Girls Inc. part of nationwide push to reverse backsliding in STEM gender gap after pandemic
Anna Hussey clamors for another helping of “Earth” last week as class facilitator Hazel Simmons passes out leftovers of the planet snacks used to make an edible solar system during a STEM-focused lesson at Girls Inc. An Associated Press study found boys now outscore girls in math in 87% of more than 5,000 school districts across 33 states — a reversal from 2019, when girls had pulled ahead of boys in most districts.
Careful not to knock elbows with those around her, Ivy Fontenot, 10, merrily wielded a dull knife to roughly chop apple slices symbolizing chunks of planet Earth.
To her side, other girls used their hoodie sleeves as oven mitts to hold up a tray of lemon cookies while others mashed raspberries on the surface to resemble the volcanic landscape of Mars.
“I just like all of space,” said a smiling Ivy.
Crowded around her fellow members of Girls Inc. — the local chapter of a national group that supports young girls in seeking out interesting, challenging work — she remarked not on how the edible facets of a solar system diorama would be tasty but on how celestial origins are fascinating.
“ I just want to know how they existed in the first place and how we existed in the first place,” Ivy said, adding she once wanted to be an astronaut to get a closer look at the stars.
“ But it’s very scary and dangerous up there,” she later learned of space, saying she now sees herself working with marine animals in aquariums or zoos.
The efforts of Girls Inc. to hold hands-on STEM lessons and provide mentorship opportunities are a small piece of longtime nationwide efforts by schools and community organizations to ignite interest in male-dominated STEM fields like math and science among young girls and women. Those efforts had in the past proven successful at reducing math test score gaps between genders — progress that has now been reversed after the coronavirus pandemic, new data shows.
