Each academic year, members of the NSU AAUW branch have been active in a program designed to further our goal of advancing gender equity for women and girls through research, education and advocacy. This program is called E-STEAM (Exploring Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) Project for Girls. To learn more about it and join us in our endeavor, email Program Manager Julie Torruellas Garcia jg1511@nova.edu
Summaries of our most current events are listed below:
Academic Year 2023-2024
On behalf of the Nova Southeastern University branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW-NSU), we extend our heartfelt gratitude for a generous grant from AAUW – Florida to help support our E-STEAM Project for Girls for the academic year 2023-2024. to take a look back on everything we have experienced this year, please click on the image below.
April 17, 2024
Our last session for the academic year 2023-2024 began with learning about the importance of clean drinking water facilitated by chemistry professor Dr. Maria Ballester. The girls performed water quality testing on 5 different samples of tap and filtered tap water from surrounding municipalities to measure the level of minerals and contaminants in the water.
After lunch, we enjoyed a look back over this year’s achievements presented by Dr. Julie Torruellas Garcia, professor of biology. We then celebrated with cake, participation certificates, and inspirational books on female empowerment.
For our final session, Undergraduate Senior Rejoice Kumar, a student in the college of Engineering and Computer Science, led a hand’s on activity in coding robots. The girls were able to program their robots to draw some interesting art work. Lucky for us the markers were washable, because some of those robots went a bit wild.
January 23, 2024
The NSU AAUW ESTEAM Project for Girls session held on January 23rd, 2024 was organized and led by the Undergraduate NSU AAUW student club leadership and members. The day started with a goal setting exercise where the students created vision boards. Next, they learned about the importance of self-care as they participated in a stress relieving Conscious Yoga retreat. During lunch catered by Chick-fil-A, undergraduate NSU student Majo Contreras presented her journey into the beauty industry and running “Highlight Beauty MC” on campus to teach the PACE girls about entrepreneurship. The day ended with a hands-on learning experience led by pre-med students where they participated in an interactive case study.
December 13, 2023
Marine biology was the focus for the E-STEAM Project for Girls session on December 13th, 2023. First, the PACE girls visited the Marine Environmental Education Center (MEEC) where they learned all about squid. Their attitudes shifted from initially being grossed out to becoming curios and engrossed in dissecting a squid. The girls identified different parts of the squid such as the ink sac, heart and pen. They then toured some of the other areas of MEEC and viewed marine life such as turtles and sea urchins.
Afterwards, the girls visited the NSU’s Oceanographic Center where they met with Dr. Amy Hirons and her Maters student Amanda Travers. Dr. Hirons took the girls into several labs to view ongoing experiments. In one of the labs, they learned about an experiment being done to demonstrate the effects of certain water pollutants on the growth and survival of coral. They then had the opportunity to use microscopes to view various types of plankton while learning about college and graduate school from Amanda who shared a little bit about her college experiences.
November 15 2023
The November 15, 2023 session of the E-STEAM Project for Girls was packed full of hands on experiences. The PACE girls visited the Agar Art Exhibit on display in the Alvin Sherman Library. Agar Art is an artistic display of colorful microbes. After the being inspired by the amazing Agar artwork created by NSU students and faculty on display, the PACE girls started on their own agar art under the supervision of Prof. Kandy Lopez-Moreno, associate professor of art; and Dr. Julie Torruellas Garcia, professor of biology. Dr. Garcia provided a quick overview of good versus bad bacteria while Prof. Lopez taught the students how to use bacteria as “paint” to create artwork on their petri dish “canvas”. Due to library rules, only ‘good’ bacteria was permitted for use in the painting (i.e., yogurt).
Dr. Garcia gathered all the painted petri dishes back for heated storage to give the bacteria time to grow. Below you can see some of the plates painted on day one and after 5 days of growing time.
After completing their scientific art projects, the PACE girls had an opportunity to hear from NSU student Lauren Levin. Lauren is enrolled in NSU’s Huizenga Business Innovation Academy, an integrated 3+1 program that seamlessly blends bachelors and masters degrees and includes running an on campus business as part of the program. Lauren shared her background and experience as an entrepreneur and small business owner of Sharkcuterie. The PACE and AAUW Club students were able to enjoy a box lunch created by Lauren’s business during the enthusiastic Q&A session about Lauren’s experiences.
The final activity of the day was a virtual reality experience presented by Linda Kidwell, associate professor of accounting. Dr. Kidwell uses a VR exercise in her masters auditing class and she instructed the PACE girls in the VR headsets and introductory lessons on mastering the technology
Throughout the day, NSU undergraduate students from our AAUW club joined the programming and interacted with the PACE girls.
October 18 2023
The October 18, 2023 session of the E-STEAM Project for Girls began with a tour of the NSU campus. NSU AAUW student club members led the tour while chatting with the PACE girls about college life. Next, Young Adult Services Librarian, Ruth Shaw, gave the girls a tour of the Alvin Sherman Library (ASL) and instructed them on how to use the library technology. After having lunch at the University Center, courtesy of the ASL, the girls participated in a career exploration workshop led by Kate Gittlemen, Director of STEM Initiatives and Outreach at NSU.
September 25 2023
The first session of NSU-AAUW’s E-STEAM Project for Girls was held on Monday, September 25th at the PACE Center for Girls, Broward. Dr. Julie Torruellas Garcia, director of the program, introduced the E-STEAM Project to 10 PACE students followed by a forensic science activity where the students learned how to investigate a crime scene and how to determine the culprit using blood typing.
After a lunch break, students then participated in a lesson on statistical sampling with Dr. Randi Sims. Discussion included why sampling was an important scientific technique to represent a population. Students then counted the colors of M&Ms using a sample size of 1, 2, and 8 bags and compared their proportion of colors to those provided by the manufacturer. Although quite yummy, they determined that even a sample of 8 bags was not a good representation of the population.
January 10, 2023:
The January E-STEAM Project for Girls session was focused on engineering. Dr. Julie Torruellas Garcia visited the PACE Center for Girls Broward and facilitated an activity about roller coasters. She started by teaching the students about potential versus kinetic energy and its importance when designing a roller coaster. The students conducted experiments to determine which type of marble, metal, glass or wood, would have the fastest speed on the track. Then they were challenged with making their own roller coaster designs to try to get the ball to go around a vertical loop.
November 8, 2022:
Dr. Maria Ballester continued the Forensic Science topic by teaching the PACE girls how to analyze fingerprint patterns to identify suspects at a crime scene. Dr. Teri Williams, assistant professor in the College of Student Affairs, combined science and art in a “Botany and Painting” project. Following a condensed lesson on the fields associated with botany, and a closer look at flowers, examining the fresh flowers provided as scientists prior to drawing and painting them. The PACE girls then painted the flowers on rocks.
October 11, 2022
Dr. Julie Torruellas Garcia, Director of E-STEAM Project for Girls and professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, gave a presentation on Forensic Science, specifically on how to determine the blood type from evidence at a crime scene. The PACE students were then put in groups to solve a hypothetical crime by doing a hands-on activity where they had to determine the blood type of (synthetic) blood samples from several suspects and the crime scene.
Kate Gittleman, Director of STEM Initiatives and Outreach at NSU, led a career exploration workshop to help the PACE students learn about different careers in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math).
September 20, 2022
Dr. Randi Sims, Professor of Management for the Huizenga College of Business visited the PACE Center for Girls to kick off the E-STEAM Project for Girls for the Academic Year 2022-2023. After introducing the girls to the goals of the program, the girls participated in a hands on activity involving M&Ms and sampling statistics. It was both educational and delicious.
