Expanding Opportunities in STEAM

K-12 STEAM education

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Throughout our more than a decade of service, DIY Girls has focused on closing two intertwined and persistent gaps: the disparity between girls and boys’ interest in science and technology and the resulting gulf between women and men’s success in STEM careers. Just 15% of 4th to 8th-grade girls show interest in STEM. Women represent only 28% of employed scientists and engineers in the U.S., and just 5% are Latinas – the population we overwhelmingly serve. To build on our success in sparking girls’ and gender-expansive youth’s interest in STEM, we are preparing to strategically and intentionally expand our programs to more schools in the under-resourced Northeast San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles. This will enable us both to reach more youth as well as offer our programs as a continuum of out-of-school supports as students progress from 5th through 12th grade, sustaining our ability to engage them and maintain their ongoing interest in STEM.

A centerpiece of our new multi-year strategic plan is program expansion to increase our overall reach and impact and enable more uninterrupted participation from ages 10 through 18. Our goal is to offer as many youth as possible consistent support for their engagement in STEM during the years when studies show their interest fades. In 2024-25, we will add 1 high school; in 2025-26, we will add 3 high schools; in 2026-27, we will add 5 middle schools; and in 2027-28, we will add 5 elementary schools for a total of 31 partner schools (12 elementary, 13 middle and 6 high schools). Our programs include: Creative Electronics - An intensive 10-week after-school program for 5th-grade girls and gender-expansive youth that engages participants and sparks curiosity and exploration with technology by providing hands-on experiences that promote the development of technical skills, expression of their creativity and confidence in their technical abilities. Tech & ARts - An intensive 10-week after-school program for middle school girls and gender-expansive youth consisting of an overarching STEM-based theme that changes annually (such as biomes, green agriculture and space), combining the art of painting with the art of making. Invent Girls - An intensive year-long high school program that introduces fundamental skills used by professional engineers while developing in the areas of research, engineering principles and processes, teamwork strategies and presenting technical information.

Our broader goal is to create a more economically and socially just and equitable LA County. On the individual level, the expansion of our programming will mean more girls and gender-expansive youth will have access to engaging STEM learning that further sparks their interest in STEM, which will lead to more of our participants seeking out well-paying, fulfilling STEM and STEM-related careers. These goals are inseparable. As our participants advance in their careers, their success will help secure their families and communities’ well-being. They will be mentors and role models for those who follow them. On the more immediate, but important, programmatic level, we anticipate that the girls and gender-expansive youth who can participate in DIY Girls from fifth grade through high school graduation will benefit the most and be the most engaged and interested in pursuing these challenging careers. We will test and measure this as a way to inform additional future expansion of our work.

DIY Girls employs a mixed-methods approach for evaluation, including surveys and reflection sessions, to identify outcomes and measure impacts. We conduct pre/post surveys of all participants based on program objectives and activities. The surveys, which are aggregated, have demonstrated consistent, remarkable success in supporting students’ increased interest in and pursuit of STEM education and careers. Benchmarks are: 80% will want to participate in more engineering and technology activities
80% will feel comfortable asking for help to solve a problem they are working on
80% will believe they can be successful at a STEM-related job/career
80% will believe that when they do not get something right the first time, they will keep trying As we expand our programs to more schools, we will continue to survey participants, including identifying those who have participated since fifth grade, to measure our anticipated outcomes and further assess impact over time.