Engineergirl.org Draws Girls to STEM

Engineergirl.org Draws Girls to STEM Engineergirl.org Draws Girls to STEM Engineergirl.org Draws Girls to STEM The National Academy of Engineering launched the EngineerGirl website in 2001 in an effort to draw middle school girls to the field of engineering.It welches meant to be an online presence to help girls understand engineering, what engineers do, and how it matters to daily life, says Simil Raghavan, the academys program officer, and a biological engineer, who manages the site.But the internet has changed enormously since then. A simple website is elend enough to entice viewers, to say nothing of steering them to specific careers. An essay competition and QA sessions were added to make the site mora interactive, but the website was still not reaching as many girls as Raghavan and her team thought it could. The kind of traffic they were seeing suggested a new course of action.Image EngineerGirlOver the past few years, even though the site is targeted to middle school girls, a lot of visitors are from high schools, Raghavan says. Maybe middle school girls were spending less time on the internet. Maybe the high school girls already knew a little more about engineering and might be able to share their knowledge. So the Ambassadors program is an attempt to bring those two groups together, Raghavan says.For You 7 Ways to Move Up the Ladder with a STEM DegreeTo become an ambassador, high school girls living in the U.S. must submit a proposal about how they intend to reach younger girls in their community. The students will also need an adult sponsor to help them carry out their mission. Raghavan and her colleagues will select five or six entrants to put their ideas in motion. Each project will be offered $250 in funding (and projects that might need more will be assisted with fundraising). As they proceed, the high schoolers will report to EngineerGirl about how their projects are developing.Then well work with them at crafting a final report so they have a re cord of what theyve done, and be able to champion it, says Raghavan.There will be web conferences throughout the year and the final report will be published on EngineerGirl.org. The selected students will also be funded to attend the Society of Women Engineers Annual Conference. The student that has made the biggest impact will be awarded a $1000 scholarship.The program is specifically looking for projects that attempt to reach girls that wouldnt otherwise be reached.Certain communities have access to STEM and other communities dont, says Raghavan. The best projects will be the ones that explain the need We are going to do something that will help girls that would not otherwise be involved in engineering. Or maybe someone says My community has this great STEM program, but all the people attending are boys. I want to make sure we get a group of girls. I dont know how that would work, but thats the advantage of having the girls work where they arethey live there.So far, the entrants h ave followed the suggestions of the website, proposing that they work with the Girl Scouts, start a STEM club at the local library, and start engineer clubs at schools. I was surprised by how many freshman are applying, Raghavan says. Theyve been to summer camps and have had some exposure to engineering. And they have strong recommendations.This summer, EngineerGirl will pick the winning projects. If they are as effective as hoped, Raghavan and her colleagues have every intention of expanding the program. Needless to say, theres work to be done before then.This is the very first year, Raghavan says, so there are a lot of moving parts.Michael Abrams is an independent writer.Read MoreCreative Teaching Prepares Students for EngineeringAn Engineering Education Should Never EndNew Skills for the New World of Engineering For Further DiscussionThe best projects will be the ones that explain the need We are going to do something that will help girls that would not otherwise be involved in e ngineering. Simil Raghavan, National Academy of Engineering

Air Force Basic Training Initial Uniform Issue

Air Force Basic Training Initial Uniform IssueAir Force Basic Training Initial Uniform IssueTwo or three days after arrival at Air Force Basic Military Training (AFBMT), youll be marched to the troop supply area, where you will receive your initial uniform issue. The word from several recent basic training graduates is that this process is no fun at all. It seems that the kind folks who work there are not very kind. In fact, most recent graduates describe these folks as mean as hell. In any event, you will be sized using a scientific method (theyll look at you and say, you wear a medium. However, you are required to try everything on before youre finished. What You Will Be Issued During Your Session In addition to your uniform, youll receive several other items of clothing and accessories 1 Duffle Bag6 Briefs or boxers (guys)4pr Cotton Socks4pr Wool Socks5 Brown T-shirts2 Towels1 Belt1 Belt Buckle2 PC Shorts1 Sweat Pants1pr Running Shoes4 BDU Trousers4 BDU Shirts2 BDU Caps1pr Com bat Boots1pr Leather Gloves2 PC T-shirts1 Sweat Shirt For women, you can purchase bras and panties at the Troop Mall on the same day as your uniform issue. Once youve gotten your issue, youll place everything into the duffle bag and leave. You would think it would make sense to march straight back to the dormitory, and put everything away in inspection order. No, that wouldnt make the T.I.s happy. Instead, youll be marched to your next appointment that day, having to march in formation while carrying that heavy duffle bag. In fact, youll carry that duffle bag with you the rest of the morning (or afternoon if you had an afternoon uniform issue). Once you finally get your new belongings back to the dormitory, youre not ready to put them away, yet. Everything has to be stenciled with your information (last name and your recruit number). That way, theres no fighting over whos hat belongs to who, and things wont get lost when they are washed (well, actually things always get lost when th ey are being washed). Oh, thats another tip youll want to make aya that the recruits who are on the laundry team like you. More About Air Force Basic Training? Surviving Air Force Basic Training

7 Ways to Improve Your Time Management Skills

7 Ways to Improve Your Time Management Skills7 Ways to Improve Your Time Management Skills In todays workplace, weve all got a million and one things to do. How, exactly, are you supposed to balance them all- and still clock out at fewer than, say, 60 hours a week? Youd have to seriously hone your time-management skills to do it. And to find out how, we turned to the people who we know have a lot on their plates CEOs. Heres what they (and other big bosses) think you can do to best manage your time. Its a clich, but you can make yourself a morning person . If youre passionate about what you do, you can get yourself out of bed. You only need to wake up at 6 a.m. every day to find new time which can be amazingly productive, and by doing those essential morning tasks before 7a.m.- like responding to urgent, overnight schmelzglass, catching up on the latest industry news, and coordinating your calendar- you can take advantage of the rest of the world sleeping and comp lete those tasks without interruption. - Jack Barmby, Founder and CEO of GnattaI keep to-do list of short-term and long-term goals that Im constantly shuffling around. Having a birds eye view of my responsibilities allows me to make quick decisions about whats next. Being flexible about your priorities and responding quickly when they need to change is important. - Kelsey Doorey, founder and CEO of Vow To Be ChicThe first thing I do when I get up in the morning is I dont get angeschlossen and I dont open my email. If I do, Im lost for the rest of the day. Instead, I make a to-do list for the day , usually yesterdays notes and memory. Then I prioritize that list- I mark whats urgent, what must be done by end of day, and what can wait. Then I get started. - Niki Radisic, founder of Krazy Fish Make time for yourself to recharge and re-prioritize. Im the first one to admit that while the number of responsibilities outweighs the minutes of the day by many multipliers and how important yet difficult it is to juggle them all successfully, Ive become more conscious of the need to take the time to keep myself at my peak. By focusing on the here and now- such as turning off my phone when focusing on my family- and keeping myself healthy, and constantly re-prioritizing, I can be at my best to help everyone else reach their highest purpose and potential. - Daniel Cane, CEO of Modernizing Medicine and co-founder of Blackboard, Inc.Take time to sharpen your ax- by which I mean, actually take the time to rest. I am a recovering workaholic who used to put in 15 hour days seven days a week, always thinking there was something else that I could do to be more effective. Little did I know that this was very inefficient. These days, I recommend doing a fully focused 50-minute sprint on your one task at hand, and then after that all-out assault, take 10 minutes up and away from your work area standing up and moving around and not worrying about work at all. Th is makes it easier to plot your day into hour intervals, but also keeps you and your team going strong. - alexanderplatz Moen, cofounder and president of Match Made Coffee 4. Take advantage of your travel time. Every train, plane, or Uber you take is a chance to get some quality alone time to push things through. Whether its following up with people youve just met or some crucial product planning, take advantage of being away from your laptop to get things done. Also, if this is the window you need to sing happy birthday to a close friend down the phone, dont be embarrassed to do so. You can even ask the Uber driver to join in. - Jack Barmby, Founder and CEO of GnattaThe most important time management strategy I use is to maximize my down time. When Im on a plane, train, bus or boat, I am working on offline work that is important to my business. I save offline work for those trips and get it out of the way. Because I am in one spot and cant do much else, I am less distr acted and get some of my best work done. - Kean Graham, CEO of MonetizeMoreIve found the best way to accomplish everything I need to in a day is to eat the frog. Eating the frog is doing a hard task you are dreading. It keeps you from putting it off and when you finish, its easy to carry that momentum to your easier tasks. I started getting twice as much done every day once I implemented this. - Max Page, founder of U.S. based CouponHippoGet the things you hate to do completed first. Stop putting things off until tomorrow or the next day. Get the calls, the reports, the meeting with the nasty client all out of the way first and the remainder of the day is easier. So if you have several things planned, look at your list to start the day and begin with those things that are most difficult, time consuming, or simply a pain in the neck. No one likes doing expense reports, calling difficult clients, or calling past-due clients but when you conduct these difficult tasks first, the day will go much easier. - Drew Stevens, CEO of Orca CommunicationsWhen I set to start my business, I became the accountant, administrative assistant, project manager, writer, business developer, and co-boss. That felt crushingly overwhelming because I always had something to do. To save myself from becoming a scatterbrained mess, I began practicing time blocking. Each day, I block out 30-minute to one-hour chunks of time to focus on one task- emphasis on one. That way, I can concentrate on one thing and do it well without getting distracted and ultimately doing a poor job across the board. - Caroline Maurer, cofounder of Witty Kitty Set timers and give yourself a limited amount of time to accomplish some tasks. That way you dont let yourself get caught in the perfection cycle and let one task take your whole day. Figure out what a reasonable amount of time is for that task, set the timer, and work fast so you get it done in time or early. - Kimberly Giles, president a nd CEO of Claritypoint Coaching and Identiology Inc.Its important to manage distractions. Happily, open floor plans are starting to go out of style, which is good because they were always disastrous for work that requires high concentration. But if you need to protect your physical space, do so. If you need to talk to your coworkers about what the appropriate times to interrupt you are, do so. And manage your electronic interruptions too. Do away with the mobile notifications. Set your email client to check manually, so you can set times for inbox-clearing, rather than having it rule your day. - William Gadea, founder of IdeaRocket