Egg-stra special program for tech-interested girls
Teams build parachutes to see if they can give an egg a soft landing
KITCHENER — These girls are going to rock the sciences even if it means breaking some eggs along the way. Literally.
One after the other they dropped eggs from above onto a gymnasium floor, trying not to break them after wrapping them in sponges and crafting parachutes using cardboard, paper, tissue and elastics.
It’s a design-and-construction experiment to get kids working together to solve a problem. Most teams kept their eggs intact, a promising result at the ‘Code Like a Girl’ science showcase.
Thursday’s event brought 101 middleschool girls to Grand River Collegiate in a bid to keep them engaged in science, technology, engineering and math. Research shows that many girls lose interest in sciences in Grades 7 and 8, leaving a field dominated by boys and then by men.
Girls guess this is partly because technology is seen as nerdy and girls at that age worry about being perceived that way. It’s hard to resist gender stereotypes in which boys do tech and girls do not. And girls have fewer role models.
“I feel like there’s stereotypes sometimes, the science nerd, and people don’t want to fall into those stereotypes,” said Natasha Diskic, 14.
“There’s also the stereotype that it’s more of a boy thing. So maybe girls feel like sometimes they can’t do it, it’s not for them,” said Marija Sukara, 13.
They’re both interested in sciences and math and still believe the best way forward is to do what you love.
Girls who pursue science and technology often find themselves outnumbered or alone among the boys.
“Being the only is hard,” said Siobhan Watters, a vice-principal at Grand River who remembers at times being the only girl in the room while studying sciences.
Halley Matthews, 18, is the only girl in her electronics class at Grand River. She’d like to see more girls there. “It was a struggle. You just have to power through,” she said.
Matthews has stayed with it in part be-
cause she likes working with her hands. In September she plans to study electrical engineering technology at Georgian College.
Code Like a Girl is a made-in-Waterloo initiative founded by Dinah Davis, a technology executive. “Our whole purpose is to amplify the voice of women in tech and to get young girls interested in considering careers in technology,” she said.
Davis spoke to the girls along with Sean Yo, a technology manager who edits the organization’s online publication.
Ruby Lyons, 12, liked what she heard. “Science and math are my two favourite subjects. You’re always learning new things. There’s a lot of trial and error,” she said.
She works with a lot of boys and hasn’t let stereotypes push her off her interests. But it was fun to be among so many girls. “I just find working with girls is easier than boys,” she said.