Tween Tech
STEM IS for girls
A day of hands-on technology workshops for middle school (6th-8th grade) girls, Tween Tech serves as a “sampler” for AAUW NJ’s Tech Trek residential camp, which is open to rising 8th grader girls from New Jersey. This mini-conference is designed to develop girls’ interest and self-confidence in STEM, featuring:
- Local female teachers, professors, and professionals to lead hands-on workshops for middle school girls
- AAUW and university volunteers to talk with the girls and their teachers about STEM majors and careers
- Information about upcoming Tech Trek NJ Summer Camp, for rising 8th graders
Sample Workshop Titles: Mystery Diagnosis, Solve a Murder with Forensics, Chemistry of Modern Cuisine, Science of Clay, What’s the Chance of That? All workshops are engaging, hands-on science, technology, engineering or math-focused (STEM). Chaperones will participate in workshops as well.
Tween Tech 2023 – March 17 at Stockton University
Tween Tech 2020 – January 3 at Stockton University
Tween Techs 2019
January 4 at Stockton University
March 15 at Cumberland County College
TeenTechs 2017
January 6 at Stockton University
January 13 at Drew University
TeenTechs 2016
January 8 at Stockton University
January 8 at Drew University
Nature or Nurture? It’s Bias.
Gender bias in school remains a significant barrier to girls’ progress in STEM. Starting in early childhood, teachers and parents provide explicit and implicit messages that boys and men are “better” at math and science — although there is no evidence for that. Black girls and women and Latinas are even more likely to be dissuaded from pursuing math and science, because they face discrimination and have less access to critical resources, opportunities and role models.
Research shows that there is no inherent difference in math and science capability between girls and boys. It’s also a myth that girls aren’t interested in science: In elementary, middle, and high school, girls and boys take math and science courses in roughly equal numbers, except in engineering and AP computer science, according to the National Science Foundation. One study found that the apparent gender gap in mathematics is smaller in countries with greater gender equality, suggesting that gender differences in math are largely due to cultural and environmental factors, not ability.