Quote:
|
This of course excludes cases where a team is formed from an all girls school or any other reasonable exception.
|
I am the captain of an all girls team. We are not all-female because we have anything to prove, but merely because we are based out of an all-girls school.
Coincidentally, my cousins are on an all boys team you may have heard of:
254 Cheesy Poofs is a male-team. No one has ever had a problem with that. They are based out of a Boys school.
All of our mentors are men, which has led to some interesting working environments, because yes, girls do not learn the same way as boys do. Most of girls join us never using a tool before and often scared to use power tool. But girls leave our program with welding and machining experience and about 75% go on to study a STEM career.
At Alamo and Lone Star we have girl come to our pit saying "You guys are an all girl team? Really? The girls on our team just do outreach and PR." If this is the result of a co-ed team, I fear for the future of engineering.
Our team strives to be a normal team and escape the stigma that comes with being an all-femal team. However, we strive to show girl that YES they can be successful in a STEM situation (we are a 3rd year team, 2 time finalist, alliance captain, Engineering Inspiration winners, and 2 time spirit award winners) and that girls belong building the robot and not just in PR.
A girls-team is the perfect place for girls to learn about technology, why? Because more timid girls will not be embarrassed or intimidated by male-peers who are more likely to have experience with tools and be less timid around them. You can accuse me of making assumptions, but studies show girls learn better in an all female environment while boys learn better in a co-ed environment because of this reason.
On final note consider this. Before every match, my team is not announced as "3103 the team from Duchesne Academy" we are "3103 the GIRLS from Duchesne Academy" I am not ashamed to be a girl, but does it really matter if your team has girls, boys, or is co-ed? Aren't we all trying to achieve the same things?