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The study and practical application of science, technology, engineering and math (known together as either S.T.E.M.) has historically been a boys-only club. The Women in Technology Project reports that "women represent the largest under-utilized national resource of great potential in science and technology." While President Obama has been focusing on STEM in schools, kids TV has been somewhat slow to find ways to marry math, science, and media.
A new effort to change that comes February 13 from SciGirls, a new on-air/online educational series from PBS. In each peppy half-hour episode, real middle school girls take on challenges and projects with the help of mentors and two animated characters names Izzie and Jake.
If you can't wait for SciGirls, I suggest you check out Cyberchase, featuring two girls, a boy, and respectable career moves for Gilbert Gottfried and Christopher Lloyd.
Before these shows, few programs tackled STEM subjects both thoroughly and interestingly, whether they targeted boys or girls. More often than not, STEM categories find their way into kid programs as game show trivia questions, asking "what do you know" more so than "can you figure this out?". Knowing the right answers simply meant winning a sponsor prize or a receiving a much-coveted slime shower.
But even more effective in inspiring girls toward math and science would be developing programming that glorifies female engineers and scientists the way we do Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and Lady Gaga. I know it's an impossible dream, but if anyone can make a lab coat look good, GaGa can.
