Girls in Science

A team of students in our service-learning subject is running a series of workshops on science and technology for a primary school.  Today they are learning about electricity.  Using the newly-acquired knowledge, they are building a motor boat driven by electrical power generated by a solar panel.  Our students prepared well, and are surprisingly good teachers, given that they have received little training as teachers.  They are able to engage the children.  The children participate actively, and seem to enjoy the workshop. 

The girls are engaged and seem to enjoy as much as the boys.  There does not appear to be obvious differences between them, in terms of level of interest and ability.  Why is it that, when they get to senior secondary school and particularly university, the majority of girls drop out from science, and even more extremely, engineering?  What is it that we, as teachers and parents, do wrongly?