Engaging young people, especially girls, with tech education and STEM subjects is absolutely crucial. Over the pandemic situation, we’ve come to rely on technology like never before. But with gender bias around school subjects appearing as early as key stage two, how do we ensure our girls know that there are fun, exciting opportunities in tech for them?
Challenges for Girls in Tech
Do your kids love their extracurricular activities? From cricket to coding, kids thrive on doing something that breaks up the routine of scheduled learning — whether that’s at home or in the school setting. Plus, those extra hours after school or on a weekend help provide a more well-rounded education than academic learning alone, whilst letting your children explore their passions. The weekend coders of today can be the tech leaders of the future! But did you know that extracurricular activities have real benefits for mental health, too?
Resilience
What a year it has been. Because of the unprecedented Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, communities have completely transformed. Businesses have irrevocably changed — and in some instances, sadly disappeared. Physically, families have been apart — but they’ve also learned how to stay closer via digital means. We take a look back over 2020 and glance forward to what 2021 might bring in terms of STEM education and tech education, especially for our children.
What the Pandemic has Taught Us
Right-back in April of 2020, we realised that the pandemic was showing us that it’s more important than ever that girls get a head start with tech education…
Generation Z, definition: The group of people who were born in the US and Western Europe after 2001 (Cambridge English Dictionary)
Gen Z is the first generation to grow up entirely surrounded by what we perceive as modern technology. During their lives, there have always been computers, consoles, mobile phones, and some form of social media.
Because of this, and improving STEM education, Gen Z has a unique relationship with technology that perhaps eludes older generations. …
It’s a long, long time since “children should be seen and not heard” was a widespread saying amongst adults. Thankfully, most parents and carers accept that children are naturally loud and inquisitive, and give them the space to explore and experiment. But listening to our kids isn’t just about indulging so-called childish whims. It’s about acknowledging that they may have genuine insights and ideas that we haven’t yet uncovered. How do we ensure that we’re creating an open and welcoming space for our young voices in coding and STEM?
STEM education has never been more crucial. Yet there are gaps in what happens at school that can only be filled with the help of extracurricular events. Community technology events allow children, young people, and even adults to meet like-minded folks and gain some real hands-on experience in the realms of coding, robotics, and more. If you’ve ever been to one of these events, you’ll know how engaging and inspiring they can be. But do you know what goes on behind the scenes?
A leading charity recently noted something interesting and a little distressing. During video game design competitions split into concept and making, girls gravitated toward the concept category. The number of girls getting involved in actually making the games was much lower. We wondered, what makes girls shy away from turning their concepts into real-life creations?
A Boys’ Club
Sound familiar? All too many young people feel like they have to focus all their energy in one direction if they’re going to “make it” in that area. Fashion fans want to learn about design, fabrics, style, and possibly related aspects like business and accounting. It might not be obvious, at first glance, that coding and tech education are going to be a crucial part of a fashionista’s world. But, the fact is, technology is interwoven into the material of most career choices in the modern world.
We all naturally learn from one another through observation, listening, and interaction. When kids play together, they learn how to share, how to work together, and how their differences become strengths. Kids in the playground become fascinated with the games of other kids, and teach each other their own games in return. Wouldn’t it be amazing if this willingness to share knowledge and experience could spill over into education?
It turns out, it already has. Peer to peer learning amongst the younger generation is becoming a real force for effective education, particularly in the hands-on world of STEM.
What is Peer to Peer Learning?
Peer to…
Everyone learns in a different way. But the general consensus is that hands-on learning, particularly for children, has a powerful impact that typical “classroom” style learning tends to lack. Learning coding by doing has the following advantages:
- Better retention of the subject- kids tend to remember more when they are making or creating
- The chance to practice what they’ve learnt
- Seeing the real-life impacts of coding and technology
- It teaches problem-solving skills that can be applied in all walks of life
- A variety of different ways to learn, for example, some will use trial and error whilst others will plan…
Girls Into Coding
We engage girls in STEM activities, education, and careers supporting them through hands-on workshops and events.
