During the lunch break at the public school of Arnott Charlton in Brampton, Ontario, the girls play with small and colorful colorful kits of lights and LED circuits or make music on portable computers. A trio of laughter of fourth grade students, adjusts a small vehicle with wheels with an extensible arm while “rescuing” a duck.
They are committed and having fun, exactly the point for the teacher-library Kristofor Schuermann, who founded Megabrights, a coding and technology club for girls in schools within the Peel District School Board to the West of Toronto.
The need for such a club hit Schuermann when his own daughter was young: curious but also anxious to immerse himself in technology.
The offerings “were not necessarily aimed at her or really related to her passions, and even when we managed to find a program, she was often the only girl,” he recalled.
At age six, boys are generally building their reading skills and begin to discover interests, but some also have the stereotyped belief that boys are better than girls in computer science and engineering, according to a recent study by American Institute for Research. Initiatives both inside and outside schools work to counteract gender biases, but educators say that previous efforts are needed to make stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) a space where girls can prosper.
Stereotypes impact interest
David Miller and his colleagues from American research institute conducted a meta -analysis in five decades of studies that examine children’s beliefs and stereotypes about Stem, including the responses of 145,000 children in 33 countries, that is. Published in the Psychological Bulletin of the Academic Magazine.
They discovered that gender stereotypes are not the same for all STEM subjects: more boys believe that boys are better than girls in computers and engineering at age six, but the results were divided more uniformly for mathematics.
That was a surprisingly nuanced finding, Miller said from Chicago.
However, he is concerned that male bias could increase as boys age, which makes girls move away prematurely from subjects that could enjoy or excel.
The American researcher David Miller discusses children who favor children in certain STEM subjects, while the CEO of the Canadian Association of Girls in Science, Larissa Vingilis-Jarambo, shares ways to counteract gender stereotypes.
That is what Larissa Vingilis-Jarambo has encountered the Canadian Association for Girls in Science, to Long -lasting Stem Club She founded in 1992.
Stereotypes “are actually a stronger predictor of interest in Stem fields than a child’s real skills in Stem,” he said. “Stereotypes can affect interest and future professional addresses.”
In some countries, ongoing financial investments and the change in policy within fields and Stem education over the years have improved gender balance. In Canada, there has not been a lack of support and investment, but it is inconsistent, he said.
Vingilis-Jaremko feels that it hurts both women and the country at least girls pursue Stem, especially when these fields, with highly paid jobs in rapidly growing sectors, have no labor.
How women represent less than 30 percent of Canadians working in Stem“It is really important to ensure that these systemic barriers … are broken.”
Excitement of emotion at a younger age
The increase in diversity in Stem introduces different perspectives, which contributes to creativity and problem solving, says the professor of computer sciences at the University of Waterloo, Sandy Graham.
With “creative activities, the more diverse its basis for those creations, the better the final product will be.”
Graham entered computer science in the late 1980s, starting their studies just after the high period in which women were almost 40 percent of computing graduates in the United States and Canada, but since then it has seen a much lower inscription.
Women represent almost 40 percent of registration in post -secondary Stem programs, according to Statistics Canada, but in mathematics and computer science, the proportion is lower, around 28 percent. (Engineering registration is even lower).
Graham sees some adolescents during their visits to compsci classes of grades 11 and 12 of high school these days, which stressed the need to arouse interest and emotion in the field in younger students.
So, she and her colleagues in Waterloo now organize a Program for eighth grade students called CS Escape. The virtual workshop presents the foundations of coding to the participants, which then create a digital exhaust room.
“They are working on a graphic and three -dimensional environment, creating programs that are very interactive, visually exciting and shared,” said Graham.
Toronto’s teenager, Keira Pincus, was delighted with the accessible, interactive, challenging and solidarity that the workshop found, since the video game fan and the bother creator felt discouraged with past attempts to learn the coding on their own.
“They went to so many things in these sessions of an hour. They showed us the format. They showed us the because“, explained Toronto’s teenager. When learning to code”, I think learning the because It is the best way. “
The stimulus to associate (isolation is another stereotype of computer science that Graham seeks to dissipate) was also appreciated by Pincus and Annabel Spencer, her friend and classmate.
“I really enjoyed the resolution of problems with her,” said Spencer, whose own interest was aroused by his father’s work in the field.
The problem solving together “made it much easier because they had two points of view on coding,” they said, and added that it was worth it since the couple won a silver medal in the final challenge.
Safe spaces, various models to follow necessary
Establish space for girls to discover the connections between their interests and Stem, far from the “aggressive” prevailing technology and the computing of stereotypes, notes Peel Teacher-Bibrarian Schuermann, is an important way to make a change. In Megabrights, girls have created projects directly inspired by their interests or aim to help their communities.
“They are developing Android applications or developing empathy toys,” he said. “Fashion design … relevant for future conditions, [like] ‘Does the garment cool when it is hot? Does it light at night for my security? “
The American researcher Miller believes that universal access to compsci and engineering learning at the beginning of primary schools is another key step. “External organizations or museums are left too frequently that play a very critical role, but [not everyone can] Take advantage of those opportunities, “he said.
Make STEM learning fun, practical and ensuring that children have models to follow various also counteracts stereotypes, says the founder of Cagis, Vingilis-Jaremko, who suggests that adults wonder: “If my children or my students are exposed to Stem, who are they seeing inside those fields?”
After escaping CS with the Waterloo team, Toronto Teen Spencer is anxious to learn more about computer science and imaginations combining that with a medicine career one day.
Without more success in involving girls in Stem, they said, “[we’ll miss out on] Women who can make great advances … who simply do not have the opportunity to do it because they never learned it. ”
