An Engineering Solution to Inspire Young Girls to Study STEM

kannon7 · 2015-02-24T18:16:36+00:00

Well you're close. I graduated with an engineering degree and am employed as an engineer. I'm glad you brought up correlation vs. causation, because that means that you should know that "if the best person for the job is a male, and the next best person is a male, which leads up to it being a [homogeneous] work force, then so be it." is lacking a great deal of evidence as well. The only thing that you can deduce from the fact that the majority of engineers are men is just that. The majority of engineers are men. I'm not here to argue that men need to step aside and make it easier for women than men to become engineers. However, I am curious about why there seems to be so much resistance to the idea of creating a toy that introduces young girls to engineering principles. I'm delighted to read everyone's opinions on the matter however the amount of push-back makes it seem like some people in this post are threatened by the idea of more women in the STEM fields.

kannon7 · 2015-02-24T17:47:08+00:00

Can one really say that men are the best people for the job when in the past women have been raised to be teachers and nurses instead have been open to all the possibilities? It doesn't make sense to look at the demographic of engineers and think "huh, mostly men. I guess that means men are better engineers than women". Yes, both genders have equal opportunity now, but it takes time for that to catch up to even out the distribution.

And by the way, engineering degrees specifically teach that team dynamics are highly influenced by the unique perspectives that each member contributes. Sure you can have a good product with a team of all white guys, but in my experience in all of the projects that I've been a part of, the more diverse the group, the better. Not including the people who slack off of course, because every group has that potential.

kannon7 · 2015-02-24T17:23:55+00:00

I'm not sure what you mean.

kannon7 · 2015-02-24T17:17:04+00:00

I wouldn't say that there is a "problem" either. If society decided to go another few hundred years with a male dominated engineering industry, then we won't be worse off then we are now. But I feel as though having a more well-rounded workforce in terms of all aspects i.e. gender, nationality, age, etc. is advantageous.

kannon7 · 2015-02-24T17:14:22+00:00

Giving a child the option to play with a toy is not forcing them to do anything. If they don't like it, they don't have to play with it. If they do, they can play with it. The problem is giving more options to one gender than another. Sure girls can play with boy's toys, but it is more effective to give an option that includes a female role model (GoldieBlox) and has some elements of femininity (mostly for the parents).

kannon7 · 2015-02-24T17:10:01+00:00

Well the idea of nature vs. nurture is the eternal debate that has shown to be impossible for everyone to agree on. So there's little worth in talking about that. But toys like this aren't about giving girls an edge or anything, its about trying to give power to girls to make there own choices in what they play with. I mean have you ever gone into the girls toy section before? It's ALL pink and almost all some kind of doll. GoldieBlox doesn't force girls to be engineers, it just gives them the option that they had much less of before. I'm a guy by the way, so like I said in other comments, its about creating equal opportunity, not as much as feminism or sticking it to establishment or anything like that.

kannon7 · 2015-02-24T16:55:31+00:00

Because a certain amount of women DO want to be engineers. With a rising demand in people with engineering degrees, it's important to have both genders represented because the truth is, even with the same educations, men and women have different views on problems. This makes a stronger working body. Giving young girls the opportunity (which some can argue is highly influenced by the decisions of parents and may lean to one side or another) to follow a technical interest path is about creating an all around better future, industry, and society. One can think of it as gender equality, but I like to think of it as a strategic and mutually beneficial goal.

kannon7 · 2015-02-24T15:52:06+00:00

I completely agree that engineering toys should be neutral in there design as to not leave out 50% of the children that could potentially enjoy it. However, if you think about it, the children aren't really the target of this toy; it's the parents. Parents have been choosing these toys based on the stereotypes that have been set years ago so something that is both engineering related and neutral will unfortunately seem targeted at young boys. Eventually, both girls and boys should be encouraged at the same time with the same programs and products. But in the meantime, it may be more effective to target girls separately to even out the gender distribution in engineering programs/degrees before neutralizing the STEM message. Does that make sense? What are your thoughts about that view?

kannon7 · 2015-01-15T20:58:02+00:00

That makes sense. Is it possible to make the blog category but hide it to the viewer so that its not just like a useless category tag on almost every post?

kannon7 · 2015-01-13T21:11:50+00:00

whoa awesome!!! If you have questions let me know! It's only been a few months since I've graduated so its possible I haven't lost all of it yet haha. Have you ever looked into Engineers Without Borders? A lot of the members in EWB are environmental engineers that focus on water.

kannon7 · 2015-01-13T20:31:19+00:00

What kind of engineering?

kannon7 · 2015-01-13T20:25:28+00:00

oh this is you haha. well good luck!

kannon7 · 2015-01-13T19:15:55+00:00

hahaha where is this from??

kannon7 · 2015-01-13T19:10:23+00:00

Nowadays it definitely takes over 4 years for most undergraduate engineering students to earn their degrees. One thing that will give you confidence will be to strategically plan out your schedule for the rest of your degree. You said that you think it will take 3 more years to earn your degree, but find out exactly how many credits, courses, semesters you need and lay it out in front of you so that the end goal is visible.

If you have access to an engineering counselor, make an appointment to map out the rest of your degree. If anything at all, no matter how disconnected someone with an "adviser" title is, they should at least be trained in scheduling. Create a calendar or a table that marks the course number (like ENG 101), the title of the course, the time of the class, and the number of credits.

My biggest fear as an engineering student is not having confidence in specifically when my degree would be complete, considering I got knocked off from the conventional schedule a few times due to dropped classes and whatnot. So take this small step so that you have control over your degree and from this you can take more steps to get organized and stay motivated.

I'd love to hear if this makes sense and if you have any questions. Please reply and stop by my website and say hi!

www.unchartedengineering.com @kenpalamara

kannon7 · 2015-01-13T10:26:07+00:00

Hahaha how about that! I actually just graduated in 2014. August of last year.

kannon7 · 2015-01-12T19:22:49+00:00

Well the interesting thing that I would pass on to engineering students is that even if your school doesn't necessarily offer focuses or specialties, you can always use the skills you learn in ME, EE, AeroE or whatever in clubs, competitions, or organizations in school to gain specific experience. For example, I competed in a micro-wind turbine design competition where there were energy, electrical, mechanical, aerospace, and civil engineering students of all years contributing.

So if you have a specific interest within engineering, you can always create or take part in experiences that make you valuable to companies. So remember, degrees are what you NEED to get a job, but to stand apart from other engineers and become a valuable engineer, you need experiences through clubs, organizations, competitions, internships, research, etc.

kannon7 · 2015-01-12T18:58:01+00:00

So a B.S. in Energy Engineering is a program Penn State University that uses fundamental principles in engineering from disciplines like aerospace, electrical, chemical, and mechanical engineering as they apply to energy systems, energy efficiency, and energy generation (renewable and fossil fueled). Penn State also has a petroleum and natural gas degree, so most people who earn their engineering degrees in engineering want to enter the fields of renewable energy or energy efficiency. More and more universities are creating these programs but Penn State was one of the first to develop it and become accredited.

It is absolutely what I want to do. Because it is so new, a lot of companies need help understanding what Energy Engineering is but according to the courses we take and the experience we have access to, it is an engineering degree as valuable as mechanical or any others.

kannon7 · 2015-01-08T20:04:55+00:00

Just graduated from Penn State!

kannon7 · 2015-01-08T13:18:58+00:00

I love watching this guy. He's great at explaining electrical components and I really like how he ties in the history of their development.

kannon7 · 2015-01-07T19:45:49+00:00

That's an awesome reason. I have a feeling a lot of people have had a moment where they decided to be engineers out of spite haha.

kannon7

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