.  They've got a series of funny, scary videos featuring things that are actually taught in the Texas curriculum under the Abstinence-Only model and you can sign their petition at Just Say Don't Know.  Thanks to Burnt Orange Report for posting about this!

I Am the Law! (And I Am the Theory)

My fascination with the badness that is Judge Dredd (the movie version with Stallone, at least) can surface at the most inappropriate times, too frequently when I'm trying to think of titles for posts.  For this, I ask your indulgence. 

Today, I'd like to direct you to a post that tackles the question of "What is the difference between a law and a theory when it comes to science?"   The blogger is responding to the following from a 6th grade teacher in his post, Laws, Theories and Models:

Dr. Wilkins,

I was hoping you might be able to provide some insight on a question that is circulating amongst the NSTA email list serve concerning laws and theories. Specifically, there is some disagreement ( I would say confusion) of the difference between the two and, in particular, why a theory cannot become a law. Also, the question has arisen as to what a law is before if becomes a law. I've used some previous posts of yours to guide my thinking, but if you have any comments that I might pass along to help achieve some clarity, I would greatly appreciate it.

It gets a wee bit professorial at a couple of points but I think the takeaway is very good.  On the other hand, Judge Dredd isn't professorial at all and the takeaway sucks because you can't ever get it out of your head.

Sen. Ellis and Rep. Rose on the State Board of Education

Somehow, this slipped through the cracks after the SBOE met a few weeks ago on science standards, but Sen. Rodney Ellis and Rep. Patrick Rose wrote a really good, succinct opinion piece in the Houston Chronicle about the failings of the State Board of Education and how it's great to support $3 billion in science funding at the state level on one hand but when we have watered down science standards we're not preparing our students to compete for those research and medical science jobs.  Kudos to Ellis and Rose and thanks to Pharyngula for the heads-up, Bright Lights in the Texas Legislature--it's good to see the quality Texas legislators get some press, State Board of Education Must Be Held Accountable:

Despite one’s personal stance on evolution, its teaching is critical to the study of all the biological sciences.

Scientists from our state’s universities have expressed this to the board, and have warned that watering down science education would undermine biotechnology, medical and other industries that are crucial to our state’s future.

Last session, the Legislature committed to investing $3 billion over the next 10 years in making Texas the global leader in cancer research and finding cures. This historic investment is certain to bring economic and academic opportunities to our state.

Sadly, even as our state takes one step forward, the SBOE moves us two steps back by continuing to support a diminished standard for science education. Texas’ credibility and its investment in research and technology are placed at risk by these ongoing, unproductive debates.

This is a critical issue and a critical time. Study after study has demonstrated that states which do well in science education have the brightest long-term economic future. According to Gov. Rick Perry’s Select Commission on Higher Education and Global Competitiveness, despite improved scores in math and reading, Texas’ students continue to lag alarmingly behind other states in science proficiency.

Creation Debate? Thanks, but No Thanks

I know, I know, I feel like I've been beating a dead horse in all this evolution and what-not posting lately but there's been a lot of fascinating stuff out there due to Darwin Day and I'm not going to hold off for the sake of appearing like I'm not beating up on someone.  I don't have the chops to beat up on anyone in this particular fight and, if you check out the post that I link to, it'll be fairly clear that the evolutionists don't need my help. 

The link is to a post detailing an exchange between a representative of the Discovery Institute (Disco!) and a member of the biology department of the University of Vermont. UV is the school where Ben Stein withdrew as the commencement speaker after much protesting, mainly due to Stein's roles as writer and actor in the movie Expelled:  No Intelligence Allowed.  On the heels of that, Disco wanted to do up a creation v. evolution debate and Prof. Gotelli wasn't having any of it.  Though the Disco invite was relatively polite, it apparently came on the heels of some serious dissing of Prof. Gotelli through the Disco PR machine, so the professor was none to gentle in his response, How to Respond to Requests to Debate Creationists:

Instead of spending time on public debates, why aren't members of your institute publishing their ideas in prominent peer-reviewed journals such as Science, Nature, or the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences? If you want to be taken seriously by scientists and scholars, this is where you need to publish. Academic publishing is an intellectual free market, where ideas that have credible empirical support are carefully and thoroughly explored. Nothing could possibly be more exciting and electrifying to biology than scientific disproof of evolutionary theory or scientific proof of the existence of a god. That would be Nobel Prize winning work, and it would be eagerly published by any of the prominent mainstream journals.

Stimulus Funds for Austin Area Schools

It's always interesting to see how the abstract words of a piece of legislation actually work in concrete terms.  With Pres. Obama's signature on the bottom line of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the legislation has become law and the dollars will start flowing, some of them to the Austin area.  Austin schools are going to get around $40 million in new funding with close to $80 million total in funding for Central Texas schools:

President Barack Obama's signature Tuesday on the federal stimulus bill cleared the way for what's expected to be a huge infusion of grant money for state education programs and local school districts.

State officials said Texas could get at least $5.4 billion for public education over the next two years. Millions more will go directly to school districts for special education and programs for low-income students.

State Board of Education Elections

The elections are a long way off (2010 is a year away, right?) but the continuing Kansas-lite shenanigans on the Texas State Board of Education are inspiring Democrats to sit up, take notice and talk about running against the more extreme members.  Like Austin's own District 10 board member, Cynthia Dunbar.  Austin's liberal science vote is split between two districts, which dilutes that vote and as a result we have a real stinker on the board voting for us, as noted in Democrats to Challenge Dunbar on Education Board:

But with Dunbar making a spectacle of herself lately – being a pro-creationism, anti-evolution voice on the board, writing an editorial warning of martial law under an Obama administration, and writing a book calling public education a "subtly deceptive tool of perversion" and unconstitutional – and the Democratic Party resurging in Texas, she won’t get such an easy walk in 2010.

It's early, but not too early to note the need for a chance and encourage some quality educators to challenge Dunbar.  For a look at the early possibilities, please read the full Chronicle bit linked to above.

Science: Reasoning v. Knowledge

The ongoing discussion of the proper place of science has led to some interesting looks at how we view science, how we finance it and how we teach it.  In the latter category is a good little piece arguing that we need to change our science education model from one that emphasizes collecting facts and knowledge to one that emphasizes reasoning skills and instilling curiosity and excitement about the sciences.  It isn't really an either/or situation but needs to be more complementary with more emphasis on the reasoning skills.  The writer makes his point by looking at a study comparing Chinese and American science students, Teaching Scientific Knowledge Doesn't Improve Scientific Reasoning:

On Tuesday, I wrote a short essay on the rightful place of science in our society. As part of it, I argued that scientific knowledge is distinct from the scientific method - the latter gives people the tools with which to acquire the former. I also briefly argued that modern science education (at least in the UK) focuses too much on the knowledge and too little on the method. It is so blindsided by checklists of facts that it fails to instil the inquisitiveness, scepticism, critical thinking and respect for evidence that good science entails. Simply inhaling pieces of information won't get the job done.

Science Standards Review Process Continues

Texas Science standards aren't out of the woods yet.  As noted earlier this week, proposed science standards squeaked through the State Board of Education this week without reinsertion of the "strengths and weaknesses" language, though they took some hits on clarity and lost some smaller battles (Evolution:  Hanging on by its Fingernails). 

Now the process continues and the next step is review by a panel of six (possibly seven) experts before the new standards are passed next March.  The panel consists of at least three members who are skeptical about the theory of evolution, one of whom is attached to the Discovery Institute (worth noting is that two of the three pro Intelligent Design experts are from out of state while all the rest of the panel members are from Texas).  Expert Panel Sparks Doubt:

Each member of the new panel of experts was nominated by two members of the state board. State officials said a seventh panel member could be nominated. The panel is expected to send recommendations on the proposal back to the board in the coming months. The state board probably will hold a public hearing on the standards in November. Final adoption is slated for March.

No "Strengths and Weaknesses" but Some Muddled Language

The State Board of Education wasn't able to pass amendments reinserting "strengths and weaknesses" language into the overall science standards but it appears they were able to create some ambiguous language in some of the specific standards.  I like the work that Josh Rosenau at Thoughts from Kansas has done on the meetings and so I'll just direct you to his post at Texas Passes First Reading of New Science Standards:

Disco.[Discovery Institute] is trying to hustle a win out of some random changes to the evolution section of the Biology TEKS, but, as they say down here, that dog won't hunt. All they did was confuse the standards and take out specificity needed by teachers and textbook authors. Furthermore, how do they propose that anyone analyze and evaluate how natural selection doesn't apply to individuals but to populations? That's simply true, and doesn't require any analysis or evaluation.

Look at Josh's front page to see the string of live-blogging posts he's done on this and his look at the specific language changes in this post:  On to Earth Science.

Texas Smackdown over Science Standards

The Texas State Board of Education has been spending the last three days listening to testimony and chasing its tail in discussions looking at the recent revisions to science standards for Texas education.  On hand were experts from both sides of the non-scientific evolution debate, folks from the Discovery Institute pushing creationism, Intelligent Design, arguing strength & weaknesses, or whatever those crazy kids these days are calling teaching a religion's creation story in the science classroom rather than teaching science; and folks defending the teaching of scientific method and science-based biology in the classroom.  Sorry about the length and bewildering syntax of that last sentence, but I must press on. 

Josh Rosenau has been following the debate and live-blogging it.  He's from the National Center for Science Education and is therefore biased in favor of teaching science in science class so don't expect an evenhanded treatment of the two sides.  But he's got about three pages of blog devoted to the shenanigans so if you want an idea of how things have gone down, the fun starts here:  Defend Science in Texas:

In Texas, politics is a contact sport. I expect lots of machinations to cut off debate, and have already seen moves to limit the time available for public comment. I'll be at the building from 8 am until noon. The Board has pledged to cut off testimony after 4 hours, at which point they will let their 6 experts speak. Then the tightly divided Board will move on.

I still hope all the witnesses will be allowed to speak, and that open discussion of this subject will not be arbitrarily limited. I also hope that experts, including people who helped draft these new standards, will not be prevented from testifying simply because they spoke in November. But these are only a few of the ways we expect the Board, which has 7 conservative creationist members out of 15, to maneuver to cut off testimony and to bias their sample of testimony.

Sarah Palin on Teaching Evolution in Schools

The following is taken from a public television debate during Palin's race for governor of Alaska.  It comes to you via Feministing and The American Prospect.  I know that some readers who wander in here may not agree, but creationism has no place in a science classroom and if it makes an appearance at all it should be in a religious survey course or a philosophy class (even that makes me nervous because the line between presenting a historical or philosophical view and proselytizing can be pretty thin and most of us [myself included] aren't trained how to stay well clear of this line).  I've written about this elsewhere (albeit somewhat tangentially), for instance:  Evolution:  Strengths and Weaknesse and Happy Evolution Weekend.

SARAH PALIN ON TEACHING INTELLIGENT DESIGN IN SCHOOLS.

Next, Carey asked about teaching alternatives to evolution - such as creationism and intelligent design - in public schools. […]

Palin: “Teach both. You know, don’t be afraid of information.

Healthy debate is so important and it’s so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both.

And, you know, I say this, too, as the daughter of a science teacher. Growing up with being so privileged and blessed to be given a lot of information on, on both sides of the subject — creationism and evolution.

It’s been a healthy foundation for me. But don’t be afraid of information and let kids debate both sides.”

I'm going to add more to this as I find it because I'm getting a lot of hits on this post and I want to make sure I represent Gov. Palin honestly but I'm not afraid to do a little bit of speculating either.  In a story in the Anchorage Daily News ("Creation Science Enters the Race") Gov. Palin was a little bit coy about her exact views, but I would guess from the way she phrased it she isn't a big fan of evolutionary theory (this is just a guess, so don't take it as gospel):

Palin said she thought there was value in discussing alternatives.

"It's OK to let kids know that there are theories out there," she said in the interview. "They gain information just by being in a discussion."

That was how she was brought up, she said. Her father was a public school science teacher.

"My dad did talk a lot about his theories of evolution," she said. "He would show us fossils and say, 'How old do you think these are?' "

Asked for her personal views on evolution, Palin said, "I believe we have a creator."

She would not say whether her belief also allowed her to accept the theory of evolution as fact.

"I'm not going to pretend I know how all this came to be," she said.

Don't get me wrong--when it comes to religion I don't care too much what politicians believe.  I care deeply though when that belief begins to enter into public policy.  From what I've seen of Gov. Palin so far it doesn't appear that she ever backed enforcing a change at the state level that would mandate discussing creationism in the classroom as the equivalent of teaching the theory of evolution.   

Education: Girls, Science & Math

I just heard a very interesting report on testing outcomes from the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders here in Austin, looking in particular at science and math results and how gender roles affect education in this area.  I only caught the last five minutes or so--I'm going to listen to it in its entirety now but I do want to go ahead the blurb about the report and a link for others to listen if they are so inclined.  I did some research on this topic while working on a law school article and have been very interested in the topic (partly related to my training at Sun Dragon Martial Arts & Self Defense). So, here's the blurb and link:

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SCIENCE AND MATH: DIVERSITY AND THE ROLE OF SOCIAL CONTEXT
It seems not so long ago that advanced math and science courses in high school were predominately the domain of boys. But as times changed, and more girls started taking these tougher courses, their friendship groups' became an important part of the equation, so to speak. According to research findings from the University of Texas at Austin, having high-performance, same-sex friends is beneficial for girls whose high school friendships can promote academic success. And since advanced math and science courses can be a prerequisite to careers in STEM - science, technology, engineering and math, high school course selection is crucial. These findings were put into practice this past year at a new all-girls middle school. And just released test scores seem to validate research conclusions. Fully 98% of 7th grade girls, and 99% of 6th grade girls passed their math tests, far outperforming the entire school district.

Larry Schooler reports from the University of Texas at Austin. (14:36)

WAMC Women in Science website.

No Boys Allowed:  Friendships Among High School Girls Can Promote Academic Success. 

The Carnegie Science Center has a program called Girls, Math and Science Partnership that is designed to:

engage, educate, and embrace girls as architects of change. Working with girls age 11 - 17 and their parents, teachers, and mentors, we draw organizations, stakeholders, and communities together in an effort to ensure that girls succeed in math and science.

They have a website called "Braincake" that provides mentoring and other resources for girls in math and science.  Here's what they have to say about the program:

We're here to help girls be confident, solve problems, and think independently.  We engage girls in current science, helping them understand its relevance to their life today.  We create and link girls to programs that educate and prepare them to understand and use science in their everyday lives.  And, we embrace girls as architects of change - envisioning, planning, organizing, shaping, and building a better world - with math and science as their tools.

Thanks to Zenobia for the heads-up on this program!