On Wednesday (the 8th of March), the world will be celebrating International Women’s Day #IWD2017, asking the question will you #BeBoldForChange?
Stemettes will, of course, be boldly and proudly recognising all of the ‘STEMazing’ contributions made by women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM). The month of March is also ‘Women’s History Month’ – a chance for us all to celebrate women in STEM, from the past, present and future.
A report released last week found that young girls across Europe become interested in STEM subjects around 11 years old but lose interest by 15, so it’s important to nurture their passion and interest before they turn their backs on these subjects for good. We know that it is especially important for girls to have ‘hot interactions’ with women in STEM, a key component at any Stemettes event.
Girls in this age group from The Gilberd School (@GilberdSchool) in Essex and The Ursuline Academy in Ilford (@IlfordUrsuline) have recently experienced this as part of our Stemettes & Schools programme. Naima, a STEM insight teacher at Ursuline Academy has blogged about her favourite moments from a ‘STEM In a Day’ school trip to technology giant Accenture.
“Our girls felt honoured to be invited to this location and were thrilled by the size of the building and also the view of the Shard from the Accenture offices […] The girls were then set a brief to design an App using ‘Appshed’ to be used at a music festival […]It was an informative and exciting day!”
See the full post here.
We also recently teamed up with the University of Essex to host almost 70 girls at a hackathon. One of the schools in attendance was The Gilberd School
“They loved the suite and ergonomic wheelie chairs demanding ” Get us these chairs please miss”. Students designed, created and presented their web App creation. “We love this, can we do more of this”. One of our group presentations won judges’ choice best on creativity and use of technology i.e. incorporating YouTube links and more. All round an enjoyable event.”
Across our Stemettes & Schools programme, participants rate their experience 8.2 out of 10. 71% are interested in doing more coding, and 86% are already looking forward to their next Stemette experience.
So all that’s left to ask is, Will You Be Bold For Change?
