About 250 Master Teachers, guidance counselors, STEM educators, Girl Scout leaders and people interested in advancing awareness and interest in STEM careers registered for the Inspire! Premiere held virtually over the weekend. Based on Clarkson history professor Laura Ettinger’s game-changing work for the National Science Foundation that captures the essence of trailblazing American women in engineering, Inspire! is a collection of three short educational videos with an accompanying discussion guide that will empower middle school and early high school girls with the tools needed to overcome obstacles facing girls and women in STEM fields, such as a lack of confidence and discouragement from others.
The event also featured a conversation with the engineers featured in the videos, as well as producer Laura Ettinger and director Zac Miller, communication & media instructor at Clarkson, founder of Uncommon Image Studios, and creator of the videos and documentary.
The video series, and accompanying discussion guide to support dialogue with middle school and early high school students, are at http://www.clarkson.edu/inspire.
The trailblazing women featured in the videos are:
● Joanie Banks-Hunt
● Debra Dibble Boone
● Sheree Gibson
● Suzanne Hardie
● Kate Harper
● Susan Suhr
Each educational video features the real stories told by these accomplished women engineers. The videos, and the accompanying discussion guide, acknowledge structural challenges while encouraging middle school and early high school girls (at a time when their interest and confidence in the STEM fields often decreases) to develop resilience and understand potential obstacles they may face during their education and careers. The result is uplifting, relatable, authentic educational content that offers meaningful strategies to eliminate barriers for girls and women to enter and persist in engineering and related fields. The three educational videos are:
● Encourage! Leading Women Engineers Encourage the Next Generation: Leading women engineers encourage girls to do what they love, defy stereotypes, push through setbacks, and pursue engineering.
● Motivate! Motivational Messages from Accomplished Women Engineers: Accomplished women engineers inspire young women and give them advice about their future careers and lives.
● Educate! What is an Engineer? Perspectives of Trailblazing Women Engineers: Trailblazing women engineers explain what engineering is and debunk myths about the field.
The website also showcases an award-winning short documentary, Trailblazers: The Untold Stories of Six Women Engineers. This powerful documentary tells the stories of six trailblazing women engineers (the same women who are featured in the educational videos) as they share their experiences overcoming obstacles and paving the way for the next generation. Their stories help us to understand how individual women in engineering navigated the challenges they encountered, and how institutions might work to address those challenges. Trailblazers is aimed at adults and older high school students of all interests and backgrounds. Miller and Ettinger recently won a prestigious Award of Merit from The Impact DOCs Awards Competition for the Trailblazers documentary.