Iris Snapp
Contributing Writer
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Cady Stribling
Features Editor
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Growing up as a girl who loves STEM might feel discouraging since the field has been male-dominated throughout history. Society ingrained the link between women and humanities, and only recently have educators focused on diversifying STEM.

Stephanie Hendrith, assistant professor of elementary education, witnessed this need herself when she taught at an elementary school in Tennessee.

In 2016, Hendrith began as a lecturer at the University, and by 2018, she had established an exceedingly successful all-girls STEM club for fourth and fifth graders at Murray Middle School.

Her inspiration came after attending an annual STEM Day at Murray Middle when she noticed both boys and girls were equally excited to learn, yet the female students stepped back.

“The boys were very eager,” Hendrith said. “The girls were too, but we noticed the boys jumped to the front of the line. The girls seemed to shrink back because the boys were so loud and excited. The boys seemed to control the activities.”

Remembering her own struggle to get into the science field, Hendrith understood the need to encourage the girls in STEM who were too afraid to push boys out of the way.

Hendrith realized younger female students needed their own space to explore the field. She took the idea to Murray Middle with the goal of creating a space for girls to love STEM and understand it wasn’t just for the boys.

“I wanted to reach out and work with children,” Hendrith said. “One of my passions is science and I wanted to make it accessible for everyone.”

With the startup of the club at Murray Middle, Hendrith didn’t expect such a large group to be interested.

“I was originally expecting 10 to 20 girls,” Hendrith said. “Just a small group of girls, but we had about 50. Obviously this was a need I did not see, and they loved it. I had student volunteers and about four other female teachers working with me and the girls.”

The girls met twice a month for an hour to do hands-on activities like building small replicas of bridges and learning code.

Hendrith said the club helped teach children problem-solving skills that will be useful in the future.

“We focus a lot on coding because it lends itself to analytical problems, and those are things we want kids to pick up on,” Hendrith said.

The club has also learned about 3D printing and worked with robots. One of the main types of robots they handle are Spheros, which are small, sphere-shaped and programmable from an iPad.

Hendrith said the club helped teach all these amazing STEM activities and skills to girls without interruption. Even more, the girls were able to express themselves outside of science.

“I want the future of my program to be a safe space for girls to express themselves while also learning STEM,” Hendrith said.

Murray Middle, thoroughly impressed with its popularity, decided to pick up the club and run it permanently. In 2019, Hendrith began an all-girls STEM club at Paris Elementary School to reach even younger audiences.

The club, which meets from October to February, ended earlier this month.