STEM Starts at Home for Girls

Oh, the Places She Will Go!

When my oldest daughter was little she was a perfect mix of tomboy and princess. Whenever Jessica played outside, you could find her in a ruffled little dress while digging holes in the yard in search of bugs and other treasures. She loved to take summer afternoon walks to pick the East Texas wildflowers, but she could never pass up an interesting rock.

Rocks in my pockets

Jessica, age 5

These little treasures found their way into the house and many times, into our washer machine. I can still remember finding rocks she put in her pockets, my pockets, in the vacuum cleaner and hearing them clanking around in the dryer.  In her room you could find jars of captured bugs she found while digging in the yard and dirt was always spilling out of her shoes when she took them off.  I cherish those summer memories because little did I know they would soon be coming to an end.

My first summer as a single mom in East Texas was tough but one of my biggest concerns was what to do with Jessica now that school was out. Sure, she could go back to daycare, but it was really too expensive on a newspaper reporter’s salary to have two kids in daycare. A new children’s science museum had just opened and they were offering summer camp at a 50 percent discount for the children of newspaper employees. It was an easy decision. She loved the Discovery Science Place in Tyler and I loved discounts.

She did love those camps, especially ones that involved dinosaurs, rocks and anything that allowed her to, of course, dig in the dirt. That was the start of a summer tradition until she became too old to participate.

Lost and found

It is not surprising that a lot happened between her last elementary school science camp and college. I remarried, moved to Houston and Jessica lost a little bit of something I never realized she had. There wasn't a lot of focus on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) for girls and while I wanted to expose her to many different interests it never occurred to me to continue to push STEM at home.

Our focus soon turned to cheerleading, band, shopping, hair, makeup and other typical things that are interests of most preteen and teenage girls. None of this was necessarily bad. She had great experiences in both cheerleading and band, but it was years before I thought again about those rocks in my pockets. It never crossed my mind to expose her to more math and science than what was required at school. In high school, math became a huge obstacle and nearly got in her way of graduating on time. Most of her grades in those classes were mediocre at best. At that point, I was a little concerned about how she was going to get through college and what she would do with her life.

That answer came shortly after Jessica headed back to East Texas and started Tyler Junior College. She rediscovered her love of rocks through a very passionate geology teacher at TJC. She got involved in geology club and became the president. She enjoyed digs, field trips and she even worked in the labs to help other students.

What do you want to do when you grow up?

One night she called me from her dorm room. “I think this is what I want to do,” she said. “I want to be geologist.”

My first response was not as supportive as it should have been. It caught me completely by surprise due to her high school struggles with math and science. “Really? Are you sure? Do you realize that requires a lot of math and science?”

Thank goodness she was completely undeterred by my comments. Of course I was going to be supportive, but where did this come from? I reached back to my memories of rocks in my pockets and it all suddenly came back to me. She knew math would again challenge her in achieving her goals, but the passion and determination was there. I realized that the interest was there at an early age, but I enabled her (and me) to fall into stereotypes and maybe I even helped to push the ideology that girls aren't good at math and science.

Moms and STEM

Since then, I have learned my lesson and I have changed my ways. I seek out and support programs aimed at girls who are interested in STEM careers. I fully support my daughters and their interests and I do my best to reject the stereotypes. Jessica went on to get her geology degree from Sam Houston State University and recently celebrated her first year as a geologist in her new career. I am so happy she found her way back to something she really loves despite the challenges.  

STEM starts at home for girls, not at school. There are little missed opportunities when we moms tell our princesses that girls don’t play with rocks or dig in the dirt. There are missed opportunities when we don’t recognize the interest our girls have in something related to math or science. There are missed opportunities when we impose our stereotypes on girls by what we say and do without realizing we are doing it.

This summer, I challenge you to search out something different for your daughters. It is not too late. It doesn't matter where you live. There are still many summer camps that fall into STEM categories – robotics, science camps, zoo camps, math camps, etc. They are interesting, fun and who knows, there may be a career in your daughter’s future that you never imagined.

Below are just a few of the STEM related summer camps I know about in Houston. I’m sure there are many more in Houston and all over the globe. Please feel free to share other summer camps you know about in your location in the comments section:

• Camp Invention - http://www.campinvention.org/
• Robotics Camps - http://www.roboticsacademy.com/
• Brick 4 Kids - http://www.bricks4kidz.com/texas-houston-memorial/
• Nature camps - http://www.houstonarboretum.org/
• Houston Zoofari - http://www.houstonzoo.org/camp
• Houston Space Center - Call (281) 244-2100
• Kids Robotic Summer Camp - Call (281) 739-8632
• Houston Museum of Natural Science Camps - http://www.hmns.org/files/Xplorations_2014.pdf