Girls and robots: C-STEM Camp breaks gender barriers

Girls and Robots: What Gender Stereotypes?

By California State University, Bakersfield

August 7^th, 2019

Chalk it up as a scientific breakthrough: CSUB invited 20 of the brightest young girls in the area to the university’s recent C-STEM Girls Robotics Leadership Camp recently, a first-of-its-kind program designed to open doors in a male-dominated world.

The camp - hosted by the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and the School of Social Sciences and Education - offered exercises, activities and presentations by women in science-related fields.

“The goal is to teach them some basic robotics and leadership skills to build confidence,” said Dr. Andrea Medina, director of grants and outreach.

All 20 participants – from grades seven through nine - were hand-selected for the pilot program.

Girls and robots: C-STEM Camp breaks gender barriers

“Women are historically under-represented in C-STEM majors and careers and due to cultural norms and gender biases, girls and women are often disempowered from seeing themselves as scientists from a young age,” said Dr. Brittney Beck, assistant professor of teacher education. “Middle school is an especially crucial time in which girls feel pressured to define themselves and their place in the world. Through this camp, we hope to ensure C-STEM disciplines become part of their sense of possibility.”

The hope of organizers is to build the capacity of the campers to develop their own program codes for use with robots; challenge campers to apply their new programming knowledge to create a video featuring the robots addressing an issue of community concern; and to prepare campers to identify and disrupt stereotypes about women in C-STEM fields.

By the second day, the students were already exceeding the expectations of the organizers.

“We had initially planned an obstacle course for them to navigate with their robots,” Dr. Beck said. “By the end of day one, they were creating their own obstacle courses that were far more complex than the ones created for them.”

In the midst of construction paper, felt wires, and other craft materials were projects for their final presentations: A video with sets and objects they created themselves addressing a social issue and offering a solution to it.

Kimberly Garay, who will be an eighth-grader this year, said her favorite part of the week was the coding.

As for the most challenging?

“Trying to control the robots,” she said.

On Thursday afternoon, the girls were so engaged in their final projects that they missed their lunch break. In fact, Dr. Beck said organizers noticed that many of the campers were choosing to code during their breaks.

“We hope they take away three main mindsets: One, girls and women are capable of excelling in C-STEM fields; two, they are capable of being leaders in STEM in their schools and communities; and, three, they have the power to identify and solve problems in our community with their developing C-STEM skills.”