Work in Progress: Development and Implementation of an After-school STEM Curriculum for Kindergarten to 4th Grade Students at Girls Inc. through the “Cummins Powers Women“ Initiative

As part of our commitment to achieve gender equality and eliminate the barriers that hinder the advancement of girls and women in the communities we serve, Cummins Inc. developed the "Cummins Powers Women" initiative in 2018. Through this initiative, Cummins has partnered with non-profits from around the world such as Girls Inc. in North America and RISE UP in South America, Africa and Asia to establish programs focused on teaching and mentoring young women and girls, encouraging entrepreneurship and providing leadership training. One such program is the "A World in Motion" (AWIM) after-school STEM Curriculum that Cummins employees have developed for Kindergarteners to 4th Graders in collaboration with the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and our community partner Girls Inc. of Johnson County. Through this after-school Project-based Learning (PBL) program, we aim to inspire young female students in kindergarten and elementary school to pursue a career in the STEM fields by exposing them to simple, age-appropriate engineering projects such as building a jet-toy cart and designing and testing a skimmer. This work-in-progress paper will describe in detail the specific objectives of the AWIM program, the curriculum development strategy, and outlines our future plans to assess the effectiveness of the pedagogies employed in achieving the program outcome of encouraging young women to continue developing their science and engineering skills and eventually gravitate towards STEM careers.