Self reflection questions

How do I encourage the young females to think critically in everyday situations?

What strategies can be used to help develop the girls confidence when faced with tackling challenges and problem solving?

Are there any additional things I can do to help break down the gender gap in STEM education? 

Self-relfection questions

What can you do to promote equal participation and engagement in group activities?

Think of an example of an experiment that will get the female students to ask questions and think critically.

How often do you promote inquiry-based learning? 

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Incorporating real-world problems, such as climate change, healthcare, and technology into lesson planning can help students realise the relevance and importance of STEM in day-to-day life.

While looking at the real-world problems, we will also look at some examples of female scientist who can be seen as role models to the female students.

Climate change 

If we look at climate change, climate change affects almost all aspects of our lives – from the weather and temperature, to the foods we eat and the food chain.

If we take a look at Dr. Sylvia Earle, a world-renowned expert on marine biology. Dr. Syliva was “The first woman to lead the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, Earle advocates for ocean conservation and education.”¹ 

Earle was faced with a lot of gender bias during her career. “In 1964, Earle was invited on a six-week voyage to the Indian Ocean on a National Science Foundation research vessel. It was a demanding job that was not often offered to women at the time, but Earle was used to being the only woman in a scientific setting and made the most of the opportunity.” ¹

Despite the gender barriers Dr. Sylvia faced on a regular basis, she had an extremely successful career, and in 1990 she was given the position of Chief Scientist of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – she was the first woman to hold this position. Dr. Sylvia became a leading advocate for ocean conservation, she did many other things such as writing books and documentaries to take action against climate change.  

Healthcare 

If we look at, for example, women in STEM careers, 24% of the population in the US held jobs in STEM fields. The gender breakdown by population of the US is 49.5% male, 50.5% female, however only 35% of those with STEM careers are female. ²

There are many successful women in science-based healthcare careers. Magdia De Jesus is the Scientific Strategy and Portfolio Lead, Worldwide Medical and Safety, working at Pfizer.

“Working with research units and external partners, she develops strategies that engage and support the scientific work of Pfizer’s Worldwide Research, Development, and Medical group. Before Pfizer, Magdia had overcome some gender-based challenges. She felt pressure to constantly demonstrate her credibility. She found that “the door would not open” for opportunities she wanted to pursue. And she endured “conditional inclusivity” that made her feel she could not bring her whole, authentic self.” ² 

Magdia is just one example of a successful female working in a science based healthcare role, and has had to overcome issue faced by the gender barriers in the workplace.

Pfizer are a good practice example of a company promoting and supporting women in STEM careers. You can read more success stories and details of women overcoming the gender barrier in the workplace - https://www.pfizer.com/news/articles/5_inspiring_stem_women_who_are_mak….

References

 ¹ https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sylvia-ea…;

² https://www.pfizer.com/news/articles/5_inspiring_stem_women_who_are_mak…

Self-reflection questions

Can you think of any successful women in science based technology roles?

How can you incorporate these real world problems in to lesson plans?

Do these role models inspire you? 

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What teaching methods can we use to encourage teamwork, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills, while also addressing gender barriers in STEM?

Collaborative Project-Based Learning

Here we can assign the female students with real-world science-based teamwork projects. These could be based around conducting scientific experiments, for example.

Encourage critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Ask the students to research, look at the problems and challenges faced, and discover solutions using problem solving skills.

Case studies on the successful women in climate change and healthcare professions can be used.

Team Challenges

Think of STEM challenges for the students. Give the students specific roles such as researcher, designers, technician and project manager.

Encourage the students to think critically and apply analytical skills to their specific role.

The females should understand that they can carry out any of the roles given – there should be no gender barriers.

Inquiry-based learning

Ask the students to think of some STEM questions. They should explore and solve these in groups. They should be encouraged to investigate topics and find answers. The students should all actively participate and analyse the information. 

An example could be “how does a strawberry grow?”. Rather than having a lesson on how fruits and plats grow, they physically plant and grow the strawberries, examining their growth, overcoming any challenges they may face, looking at the growth under different conditions, overserving and drawing conclusions. 

Additional resources in English and Partners’ languages 

Women in STEM Statistics

 https://www.stemwomen.com/women-in-stem-statistics-progress-and-challen…

10 of the best female role models in tech – in pictures

https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-professional/women-leadership-blog…