Work in progress: A STEM educational outreach day for young females

Abstract

The existing gender disparities in the sciences, especially in the field of engineering, underscore the need for outreach programs to engage young women in such areas. Many programs exist for high school students, but girls may be turned away from engineering at an earlier age. FEMMES (females excelling more in math, engineering, and science) is an annual free, one-day event, which provides an exciting, hands-on experience for 4th-6th grade girls from Durham, North Carolina, to encourage them to further explore their potential in these fields. Over 150 participants come to Duke to attend interactive activities designed and led by female faculty. To assess the programpsilas effectiveness, surveys were completed by participants before and after the event. Each participant assessed her own interest, knowledge, and confidence in math, science, and engineering on a scale of 1 to 10. With respect to engineering, the mean post-event values were significantly higher than pre-event values in all three categories (p < .001). The increase value (plusmn 95% confidence interval) for each category was the following: interest 1.32 (plusmn 0.57); knowledge 1.94 (plusmn 0.58); confidence 1.66 (plusmn 0.63). The increases for engineering were also notably larger than the math and science values, indicating that this type of event especially influences attitudes toward engineering.