By Andrea Hargraves 
Although many women have made important contributions to science and technology – Marie Curie, Catherine Johnson, Ada Lovelace… – they are still seen as a minority in this field. Much of this has to do with the education and games offered to girls and boys, from childhood onwards – and nothing to do with their intellectual ability, as shown in a study by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
That’s why we welcome initiatives like the “EstroGenias – Girls in Science” programme, led by toy manufacturer LEGO. With EstroGênias, 25 public educational institutions across Brazil will receive educational and training packages to train more female scientists, programmers and inventors.
LEGO Educational SPIKE Prime Kit is an award from the EstroGenias Program. (Source: LEGO / Disclosure)
LEGO contributes to science education
Mega Curioso has already done material on LEGO sets aimed at education (here and here), but the EstroGênias program is different in that it focuses on girls, a group very marginalized in the fields of science and technology.
According to Alex Paiva, Director of LEGO Education in Educational – Technology and Innovation Ecosystem, even organizations that don’t maintain STEAM education programs can create amazing projects with the incentives of the Estrogen program. Speaking of the completely complete list:
- The LEGO Education SPIKE Prime Kit contains LEGO bricks, sensors, motors and a controller for building robots and solving challenges.
- BBC Micro: Bit board for creating programming projects, maker culture, and computational thinking.
- Challenge set to create a robot that solves the challenges of the FIRST LEGO League Cargo Connect season – Robotics competition for students, organized in Brazil by Sesi.
- Teacher training and monitoring.
Public schools, institutes, organizations and institutions, as well as municipal and state educational departments can apply to participate in EstroGênias. The main requirement is the education of girls from 6 to 16 years of age and the pursuit of gender equality in science education. Registration is open until December 3.
The coolest thing is that the institutions will be able to form teams for the next season of FIRST LEGO League and your international challenge – which can be a great incentive for girls to continue their efforts in science.
The “EstroGenias – Girls in Science” program is operated by LEGO Educational with Disney, micro:bit, FIRST® LEGO® League, and Educational – Ecosystem of Technology and Innovation. You can find out more details on the program page..