Girlstart Sparks Curiosity and Confidence
“I belong in STEM, my ideas matter, I am smart and capable, and I can do great things.” ~ Girlstart mantra
Every Wednesday, 50 fourth and fifth grade girls at Carver Elementary gather after school to learn about science, creativity, and problem-solving then leave empowered to explore STEM careers while making a difference in their classrooms and beyond. “Despite making up nearly half of the U.S. workforce and holding as many undergraduate degrees as men overall, women are still vastly underrepresented in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) sector. STEM challenges need new ideas and solutions, and girls and women are often not invited to the table. This is where Girlstart comes in!” says Sarah Guenther-Moore, marketing and communications manager for Girlstart – an Austin-based women-led organization that seeks to empower girls through STEM education.
Girlstart serves girls in fourth and fifth grades – a critical time in their lives when they start forming identities and explore future careers. “Young girls often show interest in STEM, but the pipeline starts leaking in their middle school and high school years as stereotyping and external biases start to take hold. Those who choose to pursue STEM often continue to face significant challenges such as a lack of role models, resources, and mentorship,” Sarah says. Through a curriculum fostering interest in STEM while instilling confidence, resilience, and community, Girlstart is inspiring the next generation of women in STEM.
That impactful work is happening right here in GISD, where Girlstart is offered at five elementary campuses — Carver, Cooper, McCoy, Mitchell, and Wolf Ranch. Since Girlstart came to GISD nine years ago, the organization has served just over 2,000 girls, with Carver now home to the largest branch of the initiative in Central Texas.
BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
Girlstart meetings at GISD schools are led by students from the University of Texas and Southwestern University who are members of the organization. At the beginning of every meeting, the girls are given a word of the day to reflect on such as tolerance, acceptance, and equity. The girls then learn about a STEM career and a woman in that field before conducting related research and experiments. “One day, the girls read about an engineer who works on self-driving electric trucks,” says Rebecca Barnes, Carver’s Learning Design coach and Girlstart lead. “For them to see women who are doing great work in the field of STEM, it breaks down walls between them and their dreams. Science and math aren’t unreachable.”
Girlstart aligns lessons with the students’ core curriculum to support classroom learning. Hands-on lessons range from learning about gravity through a parachute demonstration to exploring aeronautics by building miniature airplanes from drinking straws. “I wanted to be able to do cool experiments, and I got to! But it’s also made me confident in myself and my learning,” fifth grader Aubrey Garcia says.
Fourth grader Charlotte Padalecki shares, “I love to learn new things and make new friends and be able to do different things that I couldn’t before. Sometimes, I will go to class and feel ahead on what we are learning because it’s something I already did in Girlstart.”
Rebecca adds, “They look up to these girls [from UT and SU] and get so excited to work with them, and to become leaders in their own classrooms.”
To learn more, visit girlstart.org.