​
Back in 2015, President Barack Obama announced that science “is more than a school subject, or the periodic table, or the properties of waves. It is an approach to the world, a critical way to understand and explore and engage with the world, and then have the capacity to change that world..." It was during this time that the U.S Department of Education developed a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education initiative to teach these skills to America’s children.

Why STEM?

Technology isn’t going anywhere. STEM jobs are on the rise in America and throughout the world. Observatory on Borderless Higher Education has called the current job market  a “global race for STEM skills.”  Indeed, STEM fields will continue to be some of the most in-demand, highest-paying jobs in the world. Did I mention they’re also some of the happiest and most fulfilling jobs?

STEM for Girls

STEM skills are not just for boys. There is a huge need for more women throughout the STEM industry. Sadly, few girls major in computer science or related fields and there is a huge gender gap in the tech field, including Silicon Valley. By starting at home and in the classroom, and by inspiring a love of STEM subjects in our girls while they are still young, we can hopefully encourage more diversity and better representation in this important field.

STEM Resources

No child is too young (or too old) to start learning about science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. Here are some of our favorite resources for children and teenagers.
 
Preschool

Goldiblox creates wonderful, educational toys for girls ages 4 years and older. Meanwhile, Tynker can be a fun way to teach computer coding to young children. Need more ideas for younger kids? Here’s a great roundup of STEM activities for preschoolers.
 
Elementary School

Elementary aged children can have fun learning computer coding and video game development, especially when combined with their favorite video game: Minecraft. This curriculum, which uses Minecraft to teach kids Java and JavaScript for video game development, is geared toward children ages 7 to 12 years.

Middle School

While the Minecraft curriculum mentioned above is still age-appropriate for middle schoolers, your child might also be longing for something different. Why not “graduate” to more advanced (and lifelike) video game development?

Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4 is a powerful and, not to mention, free video game creation engine. After ensuring that your computer meets the minimum requirements to run the software, you might explain to your child that Unreal Engine 4 is used by professional video game developers to create some of the most popular video games on the planet. It has also been used to create virtual reality worlds, special effects animations, and has even been used by the space industry. It’s intuitive to use and with plenty of online tutorials and free (and paid) resources available for download, just imagine what your child can create!
 
High School

High schoolers can benefit from lesson plans that are more advanced and include more “real world” projects. While some of the lessons mentioned above, including Unreal Engine, would work well for high schoolers as well, they might also benefit from some of the lessons mentioned here. You could use this as an opportunity to teach your teen about financial literacy and prepare him or her for a possible future career in real estate, banking, accounting, or even design.

Keep in mind that the resources listed above are not an exhaustive list. By doing a quick Google search, you can find many more resources, curriculum outlines, lesson plans, and activities. You might even search for local STEM clubs for children in your area. If you’re interested in paying for STEM lessons, iD Tech offers a summer camp program for children in preschool through high school. Need something online? Skillcrush and Treehouse are two paid options with beginners’ coding classes that could easily work for high schoolers. 

This blog was written by Julie Morris. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule.

During a recent drive to work, I listened to an NPR broadcast of an interview with Michelle Obama.  The interviewer asked her “Do you have any regrets?” I was a bit surprised at the former first lady’s response: “yes”.  When she continued (and I’m paraphrasing here) “I regret that I didn’t find my voice when I was younger. That I spent time in awe of the people who were sitting at the table, thinking that they knew so much more than me.  But when I arrived at the big table, I found that the others really didn’t know anything more than I did. So, I regret that I didn’t put my ideas out there when I was younger.”
I think that what Michelle Obama was saying was that she regrets not being more of a leader earlier in her life.  As John Maxwell (1) defines it: “Leadership is Influence. Nothing more, and nothing less.” So how do you come to have influence?  I think there are 3 simple guidelines for this.

• Know your stuff.  You don’t have to be the expert or have the most technical knowledge, but you can’t influence others (i.e. get your ideas adopted), especially in a technical field, if you aren’t competent.  Find people who know more than you, and use their knowledge to compliment what you are learning through your studies and your experiences. Form relationships with these people, so you can rely on their guidance throughout your career. Don’t be afraid to ask questions (it does NOT make you look stupid!), and recognize that “knowing your stuff” is a lifelong endeavor.  When you are competent, you can also be confident, which is a requirement for a good influencer, and thus a good leader.
• Know yourself.  By this I mean be honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses.  Contrary to what you might think, you should focus a larger part of your time and effort on building upon your strengths, not on improving your weaknesses.  When you know and recognize your limits, you can strive to build teams that include people who have strength in your weak areas, freeing you up to focus on what you do best.  Self-reflection is a fantastic way to increase your knowledge of yourself, and again you should tap on others for feedback to help you gain insight into what you do well and what you don’t.  And take that feedback as a gift! Even though it might be painful to hear from someone you respect that you have gaps in your skillset, it is invaluable information for you to use to improve your effectiveness. This feedback should be used to self-correct: to deliberately modify the way you show up to others.   I also call this being coachable. If you always respond to feedback with an excuse or explanation of why you are right or why it is someone else’s fault, people will stop giving you the very feedback that could help you continue to grow.
• Know your team.  Following up the idea of knowing yourself and your strengths and weaknesses, you need to invest in knowing the same of your teammates.  The best teams are combinations of people with different strengths -- this allows the team to achieve more than what the individuals could by working separately. This is huge!  When you are working against technical and time deadlines (does that sound familiar??), multiplying your effectiveness by having team members with complimentary skillsets is invaluable!  Knowing others takes empathy (that is understanding and sharing the emotions of others). By understanding what motivates others, you can help them better know themselves and work to build upon their strengths.   This is so important as a leader, because people want to align themselves with someone who not only gets results, but who also makes them perform better, too.

Recognize that as a female in a technical field you will more than likely find yourself in the minority quite often.  That can be a GOOD THING. Being different makes you stand out, and demonstrating and growing your leadership skills gets you selected for increased responsibility.  I think that you can recognize that you have tremendous opportunities to build on these ideas as a female participant in the FIRST program. So, go out there and find the work that motivates you, that helps you “relish achievement for its own sake (2)”.  And develop your leadership skills so that your voice can be heard early on – so you don’t look back with regret that you didn’t have the confidence to influence the conversation sooner. I can’t wait to follow you FIRST Ladies into a very bright future.

References

1. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, by John C. Maxwell, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1998
2. “What makes a Leader” by Daniel Goleman, published by the Harvard Business Review, 1998

This blog was written by Joyce Witowski, mentor of FRC team 2468. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule. ​​​​​

Joyce Witowski has over 30 years of experience as an engineer and leader in the area of semiconductor manufacturing technology.  She has held a variety of technical and leadership positions at Intel, General Electric, KLA-Tencor and NXP, spanning process engineering and operations, applications engineering, sales, procurement and quality.  She is currently the Director of front-end quality at NXP Semiconductor in Austin, Texas.  Joyce holds a BA in Chemistry from Washington and Jefferson College and an MS in Chemical Engineering from Clarkson University.  She has been a mentor for FRC team 2468 for the past 9 years, focusing mostly on project management and outreach.

As a middle school student in a program dedicated to the Humanities and Communications and comprised of around 90% girls, I believed my obligatory future lay in the liberal arts. Despite my gradually growing passions for mathematics and the sciences, I suppressed my interests in school projects to walk a path similar to that of other girls who loved film and media. By the end of my first quarter in middle school, I had essentially deluded myself in the belief that I needed to precisely mirror others in my grade.
    Later that year my dad volunteered to be a judge at the FIRST Tech Challenge Maryland Championship that was being held at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, inviting my brother and me along to watch the competition. Touring the presentation area, I was astounded to discover such complex robots and became fascinated with the obscure, undeveloped idea of engineering I had generated at the time. When qualifying matches began in the field area, however, I was disheartened to discover solely or mostly male drive teams. Perceiving the lack of girls controlling and mobilizing the robot at this competition, though not extinguishing my newly kindled interest in FIRST, was a discouraging experience that instituted tighter chains around my cage of doubt. Yet, as I attended more and more qualifiers and state championships over the years, I noted increased female representation and consequently grew a small kernel of hope that I, too, could become an integral member of a FTC team.
    This dream, initially overshadowed by disbelief and apprehension, came into fruition when I applied to a local FTC team through my high school in my sophomore year. My acceptance into Team 5421, RM’d and Dangerous, which I had seen competing even during my middle school years, has opened new doors and allowed me to integrate myself in STEM more closely than ever before. The other girls in my team have additionally given me priceless encouragement, and I am extremely fortunate to have been able to overcome the intimidating, male-only notion of STEM engendered in me early on.
    I hope that girls who may be facing such challenges in the present can realize that their futures are not determined by others. Similarly, I aspire that girls will be able to discover a network and community of unique individuals to support them throughout their STEM journey. My greatest piece of advice as someone whose hesitation and uncertainty transformed into passion and confidence is thus to not be afraid to deviate from the norm and instead embrace a new direction. After all, individuality in STEM can only foster, not hinder, both personal and collective growth.

This blog was written by Katie Kolodner of FTC team 5421 RM'd and Dangerous. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule. ​​​​​