INGENIAS girls’ programming clubs

Climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic are exacerbating inequalities and disproportionately affecting girls who face increased difficulties for accessing learning opportunities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Achievement in STEM subjects goes beyond digital access. It is more about cultivating skills of thinking laterally, problem solving and innovating.

INGENIAS girls’ programming club is an educational program for high school female students in Argentina that complements and enhances formal education and encourages participation in their communities through the development of technological solutions to local challenges. The project adopts an innovative framework for promoting STEM among girls that allows them to take action, experiment and apply creativity. Not only does it provide technological training but also empowers them as creators of technology-based solutions. Scaling up the project would allow for a larger reach in more communities so that more girls develop vocation in the STEM fields.

In Argentina, women are less confident than men in their abilities to pursue STEM degrees (48% versus 40%) and represent less than 20% of students of technology-related degrees. Furthermore, only 10% of women entrepreneurs carry out technological ventures. With technological change accelerating, failure to invest in girls’ STEM education will exclude them from a whole range of new occupations. 

INGENIAS seeks to mitigate the existing problem of under-representation and lack of presence of women in science and technology, caused in part by the lack of familiarization with these fields from the early stages of education. With this purpose, INGENIAS contributes to awakening vocations in women for science and technology through the creation ofinnovative solutions to local problems identified by participants in their cities' sustainable plans. Through specific didactics and methodology, practical and creative materials and a training course for educators, the program addresses different actors in a particular way, leaving installed capacity in each place, implemented both in regional economies and in schools. The transformation thus reaches not only the participants but also the actors who accompany them, seeking in this way to contribute in a comprehensive and sustainable way to reduce the gender gap in the technological entrepreneurial environment.

INGENIAS Programming Clubs is a national reach program for high school female students between the ages of 13 and 18, led by our local teachers and accompanied by a network of mentors specifically trained for it. Throughout the program, the participants detect a problem in their community based on a local development diagnosis. They carry out research to create an application with MIT’s App Inventor to solve it and they later share it with their local community. In the process, teachers and participants enrich themselves, getting acquainted with technology critically and constructively.

The program combines 1 hour-long virtual meetings between students and their teachers over 8 weeks, with simultaneous, asynchronous group work through which students develop their projects during 4 hours each week. During the program, all activities and proposals are available on a virtual campus. In addition, students and teachers can access audiovisual materials and digital pedagogical tools specially developed for the subject. Mentors, who accompany the girls throughout the implementation of the program and the data collection via Zoom and WhatsApp, receive online training for a period of 3 weeks while they are provided with free teaching resources.

INGENIAS targets high school female students between the ages of 13 and 18 from different Argentine communities through its programming clubs, and at mid-level educators, teachers, and managers of these educational institutions. The program’s national reach has a specific focus on cities with presence of the energy industry. Girls and women from these communities face the main gender stereotypes in terms of participation in science and technology, which led to the fact that in practice none of them consider or have the possibility of studying a career in STEM. Since its implementation (and based on surveys submitted by the participants), the program has produced a clear change in young women. Before starting the program, the possibility of studying a career in STEM was not considered by any of the participants, while after graduating, 66% showed interest in studying a career related to STEM in the future. 

The YPF Foundation has a strong commitment to the local development of the communities that generate energy for the country. Therefore, the program also seeks to target the low levels of self-perception of young women as agents of change and broaden the view of its participants regarding their impact on their communities, fostering their commitment to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals proposed by the UN. INGENIAS has made it possible to reverse this trend through its programming clubs: at the beginning of the program, only 29.5% considered that it could influence their community while, at the end, 52.2% answered affirmatively.

The territorial presence of the YPF Foundation and the involvement of the YPF company in the historical configuration of the communities made it possible to adapt the proposal to local realities based on a deep knowledge of those territories, their dynamics and their distinctive features. After carrying out a diagnosis of each city’s main challenges, the Foundation, together with local governments, designs action plans for their sustainable growth (available at https://fundacionypf.org/Paginas/Desarrollo-local.aspx) on which they later base the INGENIAS program. This also allows for the implementation of other participatory projects in partnership with key local stakeholders. In addition, throughout its history, the YPF Foundation has produced research that guides its actions and programs in the areas of education, science and sustainable development (available at https://fundacionypf.org/Paginas/publicaciones.aspx).

Thanks to local diagnoses, city plans and research, the YPF Foundation obtains a deep understanding of the realities of each community, which together with the surveys of each program, allow to deeply comprehend the specific needs of the populations of each community and ensure a significant impact.

On the other hand, the inclusion within the program of training days for local teachers and mentors is another innovation that guarantees the proximity and flexibility necessary for the continuity of the process and an approach focused on each community.

INGENIAS creates a new learn-and-do environment in local educational communities based on existing technologies (such as MIT’s App Inventor or virtual forums) that promotes peer interaction and guided independent work towards the creation of a technological innovative solution to a local development challenge.

Ingenias has been implemented in Argentina since 2018. In 2020, due to the pandemic of COVID-19 and the social distancing measures taken by the National Government, the program was adapted to its current form. 

During 2018-2020 the program was implemented in 10 cities from 7 provinces  with the participation of 407 young girls who created 62 apps. 

In 2021 the program is being implemented in 5 cities from 5 provinces, with 237 participants enrolled to the date. During 2021 the project contemplates de implementation of 2 new additional activities: a boot-camp style programming club (to be implemented in additional cities with previous low participation rates) and a federal innovation contest (3 months digital contest for high school female students with already 1000 participants registered).

The program has been implemented solidly and is growing every year. We expect to augment the program’s impact by 25% each following year.

INGENIAS is a comprehensive project that seeks to promote citizen participation and technological training among young women, empowering them as creators of solutions based on technology that improve their communities. The project adopts an innovative framework for promoting STEM careers among girls that involves taking action, experimenting and applying creativity.

On the other hand, the project has a strong linkage to the reality of each local educational community. Teacher workshops are designed to facilitate the identification of local problems and challenges in promoting STEM careers among young women, and develop specific teaching tools to implement in the classrooms. Finally, the project assigns local mentors with strong links to the technological entrepreneurial world that further strengthen girls’ vocation in STEM and their empowerment as local change agents. Altogether, a new and powerful educational ecosystem is created in each community with strong local roots that exceeds the program’s framework and creates multiple social change agents towards eliminating barriers for women entering STEM fields.

INGENIAS is currently being implemented in 4 cities (Comodoro Rivadavia, Luján de Cuyo, Río Grande and Ensenada), with 237 enrolled participants and 5 mentors. In 2021 we will also launch 3 teacher workshops in 4 provinces (for approximately 150 teachers), 1 bootcamp (for 90 participants) and a national contest (that will impact 1.300 students and teachers).

We plan to increase our project's impact by 25% annually, which will result in at least doubling the number of people served (from 1.900 people in 2021 to 3.800 in 2025), including young girls, mentors and high school teachers.

1. Percentage of participant girls enrolled in STEM careers (we are currently building the first report based on program surveys which will be available in 2021)
2. Percentage of participant girls willing to pursue a career in STEM (program survey)
3. Percentage of participant girls self-perceived as active social change agents (program survey)
4. Percentage of published apps developed by participant girls

Full time: 5
Part time: 7
Contractors: 5 

We have a solid team of truly committed young people that has been working successfully together for the last 4 years in this project. The team leader is a political scientist specialized in genres and diversities that has been working in YPF Foundation for the last 5 years leading the design and management of projects and programs for reducing labor gender inequality (with focus on career development for women and the promotion of violence-free work environments). She is also an expert researcher and advisor for governments and non-profit organizations in reducing violence based on gender and sexual diversity.

Our partnership with CET also guarantees and reinforces technical expertise and experience in these fields. Their team working on the project is led by a psychologist with extensive experience in coordinating educational projects and working with adolescents in the fields of technology, graphic design and audiovisual production. The team also includes professionals in political and education sciences with vast experience in developing innovative strategies that contribute to teaching with the use of new technologies, reducing gender gaps in STEM, promoting women leadership, sustainability and economic development.

Since its creation in 1996, the YPF Foundation has worked to promote high quality education with a focus on energy, promoting innovation and creativity in technical, professional and scientific training. Within its strategic objectives, it includes the promotion of education linked to the STEM disciplines, which integrate science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics. In this framework, we seek to awaken in young people the enthusiasm for energy-related careers from the earliest ages by generating contents and activities for children, adolescents, youngsters and teachers supported by the project-based learning methodology.

The Foundation incorporates the gender perspective and assumes the commitment to work to reduce the gender gap and increase female participation in careers related to these fields. Also, the project is implemented in partnership with “Chicas en tecnologia” (CET), a leading non-profit organization that has been working in Argentina since 2015 to reduce the gender gap in technology and seeks to motivate, educate and support the new generation of women leaders in the tech fields.

By becoming a Solver, we are convinced that the program will benefit from joining a global network of organizations that work together for reducing gender gaps in technology and promote women empowerment. By becoming part of this network, the YPF Foundation will be able to share its knowledge and experience in these fields, and -more importantly- learn from leading organizations and partners that will act as inspiration and guidance.

This would also favor greater inclusion in the context of a country that has been seriously affected economically and socially by the blows of the COVID-19 pandemic, but with a capital of women and girls available to train and develop their working skills by actively participating in the construction of their futures. 

By joining the program, we hope our initiative will gain focus, efficiency and increase its impact, reaching more communities in new regions. Access to mentorship, coaching, strategic advice from experts, and funding will allow scaling the program to more cities, and also improve our tools and methodologies. 

In the first place, the project could benefit from the broadening and deepening of the participants’ training in programming with the introduction of new tools and new content.

Secondly, a greater economic contribution would allow us to finance some of the applications developed by the participants (pilots, contests, or similar).
Thirdly, digital content and tools for teacher and mentor training could be expanded, also allowing  investment in developing better platforms for them to connect with participants in more communities.
Finally, it would be positive to expand the mentor network by incorporating more women with prominent roles in STEM careers.

We wish to share experiences with other organizations that work to promote STEM careers in young girls through education in formal and non-formal environments. Also, we expect our program to benefit from having access to (and be part of) a global network of female leaders in tech fields that can become role models and mentors for young girls around the world.

Our solution matches perfectly the GM Prize goal of making STEM education more accessible and equitable, and fits perfectly with our organization’s vision and core values. Partnering with GM will allow the YPF Foundation to continue promoting sustainable development of communities around the globe. 

INGENIAS adopts an innovative framework for promoting STEM among girls that allows them to take action, experiment and apply creativity. Not only does it provide technological training but also promotes citizen participation and empowers them as creators of technology-based solutions that improve their communities. 

The GM Prize will allow scaling up the project for a larger reach in more communities so that more girls and adolescents develop vocation in the STEM fields, enhancing their competitiveness in the labor markets of their communities and their impact on local development. The prize will also help the project to gain focus, efficiency and increase its impact, reaching more communities in new regions. Access to funding will allow scaling the program to more cities, and also improve our tools and methodologies.

INGENIAS is a technology-focused project that advances the needs of girls to access an education that prepares them for the jobs of the future. In Argentina, women represent less than 20% of students of technology-related degrees such as engineering and IT. Furthermore, only 10% of women entrepreneurs carry out technological ventures. With technological change accelerating and economies rapidly changing, failure to invest in girls’ STEM education and empower girls and women in these fields will exclude them from a whole range of new occupations that require STEM-related skills. 

INGENIAS adopts an innovative framework for promoting STEM among girls that allows them to take action, experiment and apply creativity. It not only provides girls with the possibility of developing careers in fields with competitive salaries and full employment, promoting more opportunities for them, but it also promotes more women in technology that mean adding new voices and more perspectives when thinking about solutions to current and future problems. 

The Innovation for Women Prize will allow scaling up the project for a larger reach in more communities so that more girls and adolescents develop vocation in the STEM fields, enhancing their competitiveness in the labor markets of their communities and their impact on local development. The prize will also help the project to gain focus, efficiency and increase its impact, reaching more communities in new regions. Access to funding will allow scaling the program to more cities, and also improve our tools and methodologies.