Intervention designed to increase interest in engineering for low-interest, K-12 girls did so for boys and girls

摘要

Engineering remains a field with disproportionately low representation of women and individuals from underrepresented minority (URM) groups. As early as middle school, these groups start losing interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields (National Science Foundation, 2004; Driver, 1985). Thus, early interventions that spark interest and encourage pursuit of STEM areas are greatly needed. Biomechanics is a highly relatable, interdisciplinary field with ties to engineering, medicine, and athletics. Previous studies at a college-wide engineering outreach event (Francis et al., 2016; Francis et al., 2017) have demonstrated the potential for hands-on, biomechanics-based activities to teach engineering principles to K-12 students. A recent study (Francis et al., 2017) indicated that boys participating in these activities had a higher interest in engineering than girls. This study also showed that biomechanics-based activities could increase interest in considering careers in engineering, regardless of initial interest. Of note, when both boys and girls had little to no interest in engineering, boys were more easily drawn in by the outreach activities than girls. The challenge with engaging girls in engineering may be a reflection of intrinsic differences such as gender stereotypes (Bieg et al., 2015), and psychological factors (Stoet et al., 2016) between boys and girls that are more pronounced at low individual-interest levels. Thus, it may be necessary to tailor interventions (e.g., biomechanics-based activities) that target girls with low interest in engineering to increase their level of engagement.