There was a great segment on Good Morning America regarding coding this morning! Olay has an initiative to get more women and women of color involved in STEM careers. It was so refreshing to see STEM being promoted in the popular public sector! I think this is a great example of how our culture is changing! Does anyone else in the community have any additional examples?
Thanks for posting @David_Kelly!
Have you seen this event?
-
CSforAll is also holding their annual summit Oct 19/20 - I hope to catch some of the speakers myself!
This is something of a passion for me. Iām always keeping an eye out for research, initiatives, and stories of how people/organizations/businesses are successfully making STEM and Computer Science studies and careers more accessible for women, POC, and in rural communities. 
So keep them coming! lol
This is so important. SO. IMPORTANT*
Iām a weekend robotics coach, and in my day job, I oversee several software development teams. Iāve worked with hundreds and hundreds of software engineers and other technologists over the course of my career. The teams with women almost always have a different vibe from the teams with just men. In companies that employ the values and principles of Agile, software development is truly a team sport. Itās not a big leap then, to say that the teams with the best cultures and the healthiest relationships between the members tend to build higher quality, more thoughtful products faster.
When I have an open position on a team, one of the things I evaluate is the culture of the team, and if it needs any adjustments. Based on that, Iāll give guidance to our recruiter on the type of person we should look for. Often, itās evident that what weāre looking for is a woman. Despite our efforts, I usually end up with a pile of resumes from dudes.
So, this isnāt just about equity between boys and girls. This is about making the technology industry better. The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time in now. Technology companies are suffering today (see Activision/Blizzard for an extreme example) because not enough girls became passionate about technology twenty years ago. So, how do we plant that tree today?
Seriously, Iām asking you. This is where my not being a professional educator is biting me. This isnāt a situation where handing a girl some pink tools is going to get her passionate about technology. We need to figure out how to create an environment where girls can feel comfortable becoming engaged with tech at a young age. What are the things that snuff out a girlās nascent interest in tech, but not the boysā? Can we rekindle that later, or does it become too late at some point?
I could go on, but I want to hear thoughts from folks whoāve worked with kids.
*When I joined VEX PD+, I said to myself, āThis is a site about education by and for educators. Maybe you just keep your mouth shut for once and youāll learn a thing or two.ā Then I saw this and went into full rant mode on my first real post. I also acknowledge that, in the interest of keeping this concise, Iāve had to make sweeping generalizations. All of the assertions Iāve made above have tons of exceptions.
4 Likes
This is SO TRUE
It is a complicated question (what motivates students to pursue, or not pursue) a particular subject or activity. Here is what we know doesnāt work: telling them to purse STEM to get a STEM job. Instead choices are motivated by a combination of studentās expectations for success and subjective task value. For example, students are likely to pursue an activity if they expect to do well and value the activity.
Telling students about STEM jobs helps with subjective task value, but does nothing to help with studentsā expectations for success, which is the other significant factor on student choice. If students still donāt think that they belong in CS, or that CS is too hard, they are unlikely to pursue computing academic choices, even if the jobs are lucrative.
We need to spend much more time on studentās expectations for success. We can show students role models. We can show them that they can be successful. We can show them how valuable CS is. We can make it more fun. A combination is likely to be necessary to change studentsā decisions.
2 Likes
This is a fascinating conversation! Thank you @Chris_Mause for sharing your experience from the āreal worldā, and @Daniel_Faddis for a great example to teach from! As a Kindergarten and early elementary teacher, I was in the complete opposite end of the spectrum from you @Chris_Mause.
My kids were just figuring out what interested them, and a lot of that came from a blend of what seemed exciting and interesting to those they cared about. What were their parents or siblings or family members really into? What were their new friends at schools involved in? What did I or other teachers in school make extra fun and engaging? And when it comes to getting young children involved in STEM and CS, I think @Jason_McKenna 's point about making it fun is really really important. And in terms of doing that at school - you need to have teachers who arenāt afraid of it, who can lean into the excitement and bring the same enthusiasm they have for say, story time, to STEM or CS time.
Honestly, I was one of those scared of technology teachers for much of my time in the classroom. I did great things with natural materials, maker-education, etc., but when it came to CS, I was at a loss. Recently Iāve had the opportunity to go back into the classroom to teach with VEX 123, and could really live the whole āmaking CS funā much more genuinely. The students were THRILLED at the prospect of using their own robots, and small sample size aside, I havenāt seen any disparity between the engagement of boys vs. girls. When the āstoryā or āhookā around using the robots is engaging - everyone can be drawn in.
So to sum up, I canāt say enough about making CS and STEM more accessible for teachers of young students - because they have a lot of power in lighting a spark that can catch fire in later years.
3 Likes
@Daniel_Faddis - I was unfamiliar with Mary Golda Ross - thank you for sharing that! I have a bit of a personal connection to the area of Oklahoma where sheās from, as my mom grew up near there. There is SO much that can be discussed about this issue - but here are a couple of things that came to mind -
One is a picture book that my students really enjoyed - Ada Lovelace - Poet of Science by Diane Stanley and Jessie Heartland is a wonderfully illustrated biography that my upper elementary kids really enjoyed.
Another thought is that Iāve often wondered if we overlook students, many of whom (but not all) are girls, by having certain ideas in our minds about the kinds of characteristics we recognize as signs that children are āgood at mathā or have natural inclinations towards STEM. I fear we place too much significance on these signs too early in studentsā educations and then encourage those students, many of whom (but not all) are boys, more than other students, and this perpetuates a cycle. I think we need to try to be aware of these tendencies as much as possible and do our best to reexamine and reframe our thinking, which could make a very positive impact on the number of girls who see STEM careers in their futures.
4 Likes
This is going to be a bit of a story, but I would love to try and provide some context before attempting to answer your last question there.
One of the most rewarding jobs Iāve ever had was through the local science museum as a before-school science club instructor for girls at a local low income middle school. It was only for one year while they had the funding, but it was worth trying to get them all excited about STEM. Now getting 12 and 13 year olds to get to school early for a science club was quite the struggle, but I ended up with about 6 regular attendees for the twice a week sessions. Over the course of that school year, these girls became close friends and I think that made a great impact on their attitudes towards STEM at a higher level. They had a safe space to develop those interests and investigate new ideas with science experiments, coding, and other small engineering projects they worked on in the mornings.
When I say āsafe space,ā there are a couple overarching statements Iām making. As a club setting, there were no grades for them to worry about, no pressures to perform at a certain level or be correct. They did it because it was fun and interesting to them. It was also safe because their friends were with them and there was little peer pressure to act a certain way or be a certain person in our little morning classroom meetings. @Audra_Selkowitz wrote a great article that was published in the November updates about social-emotional learning in middle school (Iāll link it here). I would argue from anecdotal evidence that the idea of creating a safe space for SEL creates a safe space for students to try and iterate through STEM as well.
So no, I donāt think thereās a point where it becomes too late. Students are always changing and growing. Giving them the space (at all ages) to explore and experiment and to celebrate the failures will inherently give them the opportunities to possibly see new avenues for their own futures and interests.
3 Likes
All of these responses have given me a lot to think about. Even in the handful of anecdotes provided, Iām starting to see a pattern:
- Early years ā Aimee and Audraās little kids tend to have the girls just as excited and involved in STEM topics as the boys.
- Middle years ā Alainaās middle school girls responded when they could explore STEM topics in a āsafe spaceā.
- Professional years ā The fresh-outs and experienced professionals in my area of technology are almost all men.
Of course, this is outrageously reductive, so let me build upon it with a crazy statement (open to debate, please): Success in technology largely comes from curiosity about how things work and the fearlessness to figure out how to make it work. I believe there are a significant number of girls who show up on day 1 of kinder with curiosity and fearlessness and, by high school graduation, I fear itās been eroded away. Programs like Alainaās can reverse some of those effects, though.
This conversation has gone in a direction I didnāt expect, and Iām grateful. Beyond the āhow are we going to fix societyā question (which Iām happy to continue), I have a few more direct questions:
- How do I create a safe space for girls in a mixed robotics club? Itās already a no-grades Saturday afternoon club. I intentionally have left it pretty unstructured so kids can explore aspects that interest them. I failed (and learned from) four years ago when the boys were like feral animals taking over the robot, and the one girl just kind-of hung back. If I have a critical mass of girls, I can even give them their own robot, butā¦
- How do we get girls to take the chance on showing up? At last yearās open house (for incoming students), I had about 8 families with girls make a beeline for the robotics booth and tell me how excited they were. 2 showed up for the info meeting and 1 joined the club (the other had a conflict).
While I was composing this reply, I got the e-mail that the open house for next yearās incoming and interested families is in a week. So, the pressureās on.
- Thursday, December 9 ā Figure out how to get girls excited to show up for robotics
- Friday, January 7 ā Fix the rest of society (that should just take about a month, right?)
1 Like
Love this discussion! And so many great insights and valid points.
One of the things Iāve struggled with as a technology instructor (a female instructor at that), I taught at a science center for 4 years, and at an urban preK-8 school for the past 4 years, is that so many of the robotics/coding projects are already very gender-biasedā¦ predominantly male characters or conquer/battle activities are already exclusive and intimidating to females before they even start to attempt the challenges.
That is one of the things that drew me to Vex and their robots and activities. They are wonderfully gender-neutral and provide an equal playing field to all students.
I work in an urban school with students that are very diverse, which for better for worse, none of my students have any previous STEM experience. With no one having any exposure or preconceived ideas, itās truly no big deal for boys or girls to be involved in STEM and robotics. I have the benefit of starting with students from preschool all the way through 8th grade.
Some of the students that I jumped into at a later age did have more stereotypical gender assumptions, which the practical direction questions asked above by @Chris_Mause are very needed to discuss openly have and have real-world answers.
First off, Iāve found if we can start young, my preschoolers that Iāve had for 4 years, and theyāre now 2nd graders, often times itās the girls who take the lead, but overall, truly, I see no gender difference when students have had equal access from a young age.
I can see when itās voluntary for the older students, the struggle that would present. For me, itās a mandatory class, and all students show up, so the girls have equal numbers to the boys. Honestly I have found it most successful to pair same genders together in the upper grades. A wonderful thing that has happened with vr.vex.com coding activities when I pair them up with same genders, it is often the girls who find the quickest time to solve the challenge or most efficient code. Success is empowering. And the more Iāve been able to show the females that there is just as much room for them in the coding/technology world, they have taken that and run with it.
For me, start them young, strength in numbers, and gender-neutral challenges; great robots and coding activities from VEX have been super helpful!
5 Likes
Thank you for posting this @Chris_Mause! Making STEM, CS, and robotics more accessible and appealing to girls is a bit of a passion project for me. Apologies in advance, this turned into a longer post than I intended, but I hope that some of the resources and the info is helpful. Please let me know if you have any feedback, questions, or additional thoughts!
First off, I canāt agree more with the feedback shared by @Audra_Selkowitz, @Aimee_DeFoe, and @Alaina_Caulkett. I want to reinforce the importance of incorporating SEL strategies in the design and facilitation of lessons or informal 'club" sessions as key to help students work through challenges and develop an identity as a STEM or robotics learner.
Like you, I would see girls hang back at a certain point in my classroom, as their male peers would take over the tools or the tech and skyrocket deeper into the experimentation and learning. Here are a couple (research-based) strategies and resources that I used to address this issue in my classroom.
Make it Visible - There is a Strong Community of Girls and Women in STEM
Create an environment where girls see other girls and women in STEM with media and even visits or discussions with women who are active in STEM, CS and robotics. Provide a rich environment for your girls to see others like them in STEM spaces (like in @Alaina_Caulkettās Science Club). Here are a few resources that I recommend:
-
Books: The Adventures of Women in Tech: How We Got Here and Why We Stay (this is written for adults, but accessible for MS and HS students, especially if they focus on a story at at time), and In Real Life (a graphic novel by a teen author about gaming)
-
Posters: Nidhi Kulkarni and Erin Parker (Co-founders of Spitfire Athlete), and Malala Yousafzai
-
Videos: Miral Kotb playlist (Artist / Coder), and [Made with Code - EPA Chica Squad] (Made with Code - EPA Chica Squad - YouTube) (a group of young latinx students who develop an app to address pollution in their neighborhood)
Teach How to Find Information
An absolutely essential part of working with all students, but especially girls, is to actually provide guidance (scaffolding) for how to find information for when they have a question. And as a follow up to that, encourage them to share that information with their peers. Providing girls with the tools to answer questions and solve problems on their own promotes agency and gives them the tools to work at their own pace, alone or with a group. Creating routines and opportunities for students to share these resources promotes a constructive community around learning. (And as shared by Alaina, having a community of peers that shares an interest and skillset can influence retention of girls participation in STEM, CS, and robotics.)
In VEXcode we have tutorials, the help feature, and example project that students can experiment with and use a starting point for their code, built right in so they can find information quickly. I would love to know if you have any additional resources to share to help students find information as they are building and coding their robots!
Develop a Growth Mindset Through Discussions and Trust-Building
One strategy I used to keep my girls active was to engage them in the design and development process by facilitating discussions with them as they worked. Through discussions I was able to give immediate feedback and use process-oriented questions to provide an opportunity for them to share their thinking. Over a very short amount of time, it would enhance their confidence and agency in the learning process. I would ask questions about their thinking as they worked, and point out specific ways that they were solving problems effectively and uniquely whenever possible. I would also ask them to identify, in their own terms, how they want to improve and develop their projects ā basically putting them in the driverās seat to drive the evolution of their projects.
With the focused attention through dialogue and probing (and relationship building), they would start to see the design process and its many challenges as a puzzle that is fun to solve, instead of feeling like they were failing when something didnāt work as expected. I found that through our discussions we were able to normalize the āfailingā part of the design process, and we even coined the phrase āfail fast and fail hardā as part of our development process.
Facilitating these discussions led to students trusting themselves, developing their sense of inquiry, and was an incredible motivator that helped all my students (especially the girls) develop a growth mindset and agency over their learning. And, I watched as their confidence, interest, and self-efficacy blossomed.
There are a couple articles in the STEM Library that provide great discussion prompts that you can use with students as they build and code their robots.
- Facilitating Coding Conversations with Students
- Facilitating Engineering Conversations with Students
I hope these resources and strategies are helpful. Please share any additional resources and ideas that you have for engaging and retaining girls in your teaching environment. I canāt wait to hear from you!
2 Likes
@Chris_Mause, since you asked for more āpracticalā thoughts to address your immediate issue, hereās my two cents. There are so many factors that can lead to students joining/not joining particular clubs or activities - and many that are not necessarily connected to a lack of interest, just more practical things like timing, transportation, after school jobs, etc.
I wonder if doing something almost like robotics open house times throughout the year (between the open house in December, and when students sign up) to provide a lower-commitment introduction. Perhaps a Saturday meeting (or one day after school) each month had an hour before that was just a low-key ācome try roboticsā, and if youāre having fun, stay and see what a formal āmeetingā is all about. This could maybe get more kids through the door, and help them get a feel for what itās really about, rather than what theyāve heard/assumed through the school grapevine.
My other thought would be having interested families sign up to be contacted later on, with like a simple survey or something, to get an idea about the root cause of why students werenāt following through. Sometimes just asking āWhat would make you more likely to join?ā can give really useful, practical information.
2 Likes
@Chris_Mause - Have you thought about bringing in young women from HS or College robotics teams to serve as mentors for your team? This would be great for your team overall, while proving role models for the girls on your team. This could also provide a leadership opportunity for the mentors. Just a thought ! Please keep us posted!
I canāt tell you all how much I am LOVING this conversation! It also puts me in mind of the video about āCreating an Inclusive Environmentā for teams that was recently added to the video library in the most recent update. @Leslie_Cruse, I wonder what insights and experiences you can offer from the competition side of things here?
Thank you all for the great suggestions. There are a few that I can try right away, and some will take longer.
The open house for families interested in attending the school is tomorrow night. I talked to the one girl in our robotics club, a 7th-grader, told her about this thread, and let her know if we get enough girls to sign up, weād be able to have girlsā robotā¦ if thatās what they wanted. Sheās agreed to be an ambassador, and is going to come to the open house to help represent the robotics club and try to get incoming girls excited about it. Iāll ask her to write down the names of any girls who express an interest in robotics so she can reach out to them at the beginning of next year. The hope is that, if any 6th grade girls are interested but hesitant, a note from an 8th-grader might give them the nudge they need.
I also like Audraās idea about an open house for curious students. Our first tournament is Saturday, so we can use that as a āreasonā to invite students to stop by after school or over lunch next week to check out the robot and hear about the club and the competition. I will ask the middle school science and math teachers make a point of telling any kids (especially girls) who might have a predilection for STEM topics to stop by.
Some of the resources mentioned, while education-focused, have amazing parallels to a lot of the current thought about managing technology teams, a topic Iām familiar with. The talk about creating a safe space, normalizing failures, etc. is very similar to Agile coaching and leading retrospectives. While I canāt entirely treat the kids the same as professionals, it was nice to get a little validation that Iām drawing on many of the ārightā elements of management.
Iāll post an update in a few days to let you know how these upcoming efforts play out.
2 Likes
Sounds like you have a great plan! Canāt wait to hear more about how it all goes 
This article hit my inbox a few days ago (I apologize if you have already seen it). I thought it was a great readā¦ especially since my daughter is already 11.
This is my favorite part of the articleā¦
The research team concludes that both teachers and parents can lend a hand in helping to stifle these unhelpful stereotypes by encouraging girlsā participation and reinforcing their belonging in the subjects. They also noted that the education system should offer all students high-quality computer science and engineering courses early on in their education
I am trying to do my part!
4 Likes
