Girls in STEM and My Experiences With It
Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Marie Curie, Niels Bohr, and Thomas Edison are some of the first few names that come up in a Google search for “notable scientists”. Notice anything? Marie Curie is the only woman on that list out of seven.
Undoubtedly, men have always dominated in fields of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). But why is that the case? Are women just not smart or capable enough? Well, there is evidence to show that, contrary to popular belief, women are perfectly qualified to work in STEM fields, sometimes even more so than men. As a matter of fact, a study by the Canadian Government on math scores in high school showed that more than 30% of men had marks under 80% while women only had 10% in the same category. Yet, according to the same study, young women with mathematics marks of 90% and higher were less likely to opt for a STEM university program than men with marks in the 80% to 89% range. Evidently, intellectual ability is not what keeps women from pursuing STEM. It's actually a lack of motivation and self-confidence. Another study conducted by the Government of Canada looked into high school students’ self-perceived mathematical ability. The results were as expected: only 37% of women thought of their skills as “very good” or “excellent” compared to 50% of men. Women feel as though they aren’t as intelligent as men due to the many stereotypes surrounding the fact that only men can be scientists, engineers, doctors, or mathematicians. For many, a men-dominated STEM field is just the way it's always been. So, it is crucial to inspire more women and girls to get into STEM. With more women in this field, we can gain different perspectives on how to solve current science-related issues and increase the probability of making groundbreaking discoveries and inventions.
My own experiences in STEM, specifically robotics, were very meaningful. In March last year, I started learning EV3 Lego Mindstorms coding outside of school. I was hooked right away. Fast forward to December: I was competing in the FLL (First Lego League) competition along with five of my teammates, all of whom were girls. Lego may seem like just a children’s toy, but it can do so much more than that. In fact, we had to build a fully functioning robot that had to complete tasks and earn points autonomously, meaning everything was based on code. This required a lot of patience and the ability to accept and learn from failure. Sometimes, we would spend up to thirteen hours a day getting the program just right. However, the competition wasn’t actually the most exciting part.
In October, my team and I hosted a workshop called “Girls Who Stem” with the end goal to inspire young girls to get into robotics. We taught a class of girls aged 7-14 about the basics of EV3 Lego Mindstorms and informed them about Girls in STEM and why it is important. The lesson was followed by a challenge: using their freshly learned skills, the girls had to program their robot out of a maze. Surprisingly enough, they genuinely enjoyed the workshop and most of them were reluctant to leave when it was over. This, for me, was truly a win and has taught me that girls aren’t uninterested in STEM; they just haven’t had the right exposure.
At Havergal, there is an abundance of STEM opportunities to inspire girls, ranging from science clubs to math contests to exciting experiments in the classroom. If there’s anything to take away from this article, it's this: Girls can do STEM. We are completely capable. We are beyond smart enough. And if we continue to inspire and empower other girls, Marie Curie won’t be the only woman on that list.
