Girls start believing they aren’t good at maths, science and even computers at a young age, but providing fun STEM activities at school and home may spark interest and inspire confidence.
Researchers from the University of Washington have found that 6-year-old girls who are exposed to computer-programming activities, express greater interest in technology and more positive attitudes about their own skills and abilities.
The results suggest both a need and an opportunity for teaching computer science, in particular, in early primary school years. Allison Master, a research scientist at I-LABS, says that introducing concepts and skills when girls are young can boost their confidence and prompt interest in a field in which women today are underrepresented.
“As a society, we have these built-in beliefs that are pushing boys toward certain activities more than girls. So our thought was, if you give equal experiences to boys and girls, what happens? We found that if you give them access to same opportunities, then girls and boys have the same response – equal interest and confidence.”
The Washington study, published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, involved 96 six-year-olds, evenly divided among boys and girls, who were randomly assigned one of three groups. In the first group, each child programmed a robot, then answered survey questions; in the second group, each played a storytelling card game, then answered the same questions, while those in the third group only answered the questions. The survey was designed to collect kids’ opinions of technology activities, like the robot, and their beliefs about whether girls or boys are better at computer programming and robotics.
The researchers found that girls who programmed the robot were much more likely to express interest in programming and confidence in their own abilities to perform technology-related tasks than the girls who didn’t work with the robot.
Study author Andrew Meltzoff says it’s an important gender issue,
“Experience in programming the robot movement was something that both boys and girls thought was fun. But the most important finding is that we brought the girls’ interest and motivation in STEM up to the level of the boys. This was a big impact for a brief, well-designed intervention.
How long will it last? That’s an important question for future scientific experiments.”
Allison Master says incorporating more programming activities into the classroom, or at home, may ignite and sustain girls’ interest. Summer camps and after-school programmes also present natural opportunities,
“The important thing is to make activities accessible to all children in a fun way that also helps them build skills. Stereotypes get built up in our heads from many different sources and experiences, but perhaps if we give girls more experience doing these kinds of activities, that will give them more resources to resist those stereotypes. They might be able to say, ‘I can still be good at this and enjoy it, despite the cultural stereotypes.'”
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