STEM Program for Girls

by Bailey Basham, Messenger Intern
Jamie Treadwell, Education Director at the Hands on Science Center (HOSC) in Tullahoma was one of 15 science education program leaders to attend a workshop in Miami focused on marketing STEM programs to young girls. STEM is an acronym for the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.
The workshop, Exhibit Design for Girls Engagement (EDGE), was facilitated by the San Francisco Exploratorium and funded by a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The goal of the workshop was to educate those in attendance on how to create girl-friendly exhibits and programs.
“There is currently a trend towards girls-only programs so that they are less intimidated,” said Treadwell. “Because STEM has been perceived as a male topic, there are fewer women who seek careers that are math- and science-based. We are trying to change those perceptions to encourage girls to consider careers in the field of science.”
Unlike more traditional marketing strategies, Treadwell said the EDGE workshop taught her that making everything pink isn’t necessarily the way to appeal to girls.
“It’s not about making things pink—even though that’s what everyone thinks. It’s about making it more friendly and familiar, making things have a more homey feel with less technology, steel and chrome,” said Treadwell. “Traditionally speaking, technology is chrome, gears and high-tech. That’s intimidating to women and also a lot of people that don’t consider themselves tech-savvy. By making it more welcoming to girls, you’re making it more welcoming to people in general.”
Following the workshop, Treadwell coordinated a camp specifically for first through sixth grade girls interested in STEM. This camp was recently held at HOSC in July.
Kellye Burns, HOSC intern and physics major at Clemson University, served as a camp director for the STEM program.
For Burns, giving girls the opportunity to study STEM just makes sense.
“Humans love to tell stories, and the greatest story that we could hope to tell is the story of us. It is impossible to talk about human history without talking about the invention of the wheel, the use of simple machines to build the pyramids, the bridges we built, the weapons we redesigned and going to the moon. STEM is the language we use to write our story,” said Burns. “Now imagine only letting half of the population write the story. Take our story and cut it in half. Delete Sally Ride’s trips to space. Delete Madam Curie’s discoveries about radioactivity. Delete Joan Clarke’s work with computers and crypt-analysis. Delete all of the chapters like this, and no one is going to buy the book.
That is why it is important that girls have just as much opportunity to study STEM. It’s not about equal pay. It’s not about diversity. It’s not about using “women” as a buzzword to get more grants. It’s about filling our space in the universe, and men cannot do it alone.”
Burns said it was her goal at the camp to empower the girls with the tools and understanding to overcome the struggles they might face in the world of STEM. The girls left the camp with their interests in STEM validated, but they weren’t the only ones who were rewarded.
“At the end of the camp, every girl walked out excited to talk to their parents about astronomy or about estimating the amount of Ping-Pong balls in a box or about how they got to Skype a female graduate student at CERN,” said Burns. “I watched those young girls become extraordinary.”
The HOSC is located at 101 Mitchell Blvd. in Tullahoma. It is open Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. For more information go to <www.hosc.org>.