On our Ada Lovelace Day episode of the Mozilla Curriculum Workshop, guests Liza D. Platae, Danielle Robinson, Zannah Marsh, and June Ahn joined us to discuss the accomplishments, innovations, and challenges faced by women leaders (past and present) in STEM-related fields.

• Liza D. Platae is a Mozilla Club Captain in Mexico who works to create technology education pathways for women in corporations and non-government organizations (NGOs).
• Danielle Robinson is a cell biologist and Neuroscience PhD candidate at Oregon Health and Science University, and a community organizer.
• Zannah Marsh is a Learning Strategist for Mozilla, working with the Science Lab program, who designs and develops instructional materials and experiences.
• June Ahn is an Associate Professor of Learning Sciences/Educational Technology at New York University, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, who researches how technology and information can enhance the way we learn.

You can watch the entire episode here:

After naming our women role-models in STEM (including Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper, and Carol Shaw, et al.) and talking about entry points and pathways for women and girls in science and leadership, we prototyped two different activities for connecting science with everyday life.
We brainstormed ideas for a collecting and sorting project using kids’ own collections as data sets. We also thought of conversational prompts for parents and children to use during family activities (like a trip to the zoo or game night) that encouraged them to make observations and predictions and to draw conclusions about the world around them.
We also talked about iterating on maker events to make STEM learning opportunities tangible and visible to girls interested in the field.
You can revisit our notes here: https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/curriculum-workshop-october-11-2016.
Who are your favorite women leaders in STEM-related fields? How would you improve our prototypes and develop them further?
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