Tinker Troop

When first proposed the question of how to foster girls’ interest in STEM careers (especially in low-income families) our research began at an early age. Girls are interested in STEM subjects, but there’s a significant decline between middle school and high school graduation. Looking at teen girls’ career interests, their top choice is medicine/healthcare (a STEM field) — a finding that makes sense given they’re also very interested in careers focused on helping people. These same girls are significantly less interested in engineering and computer science, and there’s an opportunity to show girls that tech-oriented careers are helpful to people, too. By creating a low-cost lesson kit that challenges girls to help others through stem, TinkerTroop aims to foster their interest in a multitude of STEM fields.

Group Member 1: Joe Sparano (Mdes grad student)

Group Member 2: Josh Klekamp