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
What the research tells us about
shaping STEM for girls
 Teach STEM with a Purpose
 Promote Tinkering
 Provide Role
Models
 Encourage Growth
Mindset
STEM with a PURPOSE
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
Promote TINKERING
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
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.
Provide ROLE MODELS
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
Providing STEM Role Models: Playing Cards
 Famous Women of
STEM Playing Cards
Encourage GROWTH MINDSET
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
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
Encourage Growth Mindset: Modeling Instruction
 Modeling instruction is a structured inquiry method that tasks
students with developing models of the physical universe
through experimentation.
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.
Promoting
Tinkering
Well-being
Spatial Skills
Brain
Training
Researchbased
Curricula
STEM with a
Purpose
Stereotype
Threat
STEM Role
Models
Self-Esteem in
Middle School
Parent
Education
Outreach
Academic and
Popular
Publications
Biennial
Symposium
21st Century Athenas:
Aligning
Achievement & Wellbeing
Play and
Learning
Original
Research
Resources
•
Modeling Instruction Research: http://modeling.asu.edu/
•
Positive Impacts of Modeling Instruction on Self-Efficacy, Vashti Sawtelle, 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