Curricula

Activities & Experiences

Make Your Own Box

All Levels

Narrative

One of the young women, Erin, mentioned that one of her secrets to completing her degree was by surrounding herself with people who believed in her. This commentary leads to the question: How does external and internal commentary shape our learning and career choices?

	Objectives Develop personal and educational empowerment skills for young women. Increase awareness of possible careers and career paths in the STEM professions. Enhance formative assessment skills so that young women and their mentors may continually identify learning strengths and hurdles. Materials Needed The Gender Chip Technology to show the film Enough boxes for format chosen Glue Art supplies Old magazines

Guided Experience

We can envision several ways to go about this project based on the participants. The objective of this experience is to allow participants to create a model about how internal and external feedback shapes our learning and career experiences. The big concept is to have participants create a box with external commentary on the outside and internal on the inside. Participants can create their own smaller boxes or work together in groups to create a giant appliance box. Participants would ideally create two boxes -- one with the internal and external feedback they are currently receiving and a second with the type of feedback they want to pay attention to. For example, some young women might hear external feedback regarding having a family and settling down and others might hear the external feedback that there is a way to balance family and careers. This feedback might be represented by words, magazine pictures or visual images of the participants choosing. Discussions surrounding this experience might include comparing how society expects women to behave or how young women envision a life that is different than the options society seems to be presenting.

This experience could be expanded upon by asking participants to create a play or dialogue based on the journey between the two boxes. What advice might a wise character offer a young woman traveling between the two boxes?