December Holiday Notes
Tuesday, December 17th, 2013
11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Rosa Linda’s Mexican Cafe, Denver CO
Submitted by: Dustin Goforth, REFORMA Secretary/Historian
Total Attendance of Membership: 5
Members in attendance: Dustin Goforth (Aurora Public Library), Karen Alfino (founder STEMgirls), Beth Crist (Colorado State Library), Jimena Sagaz (Colorado State University Libraries), Viviana Castillas (Denver Public Library)
- Introduction of attendees
- Presentation of STEMgirls by Karen Alfino
Karen gave a wonderful presentation on how she came into the idea of developing STEMgirls for the public. It is a program meant to teach girls about mathematics, science, and technology while getting them interested and excited about it. Karen is hoping to branch out her programs to include a number of libraries and help to get girls encouraged about Math.
One of her highlighted programs mentioned were the TSA labs (Take Stuff Apart) that gave girls a chance to look at the inner workings on mechanical devices. After the group has been given a chance to record the parts found inside the machine, it is usually ended with a mentor coming to speak with the girls via in person or Skype. These mentors are women usually in the IT industry and even a couple from NASA.
- After the presentation, everyone continued to speak for a while about the presentation, as well as other things that are going on with each other in the library world.
- Before everyone said their goodbyes, there was a small white elephant gift exchange. Thanks to everyone who attended and thanks again for Karen for the presentation. I hope everyone had a great holiday season!!!