Mentorship and guidance offered to students to undertake STEAM education is critical for the overall success of the student.
How can we engage more girls in STEAM?
1. Provide girl-centered programming so students can see themselves reflected in the curriculum.
2. Introduce authentic hands-on challenges that are relatable and centered around connecting and supporting the community.
3. Assist girls in building their toolbox to solve complex problems that encourage understanding, application, and empathy while focusing on mistake-making as an asset.
4. Work alongside and learn in parallel with STEM/STEAM community mentors who participants see as role models.
5. Build real-world connections to STEM/STEAM by engaging guest speakers and a career-focused curriculum so students see how this learning relates to their future.
Wisdom Capsule: Caroline Karimi Nyaga
The Team
Women in STEAM Initiative is a female led organisation of enthusiastic, philanthropic passionate STEM educators from different STEM fields. We boast the presence of Educationists, a Computer Scientist, a Biochemist, a Civil Engineer, a Medical practitioner, a Data Scientist, An Electrical Engineer, a Mechanical Engineer and a Statistician. We are passionate about empowering girls and young women with STEM to increase the number of girls in STEM career pathways. What a better way of doing this than being the trainers and mentors.
By working in groups, or even as one connected learning community in Women in STEAM, students are able to simulate the style of work they will likely encounter when they enter the workforce — a place where teamwork is often expected.
Proper communication is an extremely important skill that, if not taken seriously, can prevent the advancements of STEAM related research and technological, at Women in STEAM, we emphasize the girls to be effective communicators by giving them a chance to express themselves.
Creativity helps students to communicate their ideas effectively and work well with others in a collaborative setting which is the core skill at Women in STEAM.
The critical thinking skills which STEAM programs in Women in STEAM initiative provides helps the students develop aspects of analysis, interpretation, inference, evaluation, explanation and self-reflection. These core skills as well as numeracy are vital for solving today’s complex problems.