BY PAWAN WANDER W
hen we started the Girls STEAM Team at Beau- monde Heights Junior Middle School, we weren’t
just creating a club – we were carving out a space where girls could see themselves as builders, coders and innovators in a world that too oſten tells them otherwise. A few years earlier, in 2019, I had launched
a school-wide initiative to encourage robot- ics, coding and programming in our school community. It was a loſty goal, especially for myself, since my knowledge and understand- ing of these areas were limited at the time. Instead of teaching these concepts myself, I
created a mentorship program where older students guided younger ones. It started off great, but something very in-
teresting began to happen aſter the first few weeks: the girls stopped coming. At first, I just thought it was boredom or perhaps that the weather was becoming too warm to be indoors at lunch. But aſter speaking with a few of the girls who used to be regulars in the program, I learned a different story.
“Te boys don’t let us do anything.” “Tey told us we’re doing it wrong.” “Tey keep hogging the robots!” Tis was also the case when we intro-
duced Minecraſt Club in the 2023-24 school
year. Te boys were dominating these clubs, both in leadership and in attendance. Te few girls who were keen in the beginning eventually stopped coming.
THE NEED FOR GIRLS-FOCUSED STEAM SPACES
It had never occurred to me that the girls were being pushed out of participating in these STEM opportunities. In my naiveté, I assumed that the gender divide began at the post-secondary or postgraduate level, not at the tender and impressionable age of the In- termediate students I teach. Aſter reflecting on what had happened
the previous years, I attended the Break- ing Barriers: Girls in STEM conference at
ELEMENTARY TEACHERS’ FEDERATION OF ONTARIO 17
PHOTOS BY CHRISTINE COUSINS
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