The National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) and the CryptoClub Project from the University of Illinois at Chicago are seeking Collaboratives to participate as CryptoClub hub sites, pending funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF). CryptoClub developers will train and support hub site staff. Hub sites will recruit, train, and support programs in their regions to use the CryptoClub curriculum in middle-grade afterschool programs. 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 cryptography games and activities from the CryptoClub website, CryptoClub.org<http://cryptoclub.org/>. Some of you were part of this proposal last year. It was rated highly and one of the strongest elements was the involvement of Collaboratives from the NGCP. We have revised the proposal to address reviewer comments as well as included additional elements to increase the strength of the project design. The attached provides additional information. The design of this follows our "Network Project" structure. Collaboratives will be trained and then expected to conduct workshops in their state. This is a tight turnaround, but the letter of commitment template will make it easy. If you are interested in being included in the proposal as a CryptoClub hub site, please send me an e-mail by Monday, October 26, 2015. You will be sent a template for a letter of commitment, to be returned by Wednesday, October 28, 2015. Here is the NSF Solicitation link as well: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2015/nsf15593/nsf15593.htm. Please contact me if you have questions. Karen Karen Peterson, Chief Executive Officer The National Girls Collaborative www.ngcproject.org<http://www.ngcproject.org> @ngcproject