As the gender equality movement continues to sweep the nation, schools are becoming more and more aware of the gender divide across careers topics. As this becomes more prominent over time, teachers are actively looking for ways to banish the STEM gap once and for all, encouraging more female students to break the mold and throw themselves into STEM-based subjects.
But what exactly is the STEM gap, and what do these statistics around it currently tell us?
In this article, we reveal all of this and more as we discuss how to inspire girls to consider embarking on STEM-led career paths.
What Is STEM?
STEM is simply the abbreviated term we refer to for a particular group of academic subjects – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. These topics are grouped together beneath the umbrella of STEM education.
Instead of educating students in each singular subject, STEM education combines all four in a collaborative, hands-on approach to better equip students to gain a real-life understanding of these subjects.
Science and arts both are different kinds of the stem. But when you are going through the ratio differences among these two stems, you will find the gender differences. This is because, for the past 10 years, female students have been more interested in science subjects like engineering and other regular science subjects. Hence, you will still find the differences, which is a stem gap.
Now let’s see the actual definitions of stem gap.
What Is The STEM Gap?
The STEM gap is the gender ratio of STEM careers between males and females. Statistics clearly demonstrate that the stereotyping of STEM subjects being better suited to boys has led it to become a male-dominated career path – with only 28% of women working in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and maths.
Alongside gender-stereotyping, studies suggest there is an element of “social belongingness” that plays a part in this divide, with girls lacking female role models in these subjects. Many teens select their subjects based on the belief that they will “fit in better” in an environment where there are more of the same gender present in classes. This is where we have to break this vicious cycle.
We must encourage girls to build their confidence in STEM subjects, in a supportive and unpressured environment, in the hope of a domino effect that will inspire more girls to have the self-belief to pursue one of these subjects in further education. Minimizing the stem gap is only possible when every gender is starting to take more interest in the scientific and engineering subjects.
STEM Activities To Encourage Girls In The Classroom
There are many different STEM-based activities that can provide fun and engaging lessons for girls, as well as boys, within the classroom.
Picking up the interest is essential unless you do not create an interest in scientific subjects. How to do it? It is very easy for every child to have a curious mind. Just keep feeding their curious minds and encourage them.
When the girl children are becoming more interested in the subject, and inventions for stem gap are slowly declining. When you are going to see the broader aspects, you will see more people are getting involved in scientific innovations and engineering subjects.
Let’s have a look at a few ideas for teachers:
- Collaborative group science experiments
- Using beginner-friendly devices to teach basic programming skills in the classroom
- How to do origami (let pupils choose what animals or shapes they’d like to create)
- Moon diary – taking a photo of the moon each night and writing a description.
Conclusion:
The stem gap is a negative aspect. When you are going to analyze this factor, you will see partially! It is a negative trait. And it directly affects the scientific look of society. When are men and women starting to get equal interest in the specific department? The scientific approaches are getting improved. What is your idea about the stem gap? Do not forget to share your opinion in the comment section.
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