The National Girls Collaborative Project and the CryptoClub Project from the University of Illinois at Chicago are seeking Collaboratives to participate as CryptoClub hubsites, pending funding from the National Science Foundation. CryptoClub developers will train hubsite staff to train CryptoClub program leaders. Collaborative hubs will recruit, train, and support programs in their regions to use the CryptoClub curriculum-in-middle-grade afterschool programs. Some of you have participated in other network programs such as WaterBotics. This follows a similar model. Your collaborative would be listed in the grant to increase the competitiveness of this specific proposal. Cryptography, the science of secret messages is an intriguing STEM topic and an important application of mathematics. The CryptoClub Project develops materials to teach cryptography and mathematics. The CryptoClub Afterschool Curriculum was developed with NSF support and has been nationally field-tested. A typical CryptoClub afterschool program lasts about 16-20 sessions and uses games, treasure hunts, and other informal activities to engage students in cryptography and mathematics. It applies topics from the middle-school curriculum, such as decimals and percents, division with remainder, common factors, negative numbers and pattern recognition. It also includes computer cryptography games and activities from the CryptoClub website<http://www.cryptoclub.org/>. Please see attached letter for more information. Please respond to me by October 31, 2014 if you are interested and/or you have questions. (If you are included in the grant application and it is funded; but your Collaborative circumstances have changed, you can withdraw with no penalty.) Karen Karen Peterson, Chief Executive Officer National Girls Collaborative www.ngcproject.org