FEMMES is an educational outreach program for young girls in 4th-6th Durham schools.  The goal of FEMMES is to give girls hands-on experience in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields where women are greatly under-represented.  By using female volunteers, we hope to demonstrate that women can and do excel in these fields.  Through engaging hands-on activities, girls are able to learn in a supportive environment.  We hope to build our participant’s confidence in their academic skills and to empower them to pursue their dreams.  

We adhere to and comply with Duke’s anti-discrimination policy.

The deadline for registration and the postmark date for legal releases is Saturday, January 25th. This program will be filled as applications are received (rolling). The program is free for all participants.  You are eligible to register your student in ONE of our after school programs only if they are not a participant in our Saturday program, and only if they attend the school you register her for.
           
On this registration form, you will find a brief, optional research questionnaire that we would like your student to complete. These questionnaires will ask about their interest in science and her overall FEMMES experience.  The questionnaires will have 10-15 questions and will take only 5-10 minutes to complete. Your student's responses on the questionnaires will be linked to them by a number only accessible by the investigators of this research (the 5 program directors). Thus, when the questionnaires are reviewed, your student’s name will only be initially attached to the data before the investigators separate the name from the responses, and assign them an identification number. We may categorize results by grade, school, whether  your student has attended FEMMES in previous years, and which activities they attends at FEMMES, but no responses will be identifiable to your student as an individual. We will also send home a follow-up questionnaire in April to see if FEMMES has had an impact on your student’s interest in science. Your student is not required to complete these questionnaires but we encourage them to do so because the findings will be used to help us make FEMMES better for the future.

In this FREE 6-week after-school program, 4th-6th grade students will participate in hands-on activities introducing basic chemistry, biology, physics, engineering, and mathematics concepts.  Students will be placed in small groups with a Duke undergraduate female mentor who will help them with the activities and gaining an understanding of fundamental concepts.  
Some example concepts include:
Energy
                       -examined by building waterwheels
States of Matter
-chemistry demonstrations
-dry ice experiments
-liquid nitrogen experiments
Newton’s Laws
                -laws of motion experiments

Please see below for the dates of your school’s program.

Forest View
     Monday 3:45-4:45
     1/27, 2/10, 2/24, 3/16, 3/30, 4/6
Sandy Ridge
     Tuesday 2:15-3:15
    1/28, 2/11, 2/25, 3/17, 3/31, 4/7
George Watts
    Wednesday 2:30-3:30
     1/29, 2/19, 2/26, 3/18, 4/1, 4/8
EK Powe
    Thursday 3:45-4:45
     1/30, 2/13, 2/27, 3/19, 4/2, 4/9
Morehead
     Wednesday 3:45-4:45
      1/29, 2/19, 2/26, 3/18, 4/1, 4/8

If you have any further questions or concerns please contact femmesatduke@gmail.com.