d, learning through failure is only possible in an environment where girls feel safe.
Does She Feel Confident?
One day in middle school science class, we were studying the planets in our solar system. Each student was huddled around their project on one of the planets, and I was very excited to be learning about outer space (always a favorite of mine). My experience kept being interrupted, though, by flying projectiles.
Several boys in my class were bullying me that year, and would constantly throw paper balls at me when the teacher was distracted. To add insult to injury, these boys carried themselves with a sense of effortless confidence in the classroom that made me second-guess my own abilities.
I felt alienated. I felt confused. I felt stupid. These emotions do not help a person to learn. In fact, research shows that—while moderate stress levels facilitate learning—once those stress levels escalate to panic, learning becomes impossible. Cut to the present day, where I mentor girls who are building catapults and even robots that launch projectiles into the air, and I can’t help but feel a little smug. Our program’s success is only possible because of the all-girl environment. Put frankly, when there are no boys to dominate the room, girls learn better. They are more likely to take risks, fail, try again, and feel comfortable doing it.
At the end of our robotics program, girls share the robots they designed and built with the rest of the group. They make posters detailing their design and do a demonstration, allowing other girls to ask questions. Last year, one girl wrote on her poster, “I must remind you, Joey 2.0 was programmed in 2-3 days, and yes, there could be a lot of tweaks, but no matter.” This, to me, encapsulated the freedom of that all-girl environment. Girls can show their works-in-progress, they can admit that things aren’t perfect—without apology!—and they aren’t worried about being judged by their peers.
In fact, I witnessed girls from different groups mentoring each other, giving advice, teaching another girl a tip or trick. This collaborative, comfortable experience is only possible when girls feel free to be girls, and research shows that the confidence developed in all-girl environments like this one, stay with them even when they move into coeducational spaces.
Taking that girl power a step further, Girl Scout programming is also largely girl-led. This means girls often plan their own experiences, make their own choices, and solve problems with their own unique perspectives. During engineering challenges, we always answer girls’ questions with more questions. A girl may ask me, “Why does my tower keep falling over?” I would respond, “Where is it falling? What could you do to help that area?” And while it is often tempting to directly intervene when we see a girl struggling with a problem we know how to solve, we never touch a girl’s project without her explicit permission. By the end of the program, girls feel like they led the experience, not the adults. They are proud of their creations, whether they worked as planned or not.
Confidence is also built up by exposure to diverse and positive role models. We give girls lots of opportunities to meet women in STEM, from programmers to high school girls on robotics teams to carpenters. Unlike the distant, abstract, and artificially idealized figures from their history books, the girls can see themselves in the intelligent, accomplished women who mentor them. This role modeling extends to the troop leaders, parents, and Girl Scout staff who interact with girls every day.
One small step that can really impact a girl’s confidence in STEM is seeing a close role model’s interest in STEM topics. It’s easy for adults who have little personal experience to remark that “they are not really a STEM person.” At Girl Scouts River Valleys, everyone is a “STEM person.” Whether we use STEM in our everyday work, or learn alongside our girls while completing the steps for a badge, we know science is for everyone.
When I look at the girls who have the opportunity to expe