Promoting Grit, Tenacity, and Perseverance - U.S. Department of ...

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− Galileo Learning Science Camps
(http://www.galileo-learning.com/). This camp offers
week-long summer sessions that inspire exploration
of science, art, and history. See callout box.
− Girls Inc (http://www.girlsinc.org/). This is a national
network of affiliates that provides out-of-school
programming for girls K-12 who are primarily from
low SES and underrepresented populations. It
encourages all girls to be strong, smart, and bold.
Girls Inc. programs address the “whole girl”—
personal, interpersonal, academic, health, and fitness.
The program Operation SMART develops girls’
enthusiasm for and skills in science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics. Through hands-on
activities, girls explore, ask questions, persist, and
solve problems. They also interact with women and
men pursuing STEM careers, helping girls to come to
view these careers as exciting and realistic options for
themselves. The STEM programs, Build IT and
InnovaTE^3 were also designed to encourage girls’
persistence in STEM learning and career pursuits.
− Project Exploration
(http://www.projectexploration.org/). This is a
nonprofit science education organization that works
to ensure that communities traditionally overlooked
by science—particularly minority youth and girls—
have access to personalized experiences with science
and scientists. Project Exploration targets students
who are open-minded and curious, regardless of
academic or economic standing, and gives them the
opportunity to explore a variety of scientific
disciplines alongside scientists in the workforce.
Galileo Learning Science Camps
At Galileo Learning summer camps
(http://www.galileo-learning.com/),
students use materials, tools and
technologies to create, test, and share
their ideas about science, developing
mindsets that promote perseverance.
The Galileo Innovation Approach
emphasizes an “innovation mindset,”
which includes five elements: (1) Be
Visionary (e.g., “I imagine things that
don’t yet exist”); (2) Be Courageous
(e.g., “I embrace challenges”); (3) Be
Collaborative (e.g., “I value the unique
perspectives of others”); (4) Be
Determined (e.g., “I persevere until I
achieve my goal”); and (5) Be Reflective
(e.g., “I take time to think about what is
and isn’t working in my design”). Camp
Galileo offers week-long sessions
around an imaginative story or theme
that inspires exploration of science, art,
and history. For example, during one
week about the art and science of
music, students engineered instruments
and created sculptures modeled on
Picasso’s deconstructed instruments or
mixed media collages inspired by artist
Romare Bearden. The program for
middle school students incorporates
technologies in activities such as digital
photography, filmmaking, video game
design, and LEGO robotics. Galileo
Camps were established in 2002 and
are available in the San Francisco Bay
Area for rising kindergarteners to eighth
graders.
Project Exploration students are more likely to graduate high school, go to college, and
major in science than their peers: over 96% of Project Exploration fieldwork participants
graduate from high school. These students are three times more likely to enroll in a 4-
year college than their peers, and over one third of alumni major in science in college.
Participants attributed their persistence to participation in these programs (Chi, Snow,
Goldstein, Lee, & Chung, 2010).
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