Shaping STEM Education for Girls: New Research on How to Engage Girls in the STEM Fields

1. Shaping STEM Education for Girls:New Research on How to Engage Girls in the STEM Fields Larry Goodman, Ph.D Director of Strategic Programming; Co-Director of The Center for Research on Girls, Laurel School Licia Kovach Science Department Chair, Laurel School

2. What the research tells us about shaping STEM for girls Teach STEM with a Purpose Promote Tinkering Provide Role Models Encourage Growth Mindset

3. STEM with a PURPOSE

4. STEM with a Purpose: L.A.B. Days • Primary School L.A.B. Days • Lesson examples: • what makes a good habitat for animals • studying plants • discovering the food chain in pond and forest ecosystems • measuring the impact humans have on ecosystems.

5. STEM with a Purpose: L.A.B. Days • Primary Faculty observed • Students discussing, with impressive expertise, the species of plants and animals in the area • Students spontaneously creating • Students inspired to write about nature’s details more descriptively • Environmental stewardship becomes more meaningful • Service leaning- clearing/mulching trails, identifying trees for younger students and visitors, hanging and filling bird feeders and weeding out invasive plants.

6. STEM With a Purpose: Engineering in the Primary Boston Museum of Science Curriculum Through stories and real-world engineering challenges, girls learn the engineering process

7. STEM With a Purpose: Engineering in the Primary • Projects include • wind turbine design • packaging design (shipping boxes using recycled materials) • simple machine toys design • testing the capacity of suspension bridges for crossing rivers in Nepal.

8. STEM With a Purpose: Engineering for Olevolos • Girls are more likely to engage with STEM initiatives that have a clear purpose • Our girls engineer and build structures for the Olevolos orphanage in Tanzania

9. STEM With a Purpose: Engineering for Olevolos • Due to materials and resources, many decisions had to be made “in the field” • Decisions made “in the field” were not always ideal • This year’s group plans to make improvements to the swing set

10. Promote TINKERING

11. Promote Tinkering: Tinkering Stations • Tinkering Stations are in the Primary, Middle, and Upper School • We rotate activities on a regular basis • Best materials are often store-bought manipulatives

12. Promote Tinkering: Middle School Robotics • Dancing Queen — Robotics Challenge • CHALLENGE DETAILS: Place your robot in the dance arena. Without having it touch the walls, have it twirl in a circle, go forward until it gets close to the walls, twirl again, and repeat. If it can twirl four times without hitting a wall, you have completed the challenge.

13. Provide ROLE MODELS

14. Providing STEM Role Models: Trading Cards • Famous Women of STEM Trading Cards • 100 nominations from girls in grades K-12 • 3rd-7th graders interviewed for input • currently in use in grades 3-5

15. Providing STEM Role Models: Playing Cards • Famous Women of STEM Playing Cards

16. Encourage GROWTH MINDSET

17. Encourage Growth Mindset • Our learning is cultivated by our efforts and purposeful engagement • The bigger the challenge, the more we need to stretch • Essential skills to develop: self-efficacy, risk taking and resilience among others

18. Encourage Growth Mindset: Modeling Instruction Research indicates that a girl’s self-efficacy improves when modeling instruction is used. All Physics courses at Laurel School are taught using modeling instruction

19. Encourage Growth Mindset: Modeling Instruction Modeling instruction is a structured inquiry method that tasks students with developing models of the physical universe through experimentation.

20. Encourage Growth Mindset: Standards Based Grading • Standards Based Grading — SBG is a different way to look at assessment and reporting of knowledge to students. At Laurel, it consisted of two primary aspects: • The course content was divided into clearly communicated learning goals which students were assessed on. • Through continuous reassessment of the learning goals a student or teacher could track the areas of difficulty a student faced, the growth she showed and her level of retention.

22. Resources • Modeling Instruction Research: http://modeling.asu.edu/ • Positive Impacts of Modeling Instruction on Self-Efficacy, VashtiSawtelle, Eric Brewe, Laird H. Kramer, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th St, Miami, FL 33199 Department of Physics, Department of Teaching & Learning • Mindset The New Psychology of Success, Carol S. Dweck, PH.D