1bot created a new gender-sensitive school curriculum to encourage girls to take on STEM studies.
1bot is a social enterprise from Guatemala that wants to revolutionize STEM education. They offer an online curriculum and robot kit to teach school children about STEM topics, along with improving their problem-solving, critical thinking, and entrepreneurship abilities, while working on a robot.
1bot’s founder, Juan Jose Asensio, took our «gender mainstreaming workshop». In the process, he realized his company could seize a unique opportunity to promote STEM studies to girls. Indeed, in Guatemala only 10% of STEM students are women, as science and technology are still seen as masculine career paths. Young girls grow up thinking they cannot become scientists and engineers, and this had to change!
JuanJo looked at 1bot’s teaching material and realized that the language and the graphics were mainly targeted to boys. If 1bot were to promote STEM education to girls, the enterprise had to turn its teaching material gender-balanced. To do so, he:
- hired an expert to guide him on how to create a gender-bias-free curriculum, in terms of visuals, content, examples, exercises, and methodology
- re-designed the existing materials, and
- lobbied for the adoption of this re-vamped curriculum with the Ministry of Education, so that it would become the first nationally-endorsed STEM curriculum for young students in the country.
While it is still too early to tell the results for sure, 1bot has ambitious objectives. With this initiative, it aims to increase girls’ interest in STEM careers by 30%, after taking the course, leading to at least 15% in actual enrollment in STEM education paths. It also hopes to continue influence public policy in making STEM careers more accessible to girls and women.
If this story inspired you, follow our Gender Mainstreaming Course and learn how to create sound gender initiatives.