STEM-ING: Inspiring Girls’ Career Choices
Coming up at St. Mary’s College May 3 and sponsored by The Patuxent Partnership: STEM-ING, a day of workshops designed to show girls how terrific a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics could be for them. And fun, too.
STEM-ING will be an opportunity for middle-school girls to experiment with a wide variety of hands-on projects led by women with successful STEM careers. While planned as a light-hearted day of exploration, it has been spurred by a serious problem: the narrow pipeline of young women choosing STEM careers. The pipeline won’t be expanded without deep commitments by education and industry – such as Raytheon, one sponsor of the STEM-ING day — and the encouragement of girls’ parents and peers.
Here’s the challenge:
In 2009, men age 25 and older held 87 percent of bachelor’s degrees in engineering fields.
23 percent of STEM workers are women; however, women make up 48 percent of workers in all occupations.
Women received 29.6 percent of computer science B.A.’s in 1991, slipping to 18.2 percent in 2010. Source:
For Benjamin C. “Chuck” Angus, Site Lead, Field Office Manager at Raytheon’s Patuxent River Field Office, learning by doing is magic, and that prompted Raytheon’s sponsorship of a STEM-ING workshop, “The Leaning Tower of… Pasta?” (It’s an exercise in designing and building a tall structure with just a few objects.)
“A lot of this hands-on stuff is what’s important to generate interest in kids,” he says. “Last year we supported a straw rocket challenge at Margaret Brent Middle School. The kids had a straw, modeling clay, tape, some paper and scissors, and with that, put together a small rocket. They shot it off with an air compressor device. They did it several times to see how they could find ways to make it fly better. It was interesting to watch. They first put big fins on it, but they realized that just created drag. So the fins came off and they tried to decide if new fins should be longer, shorter, and so on. It looks like play, but it’s really an important way to learn.”
The collaborative nature of the straw rocket challenge is relevant for more grown-up moments of decision-making. Mr. Angus notes that Raytheon is made up of professionals with degrees in computer science, electrical, mechanical and chemical engineering, and metals, all collaborating on projects. “All flavors support all things,” he says. “When you do a design review, and think of all the things that go into a missile, you realize you need all the disciplines to support the project.”
The diversity element of STEM education is important to Raytheon, he says, adding that achieving it should be considered an investment in the nation. “Certainly, when you see some of the neat things these young kids can do, you really believe there’s a whole lot more we could do to improve what we do for them in this country.”
Raytheon has invested heavily in support of STEM initiatives, notably its “MathMovesU” program. Combating a declining interest in STEM among U.S. children and teens, MathMovesU engages students ages 10 to 14 through interactive learning and tutoring programs, contests, events, scholarships and more. In the past five years, Raytheon has committed more than $60 million to MathMovesU, as well as existing STEM and education programs. Raytheon plans to invest an additional $60 million over the next five years.
“To build on Chuck’s point about collaboration: It’s the cooperation among The Patuxent Partnership’s members that enables us to offer programs like STEM-ING to groom the next generation of innovators. We are very fortunate to have so many TPP members support this initiative,” says Bonnie Green, Executive Director of The Patuxent Partnership. “We’re excited to offer, for the second year, a STEM experience for girls that may prove a gateway to a fulfilling career for many of them.”
All of the May 3 STEM-ING workshops will be led by female STEM professionals from the community so that the girls will have direct interaction with positive, female role models. The students can choose three workshops to take. The event will also feature a keynote speaker and a panel of prominent female professionals and educators (the organizers have named this the “Wonder Women” panel).
Registration for the May 3 STEM-ING experience is $10 per student. For more information, visit www.STEM-ING.org or email [email protected].
