This is a subject I see consistently being discussed online and in meetings I’m involved in as part of my job. That is, how do we get more girls/women involved in STEM? I don’t mean for this to be “THE” answer, but part of it for sure, and its not that difficult to implement.
So what is it?
Provide a broad, rich, integrated curriculum that includes science, engineering and inquiry based learning opportunities from an early age. Pre-school is not too early – and it is solid learning, so it should start there – but honestly I got students in 4th grade that came with almost no experience in those areas, and provided lots of STEM and/or project/problem based opportunities for 3 years, and my girls were just as involved, interested and motivated as the boys in STEM (and I know other teachers that have had similar experience).
Perhaps the problem of getting girls/women “involved in STEM” is that too often what we offer in elementary school just doesn’t include much in those areas. And certainly during the “No Child Left Behind” and Race To The Top” eras, the attitude was, and is, to narrow the focus during elementary school to language arts and math, and when students get to middle/junior high school “we’ll catch them up” in science, social studies, art and more (yeah, that’s worked well). AND to introduce students to STEM and “making” and other subjects as late as 7th grade … that’s when gender based biases, because students haven’t become interested before those impressionable, difficult years, become an issue. 7th grade is TOO LATE for students to be just finally introduced to those subjects, pedagogies and experiences.
So again, I’m not saying this one “intervention” would entirely solve the girls/women in STEM careers issue by itself, but I suspect it might be a pretty important piece of it.
What are your thoughts?
Learning is messy!
Thank you for posting this!
I am a student teacher in the Baltimore, MD area, and these are some questions that we are confronted with every day in our classes. Right now, we are taking a course on technology and a separate one on teaching science. I think one important way to move away from this problem is to invest time in our students early–just like you mentioned.
Children usually grow up with gender stereotyping, and those stereotyping are not even aware of it. When someone asks for some boys to help move or carry something, we are committing gender stereotyping. I think the same thing occurs with science and math. Usually we give boys books about space or robots, while we give girls books about cute animals and fairy tales. Every day we stereotype our students, and I believe this is where some of the trouble lay.
Instead, we need to provide engaging, inquiry based lessons that interest every student. I also agree that we cannot wait until 7th grade or even 6th grade; we cannot allow the time to pass when students are more resistant to social norms. Although this won’t change everything, being someone who has told myself that I do not like math and science for years, it has been a difficult transition. But if we provide students the opportunity to enjoy these subjects, then we can possible change the avenue in which female students follow in their future careers.
Thank you again!
Victoria
Thanks for the comment Victoria! Yes, I agree. And yet most of the initiatives to increase women’s role in STEM/science tend to focus on high school and sometimes middle school … urgh! Some folks just don’t get it! 🙂
Thank you for the post! We are NOT doing enough to include our women in the sciences and math. The statistics do not lie when we look at the sad evidence of how many women are in the sciences in higher education. Providing initiatives in higher education is nice but does not get the root of our issues. We need to start at the beginning and let them know that they are valued and capable.
Hi Tracy – Yep … but so many just don’t see that I think. Focus on language arts and math … but it’s the science, social studies, art and other pieces that connect students to STEM IMHO. And the earlier we start that the better it is for students …. and it’s a reason to read more and crunch numbers in math! I guess we just have to keep delivering that message and provide examples!
I strongly agree with this blog post. Drawing upon my own educational experiences, woman are not given equal opportunities to do certain things within the educational curriculum. Looking at the field of biology for instance, we automatically assume that the boys are the ones that like to be hands on with experiments and the girls like to read/ take notes. Personally… I am just the opposite. I love experiments and learning new skills and abilities. Dissection days were amazing for me, but I also saw that because we have this category of “gender” in there, each gender misses out on some opportunities that are there. No one wants to disrupt the flow of how everything has always been taught, but something needs to change.
Getting all students involved in their own learning and having no boundary of what a child can/ cannot read or can/ cannot do is something that needs to be implemented sooner rather than later. Education provides students with the opportunity to learn and grow and I feel that at the same time “society rulings” are often hindering that development.
Thank you for posting this topic. I strongly agree that something needs to be done and moving the teaching of sciences and other subjects into 2nd/ 3rd/ 4th grades is something that can have a real positive impact on the students.
Pulling from my own personal education experience, I often saw that we dish out certain tasks based on gender roles. At the high school level in biology, we often see the boys being the ones who conduct experiments and get “messy” while the girls record observations and do the book work. Personally, I loved making a mess and learning through all of that and strongly disliked the book work. The reason why that was happening was I feel that we were taught that girls need to be proper and keep a clean and organized lifestyle while the boys do the “dirty work”. If we were to bring science down to be more of a strong subject in the lower levels of education, I think we can break the sequence and more girls would be interested in getting “messy” and giving them an equal opportunity for their learning.
Thank you!