Welcome to the UT Austin Women in STEM (WiSTEM) K-12 STEM Outreach Workshop. This workshop content is designed to help you understand research-based effective practices in STEM outreach to K-12 audiences. These practices are also great for public STEM outreach and engagement, formal classroom STEM activities, out-of-school time STEM activities and more! 

The content below is best viewed on a computer and may be more difficult to watch and review on a phone or smaller screen.

The workshop will take about 30 minutes to watch and review. A completion certificate and a list of all the resources shared in the workshop presentation will be emailed to you upon completion of this online workshop. 

Strategies to Engage Girls (and All Kids) in STEM

 

Women in STEM at UT Austin employs the SciGirls approach throughout STEM Girl Day and all our programming. We encourage all organizations and volunteers to use the SciGirls Strategies rooted in research about how to engage girls (and all kids) in STEM. A quarter of a century of studies have converged on a set of common strategies that work, and these have become SciGirls Strategies to Engage Girls in STEM:

 

1. Connect STEM experiences to girls' lives.
2. Support girls as they investigate questions and solve problems using STEM practices.
3. Empower girls to embrace struggle, overcome challenges, and increase self-confidence in STEM.
4. Encourage girls to identify and challenge STEM stereotypes.
5. Emphasize that STEM is collaborative, social, and community-oriented.
6. Provide opportunities for girls to interact with and learn from diverse STEM role models.

 

Read more about the strategies, how to incorporate them into your activities, and the research behind them in the SciGirls Strategies to Engage Girls in STEM guidebook. Again, these are research-based effective practices that engage ALL kids in STEM!

 

Our STEM Message: Please help us send the right message about science, technology, engineering, and math! 

 

DiscoverE conducted a major study called "Messages Matter" to understand and inform the messages we portray to pre-college students about engineering….and we apply these and earlier messaging research by the National Academy of Engineering to STEM Girl Day and exciting girls and all kids about STEM. Recommendations from the research are as follows:

 

• Use the word ‘create’ not ‘build’ – talk about what you create, design, and imagine in your work.
• Use the following five words in describing engineering: discovery, design, imagination, innovation, and contribution – use these words to describe the work you do; how do you get to discover, design, imagine, innovate, and contribute in your career?
• Describe engineers (and STEM professionals) as creative problem solvers, essential to health, happiness, and safety – how are you a creative problem solver, and how does the work you do help make our world a better place…figure out how to connect your day-to-day job to our world, environment, lives, etc.
• Share how being an engineer (or working in STEM) can be a financially secure career path.
• Emphasize that engineers (and STEM professionals) shape the future – not sure how? Check out the “Engineering Grand Challenges” video and info (http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/) to get some more ideas about how to talk about the future of engineering and our need for all these fabulous young women to become engineers!
• Share your failures and struggles – this helps students understand they don’t have to be perfect to be an engineer and that we can all be fantastic engineers with hard work and problem-solving!
• Stop reinforcing the images of ‘nerdy and boring’ – avoid using these types of words in your conversation.
• Stop focusing on math and science as the needed inputs and instead focus on the outputs, career opportunities, and making a difference in the world – avoid emphasizing the requirement to be excellent in math and science as that is a given, and the students understand that; instead, focus on what they can do with a STEM degree and how they can impact our world.

 

Role Models Matter in Engaging Kids in STEM

 

We encourage role models and volunteers to use research-based best practices to engage girls (and all kids) in STEM.

 

1. Make personal connections to dispel stereotypes - share your hobbies, what you liked in school, your pets, etc.
2. Use positive messaging - be encouraging and highlight accomplishments and successes in what the kids are doing with activities.
3. Share your passion - if you aren't passionate about STEM, kids won't be either.
4. Make it hands-on and interactive.
5. Foster a growth mindset and promote perseverance - instead of saying things like "that's a smart idea", focus on things you can see such as "I see how you connected these pieces to make it move."; use questions such as "how might you improve your design?" or "how might you redo it to make it stronger/faster/higher". Saying "you are so smart" implies innate ability and can limit students from trying things in which they may fail (which is all of STEM!).

 

Check out the SciGirls Role Models strategies and the Techbridge Role Model Training for additional resources and best practices.

Watch and listen to the WiSTEM K-12 STEM Outreach Workshop Prezi presentation. Turn your sound on to hear the audio. Click the > at the bottom of the screen to navigate to the next section throughout the presentation. The full presentation will take about 30 minutes to navigate through. Resources shared in the workshop will be included in the email sent to you upon conclusion of this online workshop.

We recommend you view it in full-screen mode which might be easier using a different window in your browser. Click the following link to open up a new window and return to this window to complete the workshop: https://prezi.com/view/6FobtHEZSJaCzOhPf1gh/.

Thank you for taking the time to explore and learn research-based effective practices in K-12 STEM outreach.

Hit the "Submit" button below to complete the workshop. A completion certificate and a list of all the resources shared in the workshop presentation will be emailed to you automatically once you hit "Submit". Check your spam folder if you do not see it in your inbox.

Questions may be directed to wistem@utexas.edu.