Our girls are destined to be the change-makers of tomorrow, faced with devising solutions to the biggest challenges our planet faces. STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) is how these next generations will be able to tackle these problems, and will also be a large segment of the future workforce.

Over the past several years, there has been a transition from traditional STEM to STEAM. STEAM is an educational approach to learning that includes all STEM has to offer, with the addition of the Arts. This unique approach allows students to work through the creative process as they take new risks, problem-solve, reflect, collaborate, and engage in hands-on learning. The result? Developing the minds of the G.I.R.L.s (Go-Getters, Innovators, Risk-Takers, and Leaders) of the 21^st century!

STEAM provides students with a whole new learning perspective at their disposal by drawing a connection between traditional math and sciences and art practices and design principles. By incorporating these artistic elements, limitations are removed and replaced with wonder, critique, inquiry, and innovation!

Research shows that girls are keenly interested in STEM and excel at it, but starting as early as elementary school they don’t often pursue it. Because of this, women are highly underrepresented in these rewarding fields.

But Girl Scouts can change that! Let your girl see that STEM can help her make the world a better place! Girl Scouts who participate in girl-focused STEM programs:

• Become better problem-solvers, critical thinkers, and inspirational leaders
• Get better grades, earn scholarships, and follow more lucrative career paths
• See STEM as the foundation for a meaningful and successful future

Whether she’d like to build a robot, create an app, develop a video game, protect the world’s wildlife, keep the ocean clean, or study the stars, Girl Scouts can teach her how!

Girl Scouts also offers Journeys and Badges to help her become familiar with her field of choice, including:

STEM Journeys

• Engineering: Think Like an Engineer – Girls discover how to think like an engineer by participating in hands-on design challenges and completing a Take Action project.
• Computer Science: Think Like a Programmer – Girls learn how programmers solve problems by participating in computational-thinking activities and completing a Take Action project.
• Outdoor STEM: Think Like a Citizen Scientist – Girls learn how to make observations and collect data by doing a citizen science project and completing a Take Action project.

STEM Badges

• Computer Science: Cybersecurity – Girls learn how computers and the internet work and apply the concepts of safety and protection to the technology they use every day.
• Engineering: Mechanical Engineering – Girls use design thinking to complete hands-on mechanical engineering design challenges.
• Engineering: Robotics – Girls learn how robots are designed, built, and programmed. “Unplugged” activities allow girls to earn badges without kits.
• Space Science: Girls learn all about the Solar System and our place in it. Just like real space scientists, girls explore, observe, and investigate the Sun, Moon, and stars and discover that space is bigger and even more exciting than they may have imagined.

Girl Scout’s STEM programs incorporate STEAM thinking with our approach to using creativity, innovation, curiosity, and design as a lens through which girls can easily tackle science, technology, engineering, and math. We turn these subjects that can sometimes be intimidating into approachable, fun areas of interest that all girls can enjoy! Most importantly, she has the opportunity to explore, ask questions, and learn new things in an encouraging and girl-led environment.

Open up her eyes to a whole new world of possibilities – there’s no limit to what she can achieve with Girl Scouts! Sign her up and start her journey today!