A FLATE Best Practices Guide to Recruiting Girls to STEM

Following the success of FLATE’s first “Recruiting Girls to STEM Career Pathways” workshop at

Hillsborough Community College in Brandon last June, and the evident need for more information and resources on this topic, staff has been working on designing a new, Best Practices Guide  for Recruiting and Retaining Girls in STEM.

Research illustrates that girls can perform just as well in mathematics as boys. To achieve equality, they must be allowed to learn in an environment that fosters success in STEM subjects for all. The constant message should be that with work and effort, anyone can succeed in any field. In research among first-year university students, women are less prone to say that they intend to major in STEM, as compared to men. By the time students reach graduation, there are significantly more men than women in nearly every science and engineering field, and in some, such as physics, engineering and computer science, the difference is striking with women earning only 20 percent of bachelor's degrees.

The new best practices guide is designed to provide resources and practical information for educators and parents on how to encourage girls and make them aware of the many high wage high tech careers available to them. “If we’re going to out-innovate and out-educate the rest of the world, we’ve got to open doors for everyone. We need all hands on deck, and that means clearing hurdles for women and girls as they navigate careers in science, technology, engineering, and math.”-- First Lady Michelle Obama, September 26, 2011.

FLATE will be offering a second professional development workshop focused on best practices for teachers, recruiters, counselors, educators and anyone interested in promoting STEM careers for girls at the Florida Association for Career and Technincal Education (FACTE Conference & Trade Show) in Wesley Chapel on July 28. For more information, and/or for K-14 STEM based curriculum and best practices developed by FLATE contact Dr. Marilyn Barger, executive director of FLATE at barger@fl-ate.org, or visit www.fl-ate.org and www.madeinflorida.org.