Girls’ Resource Guide to STEM Education

The STEM sub­jects of sci­ence, tech­nol­o­gy, engi­neer­ing, and math have often been areas of strength and inter­est for boys, but girls can be just as suc­cess­ful in STEM cours­es and careers. Jobs in these areas are often ones with high earn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, mak­ing it a good idea for any­one to pur­sue them. With a degree in a STEM field, you can be posi­tioned for life­long success.

Engag­ing Girls in STEM Programs

The Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics esti­mates that of the 20 fastest-grow­ing occu­pa­tions, 15 involve STEM skills, mak­ing these skills cru­cial for students.

Ten Rea­sons to Love Engineering

Engi­neer­ing can be an excit­ing career for any­one that involves cre­ativ­i­ty, inge­nu­ity, flex­i­bil­i­ty, and sig­nif­i­cant income.

Crea­ture Features

Explore the sci­ence of ani­mal biol­o­gy by doc­u­ment­ing crea­tures and their fea­tures in this game.

Tips for Encour­ag­ing Girls in STEM

Cur­rent­ly, girls are under­rep­re­sent­ed in STEM pro­fes­sions, but every­one can suc­ceed in these careers with the right prepa­ra­tion and opportunities.

Lend a Hand: Teach­ing Forces

This les­son plan presents an engi­neer­ing activ­i­ty that involves design­ing, build­ing, and test­ing a grip­per tool that will pick up a cup of sand.

Bet­ter Hair Through Chemistry

Apply­ing chem­istry to hair styling, stu­dents can explore the impact of humid­i­ty on hair to see how much longer a strand of hair becomes when humid­i­ty increases.

Sim­ple Machines Game

Try out this game to see how sim­ple machines can help to solve prob­lems using less force.

Den­si­ty Experiment

This STEM exper­i­ment helps stu­dents learn about den­si­ty using syrup, oil, and water in a glass jar. The exper­i­ment involves adding a piece of plas­tic, a grape, and a cork to see how each item reacts to the dif­fer­ent liquids.

Zero Waste Game

Play this game to learn about where waste goes, the dam­age it can cause to the envi­ron­ment, and how we can min­i­mize it.

Can We Feed the Grow­ing Population?

This les­son plan presents stu­dents with the issue of pro­duc­ing enough food to meet the needs of the peo­ple. Stu­dents need to look at how land is used, soil qual­i­ty, and crop production.

Imag­ine Your STEM Future (PDF)

With a focus on STEM dis­ci­plines, girls are encour­aged to notice prod­ucts and think about ways to improve them using sci­ence, tech­nol­o­gy, and engi­neer­ing prin­ci­ples. Units in this activ­i­ty pack­et include DNA extrac­tion from a banana and build­ing switch­es for a circuit.

This Is What STEM Looks Like (PDF)

The tra­di­tion­al per­cep­tion of a sci­en­tist has been male, but recent depic­tions of this career include more women, thanks to a con­cen­trat­ed effort to pro­vide girls with more STEM oppor­tu­ni­ties. Girls need edu­ca­tors and par­ents to advo­cate for them to ensure that they have a wealth of STEM opportunities.

Girls in Sci­ence and Engi­neer­ing (PDF)

This resource is designed to help cre­ate learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties specif­i­cal­ly for girls to encour­age their involve­ment in sci­ence and engineering.

STEM Chal­lenge: Tech­nol­o­gy (PDF)

With a focus on tech­nol­o­gy, this STEM chal­lenge offers many dif­fer­ent activ­i­ties designed to teach and enhance com­put­er skills.

Design­ing Sewn Cir­cuits and STEM Self-Effi­ca­cy in Mid­dle-School Girls (PDF)

Read about how girls com­bined a stereo­typ­i­cal­ly female skill, sewing, with engi­neer­ing to cre­ate com­put­er cir­cuits that peo­ple could wear and how this activ­i­ty increased their moti­va­tion to learn STEM skills.

Mak­ing Sci­ence and Tech­nol­o­gy Attrac­tive for Girls (PDF)

Mov­ing past gen­der stereo­types, girls can achieve all of the same goals in sci­ence and engi­neer­ing as boys, espe­cial­ly if they have men­tor­ing and encour­age­ment from edu­ca­tors and others.

A Clos­er Look at Mars

Learn­ing about Mars is just one sub­ject that girls and boys will explore as they dive into the sci­ence top­ics that are a part of STEM.

Make Breath­tak­ing Epsom Salt Crys­tals Overnight!

STEM exper­i­ments can involve fun activ­i­ties such as mak­ing Epsom salt crys­tals in a jar. Epsom salt is mag­ne­sium sul­fate, which forms crys­tals after absorb­ing water.

Flower Pow­er (PDF)

This les­son plan com­bines sci­ence and engi­neer­ing, giv­ing kids a chance to apply sci­en­tif­ic knowl­edge to learn about mol­e­cules, organ­isms, pat­terns, and more.

16 Sim­ple Sci­ence Activ­i­ties for Kids That Will Pique Their Curiosity

Sci­ence exper­i­ments can be sim­ple, involv­ing water evap­o­ra­tion, melt­ing ice, watch­ing as plant leaves absorb water, or using can­dy to inflate balloons.

Scrib­ble Bots

Build­ing a scrib­ble bot calls for a con­tain­er pow­ered by bat­ter­ies, mak­ing it able to move over a piece of paper to make designs with markers.

Clot­ting to the Res­cue: How to Stop Too Much Blood From Flowing

With a few mate­ri­als, stu­dents can learn about how blood clots nor­mal­ly and how spe­cial chem­i­cals can be used to affect how blood clots.

Biogra­phies of Female Mathematicians

Read­ing through the short biogra­phies of these female math­e­mati­cians can be moti­vat­ing for any girls con­sid­er­ing a math-focused career.

Rock­et Launch

Work through the steps in this activ­i­ty to learn about design­ing and build­ing a mod­el rock­et that can be launched safe­ly and successfully.

Low-Den­si­ty Super­son­ic Decel­er­a­tor (PDF)

Fol­low the steps to design and test a device that will slow down a space­craft so it won’t crash.

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