NASA's Virtual Take Our Daughters to Work Day was developed to increase girls interest in math, science, and technology and encourage them to pursue careers in these fields. NASA is not alone as a workplace that employs a far lower number of women than men in engineering, technology, math related and management areas. Consider these facts:

• Parents purchase technology twice as much for their sons as their daughters, while at school only a quarter of the students using computers during free time were girls (Girl Tech, "What's the Difference?," 2000)
• Girls consistently rate themselves lower than boys on computer ability, and have less positive attitudes toward computers. (American Institutes for Research, Gender Gaps: Where Schools Still Fail Our Children, 1998)
• There are 2 female CEO's in the Fortune 500 and a total of 6 in the Fortune 1000. (Catalyst, Facts on Women.)

Bill Vance is an electrical engineer at NASA Langley and is hearing impaired. His team worked to develop a device that can signal disasters, such as fire, for the deaf and allows him to work with a disability.

Dr. Alan Pope, a behavioral researcher, invented biofeedback technologies that aid people with Diabetes and children with Attention Deficit Disorders.

How do you participate in NASA's Virtual Take Our Daughters to Work Day?

1. Read through the schedule of activities and planned events. See which mentors match your interests and which times are convenient for you to join us. Team up with a girl or a collaborative group and join our Technological Innovations Contest.

2. Tell a parent or teacher that you want to participate and have them review the Children's Online Privacy and Protection information.

3. Review the Forum and Chat instructions if you plan on participating in these events.

4. Review the Webcast instructions if you plan on participating in these events. Be sure to test the technologies involved and that you have them available on the machine you will be using. You will need Real Player. If you do not know if you have this, try opening up an archived webcast. If it opens and plays fine, then you are all set. If it doesn't, then you need to download RealPlayer. It is free and instructions for downloading are on the Webcast instruction pages.

5. Prepare yourself for the event by reading the featured mentor's profile and related resources. Print out or bookmark the profile and the event URL. To have the best chance that your question will be answered, follow these guidelines:
Make sure your question cannot be answered by the existing info.
Make sure your question is relevant to the mentor's work.
Make sure your question requires a brief explanation the mentor can provide online.

6. Join the event. Remember to continually refresh your screen to see the ongoing discussion and to read the all dialogue before you post a question. (Your question may have already been asked and answered.)

7. Enter the Technology Innovations contest. Use these resources to get ideas about inventions NASA researchers and scientists have created:
NASA Spinoffs - Spinoffs are technologies that are created for one idea and then transferred to another invention.
Spin-Offs From Space - Other NASA Inventions