Honors Projects

Abstract

Historically, and still presently, women face many obstacles when attempting to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Women have been systematically barred from entering STEM programs at universities and today face cultural obstacles, resulting in marginalization. Research points to adolescence as the age where this sense of marginalization begins to develop. As a result, many outreach programs for young women interested in STEM are targeted toward the middle school age group. This study adds to this research by examining two such outreach programs for young women in STEM to determine their effectiveness, including Camp GEMS at Ohio Northern University and Women in STEM at Bowling Green State University. Each program is evaluated based on observations regarding how they align with aspects of the program’s environment, organization, relationships, staffing, activities, engagement, and program growth and evaluation. The results indicate that both programs have room for growth to increase their effectiveness, but they are nonetheless striving to interest young girls in science, technology, engineering, and math, which is a worthy and necessary goal.

Major

Mathematics

First Advisor

Dr. Heath Diehl

First Advisor Department

Honors Program

Second Advisor

Dr. Gabriel Matney

Second Advisor Department

Education

Publication Date

Winter 12-2018

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