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Sydney
I appreciate you asking your question. The late Sally Ride, the first US female NASA astronaut made involving girls in STEM a high priority throughout her efforts called Sally Ride Science. Leland Melvin, retired NASA astronaut (2 flights aboard ISS)-and prior head of NASA education is also speaking out on this topic.
Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin recently hosted a summit called the role of men in supporting women in STEM, w/ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Robert Lightfoot, Acting NASA administrator, opened up the discussion talking about his two daughters, and stayed the entire day! URL below. One speaker, from SAP shared how it recently met its goal to have 25% of all Exec leadership positions filled by women (it took them 7 years to get there). So at certain levels, it is not about a lack of emphasis or desire. Several studies were shared about the increase in productivity, innovation and creativity when diversity exist in business teams!
Maybe it is about a deliberate intentionality to mentor/inform teachers, counselors, and administrators with how they might better recruit, support and encourage girls involvement in STEM!
See:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/second-annual-women-in-stem-conference-brings-men-into-the-equation
Girls that code has this obviously as a focus as well.
Thanks for bringing this important topic forward for discussion.
I wonder what STEM support curriculum encourages females? I know NSTA's competitions offer a wide range of potential areas for exploration or engineering designed solutions and many teams have female participation!
See:
Http:www.nsta.org/competitions
Cheers
Al
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