Hands On Physics and Engineering (HOPE)

Our team is committing to equalize the gender disparity in STEAM subjects. In fact, in many cases, there is a significant male prevalence, in classrooms, labs, and working environments. Moreover, very often these girls tend to have difficulties in emerging and reaching leadership roles.

Our idea is to institute a club where an equally mixed group of k-12 students interested in STEAM split into teams at the beginning of the school year, each with a  topic of interest. Each team will then decide a project to build that would carry on during the rest of the year, while being mentored and followed by a more experienced student.

If scaled globally, this solution could positively change lives, as girls and boys from all over the world would learn from a young age to cooperate and work together in a democratic environment, all while learning and satisfying their curiosity on STEAM topics. 

Women are usually less involved than men in STEM subjects: they cover just 28% of the workforce in the scientific environment. In particular, the percentages of women in the different STEM fields are: 47.7% in biological science, 45.5% in chemistry and materials science, 25,8% in computer and mathematical occupations, and just 15.7% in engineering and architecture. This is due to various reasons, but mostly because STEM subjects are stereotypically seen as masculine, causing also the absence of female role models that could inspire other girls. If girls are not stimulated as boys, they can lose interest and confidence, developing anxieties. Moreover, in STEM jobs, women’s annual salary is about $15,000 lower than men’s. We aim to fill this gap between male and female presence in STEM fields and bring them both to the same level, to make them help each other and improve together. Another side of the problem is that men and women are not used to working in gender-mixed teams: usually, when it comes to split into groups, you’ll often see boys on one side and girls on the other, while in our program boys and girls will be guided to work together.

Our solution is an afternoon club that meets at least one afternoon per week.

The participants of this club are k-18 students, with an equal number of boys and girls.

Students with more experience and knowledge (likely those who had participated in the previous years) are the runners of  the club (mentors). Girls are encouraged to take leadership roles. 

During the first meetings, the mentors present the program, show some previous projects and teach some basic STEAM classes. Then the participants go through a brainstorming process, to then split themselves into different teams, each with a  topic of interest and with a common  idea of the project they want to build. The ideal number of students per team is between 4 and 6. Each mentor is then assigned to a team based on his/her knowledge and interest. He/she would join in the role of “player-coach”, he/she would lead that team through the process of researching, learning and building, helping and suggesting, without imposing his/her ideas and making sure everyone finds their role in the group. The main technologies used are basic woodshop and electronics utensils.

This solution directly serves girls, but we aim to extend it to the whole society. If we want an actual change, we’ll have to work with girls cooperating with boys, to grow a society where they’re both equal and know how to relate with each other. Regarding the girls, they’ll feel an important change in themself in the form of significant personal growth, being helped to fight their insecurities, understanding their value, and growing self-esteem. Moreover, they'll overcome their fears and anxieties, which will bring them to be more confident and step out of their comfort zone. Doing that they will have a clearer view of their abilities and will know themselves better, having the possibility to let people hear their voices. The girls will work in groups, with people they don’t necessarily know, where they’ll learn the values of collaboration and team-working, discovering that the strength of more people working together relies on the variety of ideas, opinions, and skills that directly comes from each other’s diversity, so respecting and valuing other people's thoughts is another skill that will be acquired. Also, they’ll feel empowered enough to actually make changes happen. Both girls and boys will acquire leadership roles. 

Nowadays in school as in careers, girls do not always have the same opportunity as boys do, especially in the STEAM field. That is why, with our project, we are trying to empower girls to enter these fields of studies and careers, giving them the possibility to improve practical skills and competencies. Moreover, this project introduces girls to a personal growth experience, allowing them to acquire leadership roles that will help them to stand for their rights and beliefs.  

Our solution is innovative for the ways it lets students interact with each other and for the ways it makes them live the school life. 

In fact, for the first time, students will be spending time working on something they chose and really cared about. Their work won't be graded, so they won't have the fear of failing: failure is a key factor of our solutions, because students will learn how to deal with it and how to improve from it. 

Moreover, they will enjoy spending time at school, collaborating with friends and other people like them, with whose they share the same interests. For the first time, they'll be at school without feeling any anxieties. In this situation the teachers will have the role of player-coaches, helping the students finding solutions for their problems, without having to judge them.

This year the solution served about 80 people, between teachers, mentors and students, all from the same High School in Italy. 

For the next year we're planning on extending our program to at least another High School, so basically doubling our number. We're also planning to have more students involved in our own school, reaching about 100 people there.

In five years we hope to have more schools collaborating with us, exponentially increasing our numbers year by year. 

We are facing many barriers to our solution.

The first one is that our maximum number of target people is strictly related to our founds, so finance is a strong barrier for us. 

Another obstacles is the cultural view of the school. In fact, school is usually seen as a place where you want to spend less time as possible

Our full time stuff is composed by teachers and mentors. Our actual number is 19. We are also collaborating with the previous years' mentors (those who already graduated from High School) who often come to the High School to help as they can.

To carry our solution we are strictly followed and helped by the MIT Edgerton Center, from which we receive financial and technical help. Every year, in fact, a team of students and instructors from the Centers comes to our High School, bringing the materials needed by the teams and staying for at least a week giving suggestions helping the teams to realize their projects.

We are also connected to an High School in Barcelona (Spain), called "Institutio Cultural del CIC", where some of our mentors and teacher helped starting the same program that is going on in our High School in Ferrara.

We are connected to an organization in Kassel (Germany), called Schulerforschungenszentrum Nordhessen, which has been running a program very similar to our one for almost 16 years.