The Cambridgeport School successfully began an offshoot of Science Club for Girls in 2001 starting small in grades K, 1 and 2, and eventually expanding to the present day K-6. The clubs are eight sessions long in both fall and spring, and each semester culminates in a Science Fair where the girls display, explain, and celebrate what they have learned over the previous weeks.

We have 8th graders serving as Junior Assistants. Their duties include not only helping the volunteers with the curriculum but also being responsible for collecting the girls from the classrooms, leading snack in the cafeteria, and taking them up to the club rooms. This added leadership role has given them a sense that they are an integral part of our club, and we have seen their feeling of responsibility grow.

Our mission is similar to that of the King Open School, and includes increasing the number of minority girls in the clubs. We accomplish this by outreach to families via telephone and personal contact. Compared to enrollment before this outreach, the number of minority girls has increased by 90%. From the initial sign up to the final enrollment we can see what a critical difference this personal outreach makes. In the early stages of a club, this outreach is critical to getting parents of color involved.

We have had dozens of positive reports from parents saying that their girls come home fired up about Science Club for Girls. Recently, while working on a Lego Car project in her regular classroom, one of our 5th graders confidently stated, "Oh, I know all about how gears work...I learned it in Science Club for Girls."