ASM+
The Girls Inc. Experience empowers girls to succeed. Girls Inc. provides girls with trusting mentoring relationships, a girls-only environment, and research-based, hands-on programming. Three critical goals drive our programming: to help girls achieve healthy lives, succeed academically, and acquire the life skills needed to prepare them for adulthood. We work to ensure that girls are confident and interested in math.
Why is a math program for girls important?
Many students do not make the connection between studying mathematics and future job and career opportunities. Many students who decided not to take mathematics and science classes said they did not think they needed them for success outside of school. This is despite the fact that a basic understanding of math is essential for all individuals to be productive members of society and to function in our increasingly technological world. What are some of the real world benefits to knowing math? People who take more math courses:
- earn more money
- are better able to estimate costs when they shop
- are well-informed consumers
- are skilled at interpreting medical findings
- can understand how to do their taxes
About the Program
Participation in ASM+ (After-School Math Plus) has a positive impact on students' skills, confidence and interest in math. The program is designed to help students find the math in everyday experiences and create awareness about the importance of math skills for future educational choices and career options. An emphasis on career connections and role models is integrated throughout the activities. The program engages students in grades 3-8 who are attending after school programs:
- ArtMath Students explore the ways in which art and math interconnect by studying the art of two 20th century artists - M.C. Escher and Piet Mondrian - and learning about the work of mathematician David Brewster. They create kaleidoscopes and experience first-hand the role of tessellation, symmetry, asymmetry, and measurement - all essential math skills and concepts.
- Built Environment Students explore the immediate environment inside and outside, looking at windows, doors, building, streets, and fences with a mathematical eye. They make their own metric measuring tapes, collect data, convert it to scale on graph paper, and draw representational maps using scale and symbols. Students use what they have learned about scale, measurement, and their immediate built environment to create a blueprint for an ideal community, incorporating ideas of social justice into their designs.
- Jump Rope Math Students learn essential math skills while jumping rope