High School Females Get Creative with Robotics
The White House Initiative on Education Excellence For Hispanics released an update titled, "Hispanics and STEM Education". This update released the following data:
"Hispanics made up 16% of the U.S. population in 2010, only earned 8 percent
of all certificates and degrees awarded in the STEM fields
between 2009 and 2010. Hispanics are
underrepresented in undergraduate and graduate STEM
programs and are not sufficiently exposed to STEM
subjects at the K-12 Levels."
My high school, Thomas Edison High School is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 80% of our student population is Latino.
Over the past four years, the school robotics team has been all boys. The girls were not interested in joining. The goal of this project is to focus on the high school female students. I want to introduce and encourage all high school females into the world of robotics, so that they will be able to design, build and operate their own robot. The goal of having a girls only robotics team, will allow the girls to learn and explore, have a voice and develop their skills in decision making, analytical, writing and speaking skills. This will be a wonderful opportunity for the females to figure things out without the concern of the boys stepping in and taking charge. Girls can have fun and learn without trying to impress the boys. They can make mistakes without feeling embarrassed in front of the boys.
We can change future future data of Hispanics and STEM Education by introducing the females in to this STEM project with hands on experience.
This team will be open to all females yet, we will concentrate on the 9th grade girls. This will give the 9th grade ladies four years of experience before applying to college.
https://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/list/hispanic-initiative/stem-factsheet.pdf