| Southern
Growth Idea Bank
| South Carolina Educational Television, Tech Team Program
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Relatively few American women pursue careers in technology-related fields. Women are more inclined to do so if they are exposed to professional role models at an early age, or learn about technology first-hand. The isolation that comes with growing up in the country or a small town may leave girls without an understanding of the career options available to them. The mission of the South Carolina Educational Television (SCETV) is to enhance educational opportunities for all the citizens of the state. With this in mind, the station established the TECH TEAM program in 2002 to cultivate an enthusiasm for science and technology in middle school girls of rural South Carolina.
Funded by The National Science Foundation, TECH TEAM is a three-year program that consists of after-school technology clubs, workshops in computer applications at SCETV and Summer Technology Camps, also held at SCETV. Partners include the Girl Scouts and the College of Education at the University of South Carolina. TECH TEAM also trains the club facilitators—teachers and Girl Scout leaders—in technology, project based curriculum development and gender equitable education.
TECH TEAM currently involves 45 girls from three rural South Carolina schools— Fairfield Middle in Fairfield County, Hopkins Middle in Lower Richland County, and Johnakin Middle in Marion County—all “critical needs” districts. In Marion County, which has the state’s highest unemployment rate at 18 percent, three-quarters of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, more than half come from single parent homes, and 75 percent are minority. In Fairfield County unemployment is the second highest in the state and 41 percent of the adults have less than a high school education. Although Richland County is home to the state capital, Hopkins Middle School is in an underserved, largely minority, rural community.
TECH TEAM increases girls’ technological fluency through a progressive sequence of activities in a hands-on, project-based setting. In the first year the girls videotaped interviews with local women in the fields of science, math, technology and engineering. They learned informal and Internet-based research techniques, and edited their videos using computers. In the second year they learned Web design. Now, in the third year, the girls are creating educational computer animations. The project culminates this summer with a science fair at SCETV. SCETV has documented TECH TEAM from the start in order to create a DVD for teacher professional development.
The impact of TECH TEAM goes beyond gender equity considerations to universal issues of technology education, teacher training, adolescent development, design of after-school programs and partnerships between schools and public television stations.
Practice posted May, 2005. |
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