According to UCAS, just 35% of those currently studying STEM subjects are women. Yet people who choose STEM careers are in high demand, receive excellent salaries and have the satisfaction of knowing they are making a real difference to the world. Here we talk about STEM for girls and how you can motivate your daughter to explore this area.

STEM for girls – highlight role models

Find out about famous women in STEM

Together you could find out about women in STEM who changed the world. From Katherine Johnson who worked out the paths spacecrafts need to follow to land on the Moon, to Radia Perlman who developed the algorithm that gave rise to the internet!

Read books about women in STEM

Encourage your daughter to read inspiring books about innovative women who have shaken the world.

We highly recommend Sumita Mukherjee’s book, Women in Stemwhich celebrates the remarkable achievements of female engineers, mathematicians, scientists and technologists with the goal of inspiring brilliant young minds.

Watch exciting STEM-based films

There are plenty of fictional films that glamorize women in STEM from Contact starring Josie Foster as a SETI scientist, to the 2016 version of the 80s classic, Ghostbusters.

Talk to a woman with a career in STEM

If you know any women with STEM careers, you could ask them to talk to your daughter. They might even invite your daughter to visit them at work.

Encourage your daughter to attend a STEM club

To find STEM clubs visit Google and type in ‘STEM clubs’ followed by your town, or ‘science clubs for children’ followed by your town.

For Cambridge, Google brings up Cambridge Science Centre, Fab Science, Mini Professors and more.

Buy STEM presents

For your daughter’s birthday or for Christmas considering buying them a STEM related gift. See Bright Minds and Teaching Expertise for ideas.

STEM games and toys encourage children to be curious, come up with ideas, solve problems, refine their creations and have fun. In other words, they develop the skills children need to become scientists, mathematicians and engineers.

For children aged 8 and above, we particularly love GraviTrax which is a sophisticated marble run. Your child can build walls, bridges, pillars and other 3D structures to create ever more innovative marble runs. It helps them to understand gravity, engineering and kinetics as well as developing problem solving skills.

Visit a hands-on science museum

Take a trip to a science museum where your daughter can get involved with hands-on activities. Museums offer all kinds of activities from building space rockets, to making moving cars and exploding volcanoes. The best way to appreciate and understand science is to do it!

If you have never visited the National Space Centre in Leicester we highly recommend it. Your child can even experience what low gravity feels like – what could be more fun than that?

Find out about STEM careers

Before the internet it was difficult to find out about all the career options available to us. People could only pursue careers in fields they knew existed. Fortunately, times have changed. Your child can visit even a virtual exhibition to discover STEM career possibilities.

As well as visiting a virtual exhibition, your child can find a list of STEM careers online and then dive deeper into a job that piques their interest. For example, if they are interested in finding out more about the role of a robotics engineer, they can type ‘robotics engineer’ into a search engine. That will lead them to a fantastic video from My World of Work which gives an engaging insight into this career.

Do STEM activities at home

Here are some engineering projects your daughter might like to do at home. If they are fascinated by the night sky, they could also try these space activities.

Would your daughter benefit from science tuition?

We hope our article about STEM for girls has given you some ideas to ignite your child’s interest. However, if you think they would benefit from receiving home tuition from an experienced science teacher who is passionate about their subject, please get in touch.

At TutorMyKids, we strongly believe that when children enjoy learning they are considerably more likely to achieve.

To find out more about one-to-one science tuition please email hello@tutormykids.co.uk