California Program Works To Attract Girls To STEM Classes

PBS NewsHour (12/29, 7:34 p.m.) runs a segment profiling a program called Techbridge in at Frick Middle School in Oakland, California, intended to attract girls to taking STEM courses. Much of the piece focuses on the troubled neighborhood, and profiles science teacher Kevin Eastman, who weekly "spends two hours at Techbridge, which pays him, using grant money, to hook kids on learning. ... Techbridge is enthusiastically endorsed by Oakland school officials." Meanwhile, PBS adds, Techbridge founder Linda Kekelis is show saying, "A lot of the girls that we work with never think about becoming an engineer or being a computer programmer. For girls from more disadvantaged areas and under-resourced schools, they do have less access to role models." Video of this segment can be seen here and here.