Dr. Karee McAndrew would like more girls to code and pursue careers in tech. 

To that end, McAndrew, director of technology for the Bayonne Board of Education in New Jersey, has helped bring a successful girls coding club to her district. For these and other efforts, including helping to increase tech literacy among district students, parents, and staff during the pandemic, McAndrew was recently honored with the Innovative Technology Director award at the Tech & Learning Innovative Leadership Awards in New Jersey.

McAndrew began her professional career working for MTV as a web designer and video editor. Although she loved the work, she soon realized that a corporate job wasn’t for her and took advantage of New Jersey’s alternate teaching route option – getting her certificate as she taught. She was ultimately drawn to the tech side of teaching and later got a masters in education, followed by a doctorate in curriculum and instruction. 

She offers tips for encouraging girls -- and all students -- to code. 

1. Encouraging Girls to Code: Offer Afterschool Programing 

A few years ago McAndrew helped her district partner with Girls Who Code, an organization dedicated to closing the gender gap in tech through many efforts, including education. Now each of Bayonne’s schools has a Girls Who Code club that meets after school. “We have a huge turnout in them -- 10,15, 20 girls per club,” McAndrew says. 

The clubs are able to get this level of student engagement thanks to strong district level and teacher support. Many of the club leaders are computer science teachers who are able to recruit kids from their classes. 

Girls Who Code also offers engaging curriculum and other fun incentives for members. “When kids sign up, they send them little swag bags, and the kids get tons of cool freebies like t-shirts and other things like that,” McAndrew says. 

2. Remember Representation Matters  

“Being a female in the computer science realm, director realm, there aren't many of us, it is a very male-dominated position,” McAndrew says. “So I think anytime that you are able to see other females who have already stepped into the role, it gives you that idea that like, ‘Oh, I can do that too.'” 

In order to do this, McAndrew encourages educators to show their students others who look like them in prominent programing and tech positions. Girls Who Code resources are very helpful with this but McAndrew also recommends Amazon’s Future Engineer program. “They do an excellent job making sure that they represent all genders,” she says. 

3. Teach Students How Broad Coding Is  

The Girls Who Code curriculum is designed to help show young women that the field of coding is much more diverse and is involved with more industries than they may realize. In addition to tech-specific jobs, coding can be the starting point for other career sectors.

“It'll focus on female engineers, it'll focus on female jobs that maybe you wouldn't necessarily think would fall under the computer science realm, but do,” McAndrew says. “So it gives girls that view to say like, ‘Oh, wow, the look at all these great females and what they're doing and how successful they are. And they followed the path of computer science or science to end up in the position that they are.'” 

4. Make Coding Fun and Inclusive  

While Girls Who Code clubs focus on recruiting young women to coding, the clubs are open to boys and nonbinary students. It is all part of McAndrew's and the district’s efforts to make coding inclusive and engaging. Another key ingredient in these efforts is student enjoyment. 

“We make the curriculum a lot of fun,” McAndrew says. “We buy really great robotics programs that kids just love to play with – doesn't matter if you're male or female. And we also use really great coding programs that are fun for all ages. Any time coding activities have challenges and you can get rewards, even if it's at the digital store within the platform, kids get motivated. So we always try to make sure that everything that we do is fun, engaging, and the kids do see an end result that's rewarding for them.” 

• Best Coding Kits 2022
• How a 16-Year-Old Gets Other Kids Excited About Coding

Exploring hands-on challenges in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) is increasing girls’ interest in engineering robots for competitions, according to initial data from Girl Powered, a global movement launched by The Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation and VEX Robotics, and supported by Google.

Google is expanding its partnership with the REC Foundation by supporting a new series of Girl Powered Workshops, with the first workshop being held March 16-17 from 9 am-5 pm (GST) at its headquarters in Seattle.

The two-day workshop in Seattle will feature Google employees helping students build VEX EDR robots and put them to the test with the VEX Robotics Competition Turning Point game challenge.

Since Girl Powered launched in 2016, female participation in VEX Robotics has increased steadily from 23 percent in 2016 to 37 percent in 2018. Girl Powered aims to change the face of STEM, as females only represent 24 percent of the STEM workforce in the U.S.

Future Girl Powered workshops are being planned for this summer in Boston, MA; Austin, TX; and Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, CA.

Google also supports The REC Foundation by sponsoring an online challenge for Girl Powered VEX Robotics participants in elementary, middle school and high school. This year’s online challenge asked students to share how they have created a more inclusive environment on their team.

The top prize, a $750 vexrobotics.com gift certificate and automatic team qualification for the 2019 VEX Robotics World Championship, was awarded on March 10, 2019, for the VEX IQ Challenge category to Team 10142A, Green Tiger from Honolulu, HI and for the VEX Robotics Competition category to Team 7983W, Centennial Cyberhawks from Bakersfield, CA.

For National Women’s History Month, Girl Powered is honoring female accomplishments in STEM history with a new line of Girl Powered T-shirts. The T-shirts feature the Girl Powered logo and inspirational quotes from female STEM heroes, with 20 percent of sales supporting Girl Powered programs. For more information, visit: https://shop.spreadshirt.com/VEX-Robotics/girl+powered?q=T292261.

Today, Mastercard and Scholastic announced plans to help raise awareness of STEM-opportunities among all students, reaching 20,000 classrooms, including 300,000 girls nationwide through hands-on, in-class materials.

The free materials are based on Mastercard’s Girls4Tech program, which provides schools and community organizations with resources to equip young girls with the skills they need as future professionals in STEM fields.

[Girl Scouts, Discovery Education Launch Initiative to Inspire Girls to Pursue Careers in STEM]

Mastercard and Scholastic will work with teachers to adopt the Girls4Tech materials through a dedicated microsite on Scholastic.com, magazines and in-classroom guides. Teachers will have access to lesson plans and hands-on demos related to algorithms, encryption, fraud detection, data analysis, digital convergence and more.

The initiative also includes two contests: the Tech4Innovation contest encourages students to develop a future digital innovation to solve a real-world problem and the Teacher Sweepstakes asks educators to explain why their school would benefit from a Girls4Tech workshop event where students participate in activities based on innovation and technology.

For more information on Girls4Tech, visit https://www.facebook.com/mastercardgirls4tech/.

Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) and Discovery Education today announced Girls Get STEM: Unleash Your Inner Scientist – a national initiative to spark girls’ interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). The program will provide educators, Girl Scout troop leaders, and families with standards-aligned curriculum aimed at addressing gender equity in STEM education through a series of girl-led, girl-tested and girl-approved resources for students in grades 2-5.

The initiative launches with the Unleash Your Citizen Scientist Virtual Field Trip, premiering on Thursday, October 18, 2018 at 1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 a.m. PT, and will offer students and their teachers a digital view of the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas' STEM-focused adventure camp. Educators, parents and students are welcomed to register for the virtual event here.

Resources to expand STEM opportunities and create a more equitable future are available at no cost at GirlsLeadSTEM.com; they will also be available through Discovery Education Streaming. For more information, visit discoveryeducation.com.

If you’re the parent of a girl, you probably tell her she can be anything when she grows up—even President of the United States. Somehow, though, a lot of girls don’t hear or believe this message. Women are underrepresented in all of the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields, and many girls believe they are not as smart as boys in these areas. That’s why it’s more important than ever to encourage girls and young women to pursue STEM opportunities, just like these schools and districts are doing.

TEAMWORK IS KEY

The Hoover STEM Girls Robotics Team prepares for competition.

Five years ago, the governor of Iowa established a $400,000 line-item budget for STEM and established the Iowa Governor’s STEM Council. Hoover High School in Des Moines received a redesign grant and updated two rooms with Epson BrightLink interactive projectors. The redesign helped to change the way teachers design learning. “Now our students collaborate, do authentic research, and so on,” says Maureen Griffin, school improvement leader and STEM administrator. Additional grants helped the school launch HyperStream, a STEM program that exposes students in grades 5-12 to technology through hands-on projects, competitions, and the chance to work with mentors. Hoover High partnered with the Girl Scouts and Drake University to offer robotics opportunities for girls.

At Griffin’s urging, fifteen ninth- and tenth-grade refugees from Myanmar and Thailand formed the Hoover STEM Girl Scouts Robotics Team. “The girls spoke seven different languages, so they had to learn how to work together,” says Griffin. Two local businesses the school partnered with sent IT employees to teach programming on Wednesday afternoons, and Drake University students came and mentored the girls. In their first competition this spring, the robotics team placed fourth and ninth. Although the program ended in May, the girls still meet every week. “They don’t want to stop. They saw so many new things at the competition that we’re raising money for extension kits for more robots and will continue next year.”

TOOLS THEY USE
HOOVER HIGH SCHOOL DES MOINES, IA

► Adobe Creative Cloud
► Canvas
► Epson BrightLink Interactive Projectors
► EV3 Core Set and Expansion Pack Robot Kit
► HP ProBook 11 EEs
► Infinite Campus
► LEGO MINDS TORMS Education EV3 robot programming software
► Office 365
► SMART Notebook
► T-Pass
► Vectr
► Windows 10

GO FLY A KITE

Middle school girls build and test turbines.

In Janelle Hofgesang’s all-girls seventh-grade life science and eighth-grade physical science classes at Albany (NY) Academy, a private, college-prep school, girls are generating their own electricity. They use KidWind materials and Vernier turbine kits to build and test their own turbines in the school’s homemade wind tunnel. Working in groups of four, the students build their own turbines, then compete with each other. The top three groups go to KidWind regionals, and this year, two Albany Academy teams won the regional competition and went to the national KidWind competition in California. “The girls research and come up with their own designs. It is very challenging, and something they wouldn’t normally do,” says Hofgesang. One of the winning students has told Hofgesang she is now interested in a STEM career. “I think that having students do this as part of the curriculum is great because girls who’ve never hammered or sawed or used drills were really excited,” says Hofgesang. “They felt strong and powerful.” She keeps their turbines near her windows so they can spin on windy days. “You can see by the looks on their faces that they’re thinking, ‘Wow! I built that!’”

TOOLS THEY USE
ALBANY ACADEMY, ALBANY, NY

► G Suite for Education
► iPads
► LoggerPro Software
► Samsung Chromebooks
► SketchUp
► SMART Boards
► Vernier LabQuest 2s
► Vernier Probes

ROBOTS ON THE RUNWAY

Using STEM machinery is status quo at Anderson High School.

Eleven years ago, when he was teaching chemistry and physics at Austin (TX) ISD’s Anderson High School, John Sperry started a competitive robotics team. Today, he runs the 350-student robotics and engineering program, which offers 23 different technology courses in five pathways: mechanical engineering, robotics, manufacturing, software engineering, and electrical engineering. “Part of our challenge is to always be redefining what STEM engagement looks like,” says Sperry. One way he engages his female students is by having everyone try to solve big problems. For example, students repurposed a control system to try to create a better-functioning knee brace. The students presented their brace during National Instruments’ NIWeek in front of 5,000 engineers, and the lead student, a senior girl, went on to study mechanical engineering and now works for NI. 

Another project that a lot of girls enjoyed was the Robot Fashion Show. “We bought two-foot-tall French robots from RobotLAB that you can program in dozens of languages. They have onboard cameras to look at their surroundings and can recognize faces and avoid obstacles,” says Sperry. He partnered with University of Texas at Austin’s textiles and apparels group to produce clothing for the robots, and his students programmed the robots to exhibit specific behaviors as they walked the runway. “It was a lot of fun and generated buzz for kids of all ages to see what STEM education can look like.” After doing this work for several years, Sperry has learned a lot. He says that you have to change your curriculum to encourage diversity. “It can’t be about traditional robotics activities. They are great, but you have to mix things up and rethink where you’re getting the most bang for your buck. We try to have fun and see how far we can take the activities we do.”

TOOLS THEY USE
ANDERSON HIGH SCHOOL, AUSTIN, TX

► Aldebaran Robotics
► Basecamp
► Canvas Blend
► Computer-Aided Design (CAD )
► Dell Precisions
► Fortus and Mojo 3D Printers
► GrabCAD Workbench
► Java
► LabVIEW
► Mastercam
► NAO Robotics
► National Instruments
► Python
► RoboRio
► Robot C
► RobotLAB
► SolidWorks
► Tektronix
► Universal Laser Systems

COMPETING AND WINNING

The Programming Princesses are equally proud of their robots and tiaras.

Perez Elementary in McAllen, Texas, was extremely proud of the Programming Princesses when they placed third in the 2016-2017 Wonder League Robotics Competition this year. The two third-grade girls prepared hard, meeting every afternoon to perfect their coding skills. It’s all part of Librarian Cynthia Cooksey’s master plan to have students do real-world coding during library time. “Two years ago, we bought our first Dash & Dot robots. We started with Code.org but I wanted to do more hands-on work so the students could see the impact.” At first, Cooksey heard a lot of “I don’t want to” from the girls, so she started a girls-only, secret after-school club. The girls “hid” in an alcove and coded. It took a while, but once it caught on she got more and more requests to join. Boys are allowed to come, but Cooksey says the girls love coding with other girls and do better when they are part of an all-girls team. Before the Programming Princesses, there was a team of six fifth-grade girls called the Coding Chicks. Another group, the Damsels in Dash, is made up of five girls in grades 3-5. They placed first in the state but did not make it to the final competition, where four teams from Perez Elementary competed. “We’ve taken a lot of pride in encouraging our girls into STEM fields and telling them about what jobs are out there. By teaching them to code, we show them that the sky is the limit.”

TOOLS THEY USE
PEREZ ELEMENTARY, MCALLEN, TX

► Accelerated Reader
► ccSpark!
► Chromebooks
► Follett Destiny
► GarageBand
► Green Screen by Do Ink
► G Suite for Education
► iMovie
► iPad Airs
► IStation
► Kahoot
► Keynote
► MyON
► Padlet
► Star
► StopMotion
► Wonder Workshop’s Blockly and Wonder

ALL-DISTRICT INTEGRATION

Girls learn how to measure properly for their woodworking projects.

When Stephanie Miller became superintendent/principal of Congress (AZ) School District #17 in 2011, the preK-8 rural school was high-performing but she felt it needed more STEM development. She secured a three-year grant from the Science Foundation of Arizona to increase project-based learning (PBL) around STEM and develop STEM career paths. To shift the culture, the district embedded LEGO WeDo 2.0 into classroom instruction, integrated STEM learning throughout all grades, and started an after-school STEM program. “With after-school programs, you get a lot of ‘I wouldn’t be good at that,’” says Miller. “If you put programming into class instruction, you reach the children who were too shy to sign up or didn’t know they had a natural ability.” By developing their own curriculum with LEGO WeDo and incorporating a lot of engineering and programming components, students got a broader understanding of STEM fields. They used Defined STEM, an online curriculum featuring project-based lessons that develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, to help students learn and discover STEM careers. 

"Defined STEM has lots of women in their videos. When students see that, it’s eye-opening,” says IT Director Suzanne Sims. 

Teachers focused on social and emotional learning, helping students learn how to get along with others and work with different people to find answers to problems. Teachers created STEM-based units that are taught in core subjects. Now they are starting to do passion projects in the new makerspace. Every week, a community volunteer comes to the makerspace to help with woodworking projects; there’s also a deconstruction station where children take things apart. All students, even kindergarteners, build things so that girls don’t think of construction as a male job. “Through all of this exposure, girls are becoming interested in STEM careers. They are empowered and believe in themselves,” says Miller.

TOOLS THEY USE
CONGRESS (AZ) SCHOOL DISTRICT

► Code.org
► Defined STEM
► Fosskits
► Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga 11e Laptops
► littleBits
► Makey Makey
► Microsoft Office 365 4 MIT Scratch
► Pearson Digits 4 ST Math
► Wonder Workshop Dash & Dot Robots

STEM & PBL: A PERFECT MATCH

“I believe a program should provide multiple avenues and openings, no matter what a child’s interest or learning ability,” says Wanny Hersey, founding superintendent of Charter School in Los Altos, California. Hersey, who started the K-8 school in 2004, was determined to address the needs of the whole child. “If you want to develop a STEM mindset, it must be throughout the entire culture. You have to fundamentally provide opportunities throughout their educational experience, and not just an isolated situation or incident.” 

Younger students apply science and engineering practices to science activities, such as when the first graders raise tulips and explore which conditions best help the plants grow. A former student studied chemistry in college and is now designing ways to protect plants from pathogens in the field. Students explore coding through physical movement, robots, and block programming. Second graders create Scratch games to teach others about proper nutrition; eighth graders study app development and design their own educational apps. 

One student created an app to help students develop number sense and it’s available in the Apple Store. She went on to publish five more apps in the Apple Store, including one that helps shelter animals get adopted. Second graders use the design thinking process to engineer ways to protect leatherback sea turtles from threats. Middle schoolers participate in hackathons, working collaboratively to discover solutions to questions grounded in complex, real-world scenarios. 

All students use math in real-life situations, such as first graders collecting data on plants and animals in the garden or seventh graders drafting plans for furniture that they build using wood and hand tools. Three eighth-grade girls won the environment category in the 2015 Dare 2B Digital Innovation Challenge. By incorporating STEM throughout their school career, allows all students to tap into what they love to do.

TOOLS THEY USE
CHARTER SCHOOL, LOS ALTOS, CA

► Autodesk Maker and other apps
► Everyday Math
► Fresh Grade
► Google Apps
► iPads/iPods
► LEGO WeDo
► MacBooks
► Roominate
► Tinkercad

REAL-LIFE CONNECTIONS

In Bucks County, Pennsylvania, middle school and high school girls get to meet women in STEM at #girlSTEM, a one-day conference held each May. “It’s become wildly popular,” says Lindsey Rutherford Sides, coordinator of teaching, learning, and nonpublic programs for Bucks County Intermediate Unit #22, an intermediary between the Pennsylvania Department of Education and 13 local school districts. “Each district gets a certain number of seats, and we’ve grown from 150 attendees in 2011 to 810 attendees this year.” The event, which is at Delaware Valley University, features interactive seminars, hands-on workshops, and discussions with female engineers, doctors, scientists, and programmers. Conference attendees sign up online and choose three different sessions at which they hear about the presenter’s career path and day-to-day life. 

“One presenter, a soil scientist, brought her girls to the university’s soil pits. Another presenter, who works in medicine, brought simulation cards for small groups to work on,” says Rutherford Sides. “Most of the schools bring a STEM, math, or science teacher who also attends sessions, so we know the conversations are ongoing,” she adds. “In fact, in our post-event survey last year, 98 percent of the attendees said they’d take more STEM courses in high school.” Jamie Swanson, the K-12 science curriculum coordinator for the Pennsbury (PA) School District, echoes that sentiment, saying, “We know young ladies excel when they are empowered. Giving them the opportunity to spend the day with women who apply their STEM skills in rewarding, prestigious careers raises the bar for all of our students.”

Making Science Cool

Alex Dainis, a graduate student at Stanford, runs the popular YouTube science channel, Alex Dainis (www.youtube.com/user/Lexie527). Her goal is to show everyone why STEM, particularly science, is fun and for everyone. T&L asked Dainis for more ideas on getting girls into STEM.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHvA8e1eCxc&index=1&list=PLbsGxdAPhjv_bsJtQzUgD0SA-AReDCynL

Q: How did you get interested in science?

A: As a kid, I loved languages and writing and math and science, but science was the subject that let me really ask questions and find out more about the world around me. My fifth-grade science teacher, who wore Converse high-tops, showed me that science could be cool. My AP bio teacher, who brought us on a field trip to a research lab, taught me what the day-to-day of science could be like.

Q: Why do you think science/STEM is a good field for people to pursue?

A: Science and STEM have so many possibilities for future careers and for learning about the world around you. As we face questions about feeding increasing populations, battling diseases, and climate change, there will be an ever-growing demand for STEM workers. However, science is also just fun! Being a scientist lets me ask questions in the lab all day and try out brand new solutions.

Q: Why should more girls pursue STEM opportunities?

A: I think that more kids in general, not just girls, should pursue STEM opportunities. Kids are naturally interested in asking questions about the world around them, but at some point, especially for girls, that stops being cool. If we can encourage kids that everyone should be asking these questions, and that doing so through science can be fun and fulfilling, then we could take away some of that early bias that may make girls turn away from science. Science benefits from having a diverse group of people working on problems to bring the best, most creative solutions to the table.

Q: Any ideas on how teachers/schools can encourage girls to enter STEM fields?

A: I think that having great female role models is one way to encourage more girls to participate in STEM. These can be female science teachers, visiting scientists, or scientists on TV or the Internet. Being able to see someone “like you” in a career makes it a lot easier to imagine yourself in the same place. Excellent outreach programs like Skype a Scientist (gomcb.rso.uconn.edu/skype-a-scientist) can bring scientists into the classroom to show everyone that scientists are real, fun, exciting people, not just boring workers in lab coats.