Attracting Females to STEM/FIRST

[one_each]

When my oldest daughter joined the team, she was half the girls on the team. One of the male students (who is now an excellent mentor and RI) handed her a piece of wood and said, "we need this cut x by y". She didn't have a clue how to do it so he showed her how to measure and cut. The next time they needed something cut it was handed to her and she did it on her own.

Don't treat the girls any different then you treat the guys. Give everyone a chance to learn each aspect and let them gravitate to what they like. My oldest daughter is now considering a career in Engineering because of her involvement on the team.

This year our team was about 50/50 male/female and, with my youngest daughter and her friends joining next year, we may have more young women on the team then young men.