Please note that the workshop will take place over five days in July. The exact start and end times have not been determined.

Please note that the workshop may be shortened to span five days instead of six days.

Small World Initiative Panel Discussion at the National Coalition of Girls' Schools' Global Forum on Girls' Education – 10:30am, Tuesday, February 9, 2016 at the Marriott Marquis in New York, New York, USA

Panel – From Classroom to Career: Innovative STEM Curriculum to Plug the Leaky Pipeline

Research shows that girls start out strong in STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math – courses but lose interest along the way, often referred to as the "leaky pipeline." This engaging panel will discuss an innovative discovery-based course – the Small World Initiative™ (SWI) – formulated at Yale University to encourage and retain girls in STEM and what additional actions your school can take to help links students to STEM careers. Formulated at Yale University in 2012, SWI centers around an introductory biology course that engages students in original hands-on laboratory and field research while addressing a worldwide health threat – the diminishing supply of effective antibiotics. As part of SWI, students from around the world isolate bacteria from soil in their local environments in the hunt for new antibiotics. SWI is already in 99 colleges and universities around the world and will be training its first cohort of high school instructors this summer.

Join us as Erika Kurt, President and CEO of the Small World Initiative, moderates an interactive panel discussion between pioneering science educators and industry. Barbara Fishel, Dean of Studies at The Hockaday School, will share how she is piloting SWI’s innovative science curriculum at the high school level and the impact it is having on her students. Nichole Broderick will discuss how to harness the power of active learning to achieve both educational and scientific goals and insights from Yale’s Center for Scientific Teaching. Finally, industry expert Janelle Anderson will weigh in on what your school can do to link girls to careers in STEM and build relationships between your school and industry.

Moderator

Erika Kurt, President & CEO, Small World Initiative

Panelists

Barbara Fishel, Dean of Studies/Director of Research, The Hockaday School

Nichole Broderick, Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and Institute for Systems Genomics, University of Connecticut; formerly Associate Research Scientist, Yale University

Janelle Anderson – Partner, CTI Life Sciences Fund; formerly Managing Director, MRL Venture Fund, Merck

The Small World Initiative is partnering with the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) to offer a workshop for Iraqi and Jordanian educators that will be held at the Jordan University of Science and Technology from June 7 to 11 in Irbid, Jordan.

Just after ASM-CUE, SWI will hold its summer Training Workshop. This event will take place at National University in Costa Mesa, California from June 2-6, 2015. The hands-on workshop will train participants in the experimental setup of SWI as well as promote discussions on course design and assessments. Research scientists and educators with an interest in microbiology and undergraduate STEM education are encouraged to apply.

This spring 2015, SWI will be holding its second annual symposium and conference at the American Society for Microbiology Conference for Undergraduate Educators (ASM-CUE) in Austin, TX from May 28-31, 2015. Pilot Partner Jean Schmidt from the University of Pittsburgh is organizing the event. Partner Instructors from the US and Canada will each bring one or two undergraduate students to share research findings, promote ongoing curriculum development, and make plans for 2015-2016.