Project Profile

SRI International (SRI), Girls Incorporated of Alameda County (GIAC), and TERC are collaborating to create and implement Girls InnovaTE3: Girls Innovating with Technology as Entrepreneurial Environmental Engineers. InnovaTE3, a Strategies project in NSF's ITEST program, is an out-of-school youth-centered curriculum for 8th through 11th grade girls. Within this context, InnovaTE3 will investigate the strategy of integrating innovation practices with interest-driven science learning for girls, evaluating the potential of the strategy to accomplish five goals: (1) developing and applying girls understanding of core concepts in Earth systems science content to an engineering design challenge, (2) developing girls interest and confidence in pursuing additional STEM content knowledge, (3) increasing girls’ fluency in the innovation process and preparedness for the engineering workforce, (4) enhancing girls knowledge of a variety of STEM careers and interest in pursuing a specific STEM career, and (5) building staff capacity in after-school sites to engage girls in integrating innovation with science content.