Year 5 and 6 girls at Freemans Bay School recently had a hands-on tech day as part of the Mastercard Girls4Tech aim to challenge gender biases and societal perception towards women working in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths).
“Our vision for learning at Freemans Bay School is to create a stimulating, inclusive learning environment which empowers, engages and enriches learners to prepare them for their future world,” says Freemans Bay School principal, Sandra Jenkins.
The inquiry-based STEM programme has an ambitious commitment to reach one million girls globally by 2025. To date, it has reached 100 girls across New Zealand, and more than 415,000 girls, in 25 countries.
“As a technology company, Mastercard feels it is important to actively challenge the gender biases and societal perceptions towards women in STEM and ensure they are given equal opportunity to their male peers,” said Ruth Riviere, Country Manager, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, Mastercard.
The STEM curriculum was designed to introduce terms such as algorithims, encryption, biometrics, big data and detective work. I watched the girls, in groups of four or five, tackle cryptology. Cryptology is about coding and changing data. They were given
a small lock and a key to open it. Of course they needed the right key for the job, which is what breaking codes is all about.
Had they ever used code words in personal diaries for example, to stop siblings being able to read what they had written in. Yes, one or two students said, they had. Next they were told about the first American language codes used during World War Two which were never decoded by the Germans. They pored over those codes and
checked answers.
Nikki Kaye gave an inspiring short talk at the conclusion of the experiments. Students asked her lots of questions about being an MP and where she had gone to school. This is a very worthwhile initiative. Girls still say they are not good at maths, often when their exam results have proved otherwise. There is
a cultural impediment for girls taking technology subjects, which this programme seeks to overturn.
Ruth Riviere (photographed with Nikki Kaye and John Elliott) said that, “As a woman working in STEM, encouraging young women to see the diverse opportunities it opens up, is something particularly close to my heart.”
Congratulations to Freemans Bay School for embracing this programme, which clearly had those Year 5 and 6 girls excited about future possibilities.
(JOHN ELLIOTT)
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