Female Empowerment in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in Higher Education (FeSTEM) Context/background of the project Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce is crucial to Europe’s innovative capacity and global competitiveness. Yet women are vastly underrepresented in STEM jobs and among STEM degree holders despite making up almost half of the E.U. workforce and half of the college-educated workforce. That leaves an untapped opportunity to expand STEM employment in Europe. Among STEM jobs, women’s representation has varied over time. In computer and math workforce (the largest of the four STEM components), women representation has dropped 3 percentage points since 2000. Engineers are the second largest STEM occupational group, but only about one out of every seven engineers is female. Men are much more likely than women to have a STEM job regardless of educational attainment. Project objectives In this context, the principal objective of FeSTEM project is to promote an innovative method and pedagogy that will allow HE students to use traditional and computationally-rich media to create meaningful, shareable exhibits that will act as mentoring models for encouraging girls and women to remain active in STEM. The novelty of our approach is reflected in the activities that will make use of traditional and computationally-rich media through which we envisage to expose HE students to successful female role models in STEM and encourage the development of networking opportunities for women to establish a peer support system. The making of meaningful, shareable exhibits is based on the premise that by having students engage as scientists in a creative, hands-on, and passionate endeavor allows them to spark their motivation to remain active in STEM- a motivation that is often extinguished by extrinsic and goals and expectations of education and workplace. Participants The participants involved in the project include women studying and teaching in STEM-related areas in Higher Education. Methodology FeSTEM will deploy through the establishment of STEM MAKER teams in all partner countries which will consist of HE academics working in STEM-related departments and motivated STEM students (male and female) who will work at the project in all its different phases. STEM MAKER teams will be involved in the piloting and evaluation of the project outputs (tools, exhibits, activities and workshops), and thereafter they will apply what they have learned in a wider-scale through workshops and events. Ultimately, the project will build an active network of women in STEM (both junior and senior) that will act as a mentoring hub for encouraging girls and women to remain active in STEM. Main outcomes The main project outcomes are foreseen to be: a gender-sensitive teaching methodology for engaging HE students in making shareable exhibits and promoting gender-equality issues, an open source online instrument for making gender-sensitive shareable exhibits, resources in the form of examples to illustrate how shareable exhibits can act as mentoring constructs for women in STEM, a community of practive for engaging HE instructors in a sharing community of practices and ideas and a mentoring community platform for STEM HE students. Long term benefits The results of the project are expected to be of value for HE teachers, students, trainers, managers, entrepreneurs, technicians and researchers. More specifically, in the outputs of the project are expected to benefit those who are interested in raising gender-sensitive awareness in HE and enrich HE STEM education with a gender-sensitive approach.
The FeSTEM project aimed at developing an innovative method and pedagogy that allows Higher Education (HE) students to use traditional and computationally-rich media to create meaningful, shareable exhibits that can act as mentoring models for encouraging girls and women to remain active in STEM. Through the FeSTEM approach, HE students are exposed to entrenched values, stereotypes and real-life problems and scenarios from the industry akin to gender inequality and use traditional and computationally-rich media to construct an exhibit that addresses or raises awareness of the specific challenge. The FeSTEM approach highlights the principles of student-centred and constructionist learning. The making of meaningful, shareable exhibits is based on the premise that by having students engage as scientists in a hands-on endeavour allows them to spark their motivation to remain active in STEM. Moreover, the project aimed at building networking opportunities for women in STEM to establish a peer support system through which they can come together and share ideas, resources and receive support from seniors in the field.
International consensus on educational priorities grants an important role on informing students on gender equality issues. Recent reports highlight the need to draw upon pedagogical frameworks to ensure equity and allow students to achieve high learning outcomes regardless of their background and characteristics such as gender. In several fields, gender gap and gender imbalances are prominent with women's representation encountering radical drop, privileging one group over another. Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce is crucial to Europe’s innovative capacity, however women are underrepresented. Engineers are the second largest STEM occupational group, but only approximately one in seven engineers is female. Raising awareness about gender stereotypes and gender inequality can result in substantial societal impact. Tackling gender segregation of professions and challenging preconceived gender roles, can help students of different genders who might fall victim to these traditional roles to uncover their full potential. FeSTEM project addressed this need and developed an innovative educational approach for informing students on the challenges encountered by girls and women in the workplace.