EdLab Group Programs
The National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) is designed to strengthen the capacity, impact and sustainability of girl-serving science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs throughout the US. Through collaboration among organizations, institutions and businesses committed to expanding participation of women in STEM, these projects will have a much greater chance of maintaining interest and participation within their regions. The NGCP Program Directory, an online collaboration tool, contains over 2,250 STEM programs' resources and needs. Collectively, these entries represent more than 5 million girls, with more programs being added daily. There are currently 21 Collaboratives, serving 33 states, facilitating collaboration between more than 8,800 organizations. The NGCP continues to grow geographically and plans to add at least 8 more Collaboratives over the next three years.
The Computer Science Collaborative Project (CSCP) uses the most successful elements of NGCP to connect the various alliances and K-12 outreach organizations. The CSCP will establish two Collaboration Centers to increase capacity of K-12 computer science-focused outreach programs. One center will be led by the Computing Alliance for Hispanic-Serving Institutions and focus on increasing representation of Hispanic students. The second center is being led by the University of Washington’s Access Computing, and focused on increasing representation of students with disabilities. The Collaboration Centers conduct outreach to K-12 programs, offer opportunities for programs to network, share resources, collaborate, and offer professional development and mini-grants.
TechREACH is designed to excite middle school kids from predominantly minority and low-income areas about science, technology and engineering. We develop curriculum on topics such as Renewable Energy, Augmented Reality, and Robotics to engage students, build their skills and promote self-confidence. We train teachers in leading exciting, hands-on activities based on best practices in student engagement.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
EdLab Group has received the Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility four consecutive years. The EdLab Group prides itself on providing employees with flexible work arrangements that maximize technology tools, time and resources while maintaining a high level of effectiveness.
Through in person events, webinars, newsletters, and our Program Directory, we network more than 8,000 organizations together across the nation with our National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP). Our 2010 annual survey showed that 64% of respondents believed the NGCP has the potential to create the regional tipping point for gender equity in STEM, and that the tipping point would be reached through the network and collaborations formed in this project, by increasing opportunities for girls to engage in STEM, and by bringing attention and energy to issues of gender equity in STEM. One survey responded stated, “having a large network gives each individual/local organization more leverage, so the more (STEM programs) collaborate and present our ideas as one entity, the more students benefit.” Collectively, the NGCP Program Directory represents more than 5.2 million girls in grades K-12.
At present, our biggest challenge is to diversify our funding stream to include individual donors, private and public foundations and fee-for-service opportunities. This diversification will provide a more balanced approach to sustaining and delivering our high-quality programs. Additionally, while each of our projects is well known in their intended markets, we have a need to strengthen the EdLab Group brand as a whole.