CyberMentor
CyberMentor is a science-based e-mentoring program that has as a project of the "National Pact for Women in MINT Careers" to rest, the interest and participation of girls in the MINT range ( M athematics , I nformatik , N aturwissenschaften and T echnology) to increase.
overview
For this purpose, the pupils (mentees) receive a personal mentor who works professionally in MINT (e.g. professor, engineer, programmer) or a student who is in the main course of a MINT course. They can regularly exchange information on academic content, career opportunities, suitable online resources on the MINT area and other topics with her via email. An internet community also offers the participants the opportunity to communicate with one another and in this way to build a network with other girls and women interested in MINT. The program offered throughout Germany is carried out by the Universities of Regensburg and Erlangen-Nuremberg . Extensive accompanying research is also part of the project. CyberMentor has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the European Social Fund since 2008 .
Project background
Current statistics on first-year students show that women are still severely underrepresented in the MINT area in Germany. The study and career choices of girls and women depend on various factors and influences, such as socialization effects or a lack of role models . Mentoring is therefore an extremely promising opportunity to give girls and women more support in the MINT area .
program
The CyberMentor project was launched in 2005 in Baden-Württemberg by Albert Ziegler (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg), Heidrun Stöger (University of Regensburg) and Diana Schimke. Initially it was financed by the local Ministry of Food, Rural Areas and Consumer Protection. It has been offered throughout Germany since the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the European Social Fund began funding in 2008. The target group of the program are students in the sixth to twelfth grade. CyberMentor comes in here because research has shown that interest in STEM drops from around the age of 12. Each participating mentee is looked after personally by a MINT mentor for over a year. The exchange between the student and the mentor takes place via email. In addition, the participants have access to a protected and moderated Internet community that offers another opportunity for cooperation and exchange through forums and chats. Schoolchildren of the same age with an interest in STEM and mentors are thus given the opportunity to communicate with one another even over greater distances. By creating personal profile pages within the community, your own interests are shown and potential conversation and interest partners can be easily identified. In this way, the participants gain an insight into various MINT disciplines and in this way determine how diverse MINT can be. Mentors get to know each other personally on excursions and offline meetings organized by CyberMentor . The program-internal newspaper "CyberNews", in which mentees and mentors can participate, also deals with topics from the MINT area. In regular training courses, the mentors are specially prepared for how to deal with the mentees correctly and thus have the opportunity to gain further qualifications.
Development of the number of participants
Between 2005 and 2008, 200 mentoring couples from Baden-Württemberg took part in the program. As of 2009, 800 couples will be accepted annually as a “komm-mach-mint” project offered throughout Germany.
Mentors
The well-known mentors of the project include the Jena computer scientist and dean Birgitta König-Ries and the Hanoverian earthquake researcher and editor of the Rote Blätter, Silke Hock.
See also
literature
- H. Stöger, A. Ziegler, D. Schimke: Mentoring: Theoretical backgrounds, empirical findings and practical applications . Pabst, Lengerich 2009.
- A. Ziegler, S. Schirner, D. Schimke, H. Stöger: Systemic promotion of girls in MINT: The example of CyberMentor . In: C. Quaiser-Pohl, Martina Endepohls-Ulpe (Ed.): Educational processes in the MINT area . Waxmann, Münster 2010, pp. 109–126.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lutz Prager: Jena's University remains the first address . In: Ostthüringer Zeitung . May 6, 2015, p. 1 .