Why STEM for Girls?

What is STEM?

Thank you for choosing to put your daughter in the Lego for girls STEM club at Harley.  STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math and are key subjects to building our economic future.

Why Girls?

The STEM fields in America seem to fall short of our need for our country and many of our young women are not choosing careers in these fields. Men tend to dominate in the tech industry and reports show that only one in seven engineers are female.  Today, women hold only 27 percent of all computer science jobs, and that number isn’t growing. It is my hope to start girls at a young age to gain confidence and a general love for these subjects.  If we can get them excited about STEM disciplines as children, we hope it will carry with them as they go through high school, college, and their future careers.

What can I expect from Lego/STEM club?

It is my hope to build on girl’s strengths that they already have.  Each week, the girls will participate in an activity that involves one or more aspects of STEM.  Many of the projects will be modeled from a literacy activity.  The girls will listen to a story that will inspire a project they need to design.  Many activities will be building and designing, but some will be science experiments and math oriented projects.  The class will be laid out by the first 5-10 minutes of story and design thinking,  20-30 minutes of project time, 5 minutes of sharing, and the last 5 minutes will be clean-up.

Important information about STEM club

The push for girls in STEM fields is still a relatively new concept in the education field, and it is my hope to use this club to help schools, teachers, and parents.  I want to start a blog about the girls experiences in this club, and I also plan to take pictures to share at education conferences and with STEM companies.  Please let me know if you would not like your child’s face to appear on a public blog or if you do not want your child’s picture to be used for other education purposes.

Thank you,

Jeanette Oettinger

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