E-mail Exchange and Team Challenge

E-mail Exchange and Team Challenge

E-mail Exchange

Suggestions for successful e-mail exchanges:

• Send a test e-mail to establish communication and ensure that e-mail addresses are correct.
• Communicate that the goal for students and mentors is to exchange e-mail a minimum of two times per week.
• Ask students to carbon copy the school coordinator for the first two weeks. This helps the coordinator ensure that regular communication has been established.
• Provide the school coordinator's e-mail address to mentors and instruct them to promptly contact the school if they are not hearing from a student.
• Limit the exchange to a 6-8 week period. We have found that 6 weeks is ideal.
  

Team Challenge

The team challenge developed out of the need to help students and mentors shape the e-mail conversation around the objectives of the program. The structured conversation during the e-mail exchange is designed to encourage discussion relating to technical careers, the use of math and science in the workplace, and current trends in technology.

The team consists of a mentor and two students from different schools.

Team Questions

Week 1:

• The mentor will provide an overview of her job and how she prepared for it, her education and experience.
• She will ask the students what areas of math, science and technology they are interested in, or familiar with.
• She will share the Job Talk web page with the students. If her job is represented on the site she will proved them the link to the job. If not, she will share with them job positions she interacts with regularly.

Week 2:

• The mentor will share her weekly responsibilities and how she prioritizes what to do first, second, third, and so on.
• She will ask the students how they plan their days and make decisions about what should be done first, second, and third when it comes to balancing school, family, and fun.

Week 3:

• The mentor will describe the different teams she is working with and the end goals for the teams. She will share some of the skills needed for successful teams.
• She will ask about the teams or groups of people the students work with at school and to describe the purposes for each of the teams.
• The team will also discuss podcasts, what they are, if they listen to them, and ethical issues of podcasting.

Week 4:

• The mentor will share the math, science, or technology discovery/invention made by a female that has left the greatest impression on her. She will share if she has any patents, inventions, or suggestions of the month/quarter.
• She will ask the students to review a Web site with great women of science and share what surprised them the most about the women and why.

Week 5:

• The team will discuss blogs, what they are, if they have one or read them regularly, and ethical issues of related to blogging.

E-Mail Mentoring: Overview