I see many students viewing artificial intelligence as humanlike simply because it can write essays, do complex math or answer questions. AI can mimic human behavior but lacks meaningful engagement with the world.

A by the testing company NWEA shows a gender gap in eighth grade STEM achievement has returned following the pandemic.

Historically, boys have tested better than girls in math and science in middle school, said Megan Kuhfield, one of the NWEA report’s authors. But the gender gap disappeared in 2019, according to results from (TIMSS), an assessment administered across dozens of countries every four years. For the first time since 1995, girls outperformed boys in eighth grade math and science that year.

But TIMSS scores released in December 2024 showed that girls’ performance substantially declined more than boys’ in eighth grade science and math. The study showed the same trend was found in two national tests: assessment and the (NAEP). 

Across all three tests, gender gaps in math and science went from almost nonexistent in 2019 to favoring boys starting in 2022. The MAP Growth assessment — which is administered annually — shows that the gaps widened mainly between 2021 and 2024, when students returned to classrooms.

Kuhfield said the research is concerning because decades of progress in for STEM achievement was wiped out in four years. 

“It’s really hard to say definitively what’s happening here,” she said. “It’s the million-dollar question — why did we see these gaps close by 2019 and then reopen during the last five years?”

Researchers discovered that girls suffered more during COVID-19, but Kuhfield said if that was the main cause, reading test scores would have followed a similar pattern. Girls still outperformed boys in literacy on the latest NWEA and NAEP assessments, according to the study.

“That kind of led me to two other theories that are going on kind of in my head,” she said. “One being: Maybe there’s something about how teachers are interacting with students in the classroom — reinforcing old stereotypes of pushing boys [more] towards advanced math. We don’t have evidence of this.”

Kuhfield said her other theory is that there’s been a shift in education to focus on boys’ academic achievement as researchers have found they are .

The NWEA study includes recommendations for schools to improve the equity in STEM education. Researchers suggest examining classroom dynamics and instructional practices to ensure boys aren’t receiving more teacher attention, and providing academic and emotional support — particularly to girls — to improve math and science skills.

“She communicates really well, and the kids just loved it so much,” Robinson said. “I don’t think they totally knew what an engineer was, but they understood that they help build things.”

Such exposure can help schools overcome gender stereotypes that form not long after children start school, according to a from the American Institutes for Research. 

Based on a review of nearly 100 studies from 33 countries, the analysis shows that by age 6, kids already perceive boys to be better than girls at computer science and engineering. Among girls, such beliefs only grow more entrenched over time.

Without efforts to address those perceptions, girls might turn away from “fast-growing tech fields like artificial intelligence,” said David Miller, lead author and a senior researcher who started the project five years ago. 

Released Monday, the findings, he added, have “downstream implications for thinking about what high school course electives girls might decide to choose, what majors they might go into and then later, the workforce.”

from Code.org, a nonprofit that advocates for computer science in K-12, shows that girls’ participation in computer science drops off as they get older. In the elementary grades, girls comprise about half of those enrolled in a foundational computer science course. But participation falls to 44% in middle school and 33% in high school. Experts see promising increases in women , but Miller recommended even greater efforts to expose young girls to opportunities in computer science and clear up  misconceptions. 

One study cited in the paper found that roughly three-fourths of young children think that engineers work on engines and repair cars. Only a third said that engineers design things. 

Just as kids show an early bias toward boys in specific STEM fields, they also develop stereotypes that favor girls in reading and writing. By age 8, students think girls are more verbally gifted, the study found.

Julie Flapan, who directs the Computer Science Equity Project at the University of California Los Angeles, sees opportunities to encourage boys’ literacy development through their passion for gaming. 

“With technology, there’s so much storytelling that goes on in creating video games. It’s not just passively sitting behind a screen, but actually has a lot of creativity, collaboration, problem-solving,” she said. “When we focus on those elements of computing, it is really engaging for a lot of kids.”

For years, the project has offered training workshops for teachers, and over time, participation among K-5 teachers has increased. About 45% of the teachers who attended workshops last year were elementary teachers.

​​”Teachers play a huge role. School counselors also play a very big role as gatekeepers for who gets put into a computer science class,” Flapan said. Parents often enroll their sons in coding camps or encourage them to join robotics clubs, giving them a leg up over their female peers. “Teachers will see that these boys are really excelling in computer science and say, ‘See, they’re just born to do it.’ Then a girl walks in and thinks ‘Well, that doesn’t look like a space for me.’ ”

Efforts to increase computer science and engineering opportunities for girls at the elementary level, however, often depend on educators who have extra time and interest in the topic, said Robinson, now a doctoral student at the University of Houston who focuses on gender disparities in . At Sanchez Elementary, the high-poverty school where she taught previously, several girls attended an afterschool robotics program organized by a social worker. But it didn’t last long.

“It’s really hard to implement that stuff at the elementary level without a class because so much pressure is pulling you in different directions,” Robinson said.

Some previous studies suggested that in early childhood and the elementary grades, children viewed boys as more math inclined than girls, but Miller’s study showed that children think boys and girls are equally capable of mastering the subject.

The analysis found differences in how children perceive specific science fields. Students thought boys would do better in physics, while females would be stronger in biology. That’s why Miller thinks researchers should focus on the STEM fields where stereotypes are the strongest, rather than looking broadly at kids’ attitudes toward math and science.

“Computer science, engineering and physics … should instead take center stage in future research on children’s gender stereotypes about STEM abilities,” he wrote.

It’s also important to recognize progress, said Talia Milgrom-Elcott, founder of , a national network focused on building the STEM educator workforce.

In 2019-2021, for example, girls made up at least half of the enrollment in Advanced Placement at over 1,100 schools nationwide — up from 818 schools the previous year.  The Code.org report also shows that when girls take the AP computer science exam, they earn a score of 3 or higher at rates similar to boys, 61% to 65% respectively.

And over the past decade, women entering STEM fields grew by 31%, compared to 15% for men, according to the . 

“I want to know that all the deliberate efforts we’re making are adding up,” she said. 

Diversifying the science, technology, engineering and math fields has long been a top priority of and . of the National Science Foundation, the biggest funder of university-led research and development in the U.S.

“I realized how big the problem was and how closely connected I was to it,” said the Bayview Secondary School student in Ontario, Canada.

In response, Shanzeh is developing BeBella, a postpartum app designed to help new moms to navigate their postpartum journeys. 

New mothers can track their postpartum health, such as water intake and sleep patterns, and can use artificial intelligence to create a personalized care plan.

Moms can also journal how they’re feeling.

Shanzeh said the data, with its AI component, can streamline and coordinate their health care journeys with their doctors. She added that postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis affects hundreds of millions of mothers worldwide.

“And because of that” she said, “I know that the app does have a lot of potential to impact and transform these people’s lives.”

Her project, Rubix, inspired by the Rubik’s Cube and Lego, is a tiny prefabricated home complete with a kitchen, a bathroom and other necessities.

 “It’s intended for independent living with dignity for the homeless population,” Wang said.

Rubix is entirely off-grid, powered by solar energy, and uses bamboo and recycled plastics as its main construction materials.

Unlike any of the other tiny home products that are available on the market, Wang said, “it’s an innovative design that makes manufacturing, transportation and installation cheaper, faster and far more efficient.”

Rubix has an independent plumbing system, so it can also be used in natural disaster relief. 

Wang has been communicating with city council members and nonprofits that are interested in seeing Rubix being implemented in San Diego.

She is also fundraising to create a full-scale prototype. Wang says she’s aiming for a one-time purchase cost of $30,000, compared to the $50,000 per year San Diego shelter beds cost to maintain.

For her work on Rubix, Wang , a nonprofit that provides opportunities for accomplished young people to make a positive difference.

CONWAY — Coastal Carolina students are working to send a satellite into space as part of South Carolina’s first university-run space program.

Around 80 science and engineering students are involved in the planning stages for a satellite expected to cost $1.5 million to build and launch. The faculty members leading the effort since last March are hoping to send the shoebox-sized satellite into space by 2027.

The satellite, which will circle the planet 15 times a day from roughly 1,200 miles up, will offer hands-on learning opportunities across a variety of academic programs.

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For example, cameras on the satellite will be able to detect changes in sea levels, flooding from hurricanes and erosion along coastlines. Students and researchers can use that data to find solutions to climate problems and natural disasters, said Wes Hitt, head of the university’s physics and engineering science department, who’s leading the effort.

Other students can get involved in promoting the program, developing a website or finding donors, Hitt said.

Plus, the satellite should offer students a new, extraterrestrial way to take a selfie.

People will be able to submit photos and text to be displayed on the side of the satellite, which will feature a “selfie stick” to snap a picture of their image — with the satellite and outer space as the background — to send back down to Earth.

Exactly how that would work is yet to be decided. There may be a cost to the cosmic selfies, which could be a fundraiser to support the program, Hitt said.

“It’s going to function almost like a billboard in space,” he told the SC Daily Gazette.

These types of small satellites, called CubeSats, are often used for educational programs because they are relatively cheap and quick to build, . The CubeSat the university plans to launch, called ChantSat-1, is 10-by-10-by-30 centimeters.

Faculty mentors will head groups of students each working on a different aspect of the satellite. Groups will write flight software, create heating and cooling systems, and find ways to communicate with the satellite once it’s in orbit, Hitt said.

“Working on Coastal’s small satellite design has been an engaging and eye-opening experience,” Charis Williams, a junior engineering major, said in a release from the university. “It’s a whole world that I never knew existed, but it’s both amazing and scary to work on a project that goes far beyond a purely conceptual dream.”

Research uses

Once in orbit, the satellite will use cameras to see changes in drinking water that are difficult to detect from the ground. Near-infrared cameras able to see colors beyond the spectrum visible to humans will make it easier to tell how much sediment is in drinking water supplies or whether algae is blooming in a nearby river.

“That’s going to allow end-users to have that data to monitor the health and the quality of some of the Grand Strand and South Carolina’s most valuable water resources,” Hitt said.

Students studying marine science and oceanography will be able to monitor coastal erosion and sea-level rise, Hitt said.

And intelligence and security students can use the images to practice geospatial intelligence, which is a method of analyzing photographs and data from a specific location, said Bob Vipperman, chair of the university’s board overseeing its intelligence department.

“The project is going to be a place where students from diverse backgrounds and with very varied skill sets are going to learn to communicate with each other, learn to collaborate effectively with each other and solve those tough, complex problems that come with trying to get into space,” Hitt said.

The next step will be finding enough donors to fund the program, whether through grants, companies or individual supporters, Vipperman said.

The program has enough money to get started but not the full amount necessary, Vipperman said, declining to be specific.

He did say it could take $750,000 to launch the satellite into space.

CubeSats typically hitch a ride on a rocket already going into space for one reason or another, a bit like a ride share, he said.

Most often, the tiny satellites join SpaceX rockets carrying other cargo or people, but other services are designed just to launch the CubeSats. As the launch date grows closer, the teams will have to decide which rocket will carry their satellite.

In the meantime, Vipperman and Hitt said they’re hoping the program will act as a boon for the 10,000-student university.

Having the only space program in the state could help boost its image for science and technology degrees, Hitt said.

Plus, the selfie stick and social media campaigns can educate people beyond the university’s campus, he added.

“We see this project as making space and space technology and interaction with space technology more broadly accessible,” Hitt said.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. SC Daily Gazette maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seanna Adcox for questions: info@scdailygazette.com. Follow SC Daily Gazette on and .

Naya, a freshman at John F. Kennedy High School in New Orleans, was inspired to create the watch through a program called , where K-12 students learn and participate in hands-on science, technology, engineering and math projects. The organization offers an eight-month-long STEM fellowship to low-income high school students of color who show an interest in solving real-world problems and gives them training, career and networking opportunities.

She signed up for the fellowship because she wanted to keep herself busy. Little did she know the opportunities the program would allow her.

The organization also hosts STEM Saturday, a free weekend program where K-12 students can create inventions. When Naya attended her first STEM Saturday in October, she thought designing a watch that detects seizures would be a great idea. But the following weekend — the last weekend to complete her project — she changed her plan entirely and instead created a watch for stroke detection, since her grandmother had suffered a stroke. She named her invention WingItt, a fitting title for an idea that sprouted at the last second.

The watch works by detecting nerve impulses and heartbeats. Naya says that many stroke victims may develop noticeable signs such as a droopy face or strange taste in their mouth, but she wanted to create something that can detect internal symptoms. As she researched, she found that strokes were more common in people 55 and older than in younger people, so she wanted to cater to this demographic. As she works out the kinks in her prototype, she wants to ensure that it is detecting only strokes and not picking up on other issues, such as those involving the heart.

A huge priority for Naya is making sure her watch is affordable for older adults who may not have the money for expensive technology, like iPhones and Apple Watches, that have health-monitoring features.

“I want to do something I’m interested in, that will also change the world,” she says.

Naya’s invention could well be on its way to doing just that, as she is one of 126 students out of over 2,500 nationwide to be selected as champions in the . The competition for grades 6 to 12, presented by the U.S. Department of Education and , will host its inaugural festival next month in Washington, D.C., where the champions will showcase their creations. The students are also receiving two months of and four months of master classes with STEM experts like astronauts and sports statisticians. 

“I never thought that I would win,” Naya says. She says she looks forward to presenting her watch and seeing the other inventions at the festival. 

Naya thinks younger students who may have an interest in science should give STEM a try because it has given her experiences she never thought she would have. She says students in her area specifically should give STEM NOLA a chance because it has allowed her to go to new places and learn new things.

As a freshman, Naya still has plenty of time to do more in the world of STEM. Her other plans include playing softball and getting a college scholarship, and longer-term, becoming an obstetrician-gynecologist.

“I love the fact that you’re bringing new life into the world, that’s the coolest thing ever to me. I’m a woman helping women. It can’t get any better than that!”
Disclosure: The Walton Family Foundation and Overdeck Family Foundation provide financial support to the and The 74.

The world is dependent on innovations, systems and equipment that are designed and sustained using science, engineering, technology and mathematics. This means the nurturing of STEM talent cannot be reserved for a slice of our student population but, instead, an essential component of every student’s educational journey.

It turns out, industry agrees.

Our colleagues in the community report the need for curious and creative professionals who can work in teams to solve the toughest problems encountered in the fabs and labs of our most advanced workplaces.

Because innovation is happening at a quickening pace, readying students through the curriculum for every workplace scenario will be impossible. The ability to design solutions from scratch, in real time, is necessary to the innovation enterprise.

Whether this is perceived as an issue of equity or economics, the goal is the same: To value STEM knowledge in the same way we value reading.

K-12 needs to be rethought and redesigned or it will not only fail to meet the needs of a STEM-dependent world, it will fail to meet the needs of a unique generation of students who learns, thinks and engages with the world around them differently than any before.

Millennial and Gen Z parents are tech-integrated and experience-driven. Their children are hard-wired to be the same. Practically, this means they innately use technology to learn anytime, anywhere. But it also means they want to learn by doing. They consider technology their guide but want in-person engagement for connection, collaboration and support.

These were the trends and challenges we had to consider when designing . ASU Prep is a P-20 system of schools and educational services embedded in a larger learning enterprise at Arizona State University. The needs and preferences of our student body is what drives our iterative design. Students become masters in various learning domains from home, at a K-12 campus, on a university campus, at their parent’s workplace or even with peers at a coffee shop.

Thanks to the innovative K-12 policy environment in Arizona, students who can do a day’s worth of school work in less time can fill the remaining hours getting ahead in courses, catching up on concepts where they struggle, working, pursuing an interest in music, theater, Olympic sport or even launching their own small business.

Online learning should not be remote from people. We pair students with Learning Success Coaches to help students build personalized educational pathways into their desired future career. From kindergarten on, ASU Prep students build their own learning plans in concert with a guide and present it to their parents.

Our students are exposed to ASU courses as soon as they are ready and can take any of the 4,000-plus courses on the ASU catalog: in person, online or through our . High school students at ASU Prep are applying their learning via paid internships and hybrid high school/university schedules.

It’s working. With graduation and college-going rates that exceed the averages and large numbers of students matriculating to STEM careers, we believe that we are the school system of the future. As part of , ASU Prep is wired like no other K12 system in the country and is poised to design and open access to a K12 model fit for the future of work. 

We do all these things not to simply grow enrollment but to develop a knowledge base of what works to share with the broader community and the ASU teams that are increasing university enrollment in underrepresented communities.

Stakes are high for both our country and the families striving within. We embrace the efforts laid out in the New Essential Education Discoveries (NEED) Act to evaluate what is happening right now in the most innovative systems in the United States and apply those lessons rapidly for the benefit of all students.

There is brilliance in every household. We believe it’s our job to design new educational models that value curiosity and show every student that they do, in fact, have a path to a successful future.

With that in mind, the 14-year-old from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, built a robot hand controlled by a glove. “It has a lot of applications,” he says, “but primarily for search and rescue.” The user’s movements are copied to the robot intuitively. And he built it all for less than $100. (See the robot in action right here)

For his invention, he won the Samueli Foundation Prize of $25,000 at the 2022 Broadcom MASTERS, a national science and engineering competition for middle school students. He says he’ll use the prize for college tuition.

Share Thomas’s story — and check out this other recent coverage of teenagers breaking new ground in STEM: 

• Florida Teen Invents World’s First Sustainable Electric Vehicle Motor
  
• California Teen Creates App to Help Kids Struggling With Food Allergies
  
• Meet the 16 Under 16 in STEM Achievers

—Produced & Edited by Jim Fields

Marissa and Kason are using their iPad to train their computerized friend, inputting commands that will guide the robot in taking measurements, calculating angles and then using that information to successfully pick up three blocks, carry them a short distance, and drop them back to the surface. 

The two students have some success with the robot picking up one block, but then run into some obstacles as the simulation unfolds. Their summer camp teacher, Kristen Robinson, comes over to help see if she can offer some insight and guidance. 

More than two years since the pandemic disrupted in-person learning and forced a pivot to virtual learning, particularly in the areas of science and technology, students are back interacting with one another, developing critical social skills that have, at times, gone unused amid laptops, e-mails and Zoom sessions. 

It was something Robinson said she noticed early on working with the students during the multi-day camp. During the camp’s first few days, she says, kids were trying to create codes for their robots and when something in the coding didn’t work, they were growing frustrated. 

The frustration would boil over, Robinson says, and, much to her surprise, they would simply quit. 

“No one’s codes were working. They were wanting it to work. so I kind of problem-solved that a little bit. And shared that with them the next day. And so they used that knowledge to rewrite their code and to get everything figured out. And they’re like, ‘oh my gosh, you’re right. Yeah, it does work.’ 

“Normally, I feel like kids would maybe [persevere] and be like, ‘We’re gonna figure this out, right?’”

But sometimes the right answer isn’t the first answer. That’s why this key lesson — that perfection and proficiency takes time and resilience — is a central part of the process being developed and distributed by the Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance. The organization works with schools, students and others to build the capacity of educators in STEM-related fields.

“It includes districts, of course,” said Levi Patrick, executive director of the alliance, also known as TRSA. “We have relationships with our districts, but mostly through classroom teachers across the region.”

The goal, Patrick said, is to reduce the barriers that are keeping STEM out of individual classrooms, and to make sure that instructors have additional training available to them so they can expand their coursework. “Then, we work with many other people beyond the districts — a lot of our work happens with our community partners, but also workforce [advocates and] employers who really want to make sure that they are investing back into the community,” he added.

Which brings us back to the library at Darnaby Elementary. One pillar of the organization’s work over the past decade (the last five as a nonprofit) has been to provide training, grants and even curriculum to community partners so they can host summer learning programs and expand student access to STEM coursework during the summer months. 

“We’re actually able to serve about twice as many student experiences this summer, just by changing that model,” Patrick said. 

TRSA connects a vast universe of partners — from major school districts to Global Gardens, a program for low-income students to learn about science through gardening. 

“Our goal as an alliance is to find ways to bring in more and more partners who can do this work alongside us,” he said. “We believe collectively there’s a need. We know that there are essentially always students on the waiting list at the summer camps. And we know our small organization can’t do it alone. So as an alliance, our vision is to continue to bring people into the fold, resource them, give them support.”

Tulsa was identified as Oklahoma’s first STEM Community in large part thanks to the extensive partnerships and collaborations available with college, university, district, and nonprofit partners, said Lynn Staggs, TRSA’s chief of staff.

At Darnaby Elementary, that support involved providing 3D printers and VEX robotics materials for the robotics coding and building camps, said MacKensie Mathison, the school’s STEM strategist. 

“Their partnership with Darnaby goes even beyond the singular grant: TRSA went above and beyond to provide us with surgical kits for our biomedical camp when we were struggling to acquire the needed materials through our traditional channels,” Mathison said. “This partnership has also included an engaging curriculum, professional development, contacts with other partners, and amazing items such as the Giant Moon and Mars Maps that were lent out for our NASA camp.”

TRSA staff develop the majority of the student experiences that TRSA offers and implement across the community in an effort to overcome the substantial opportunity gap that still hinders access to STEM for girls and Black, Latino, Indigenous, rural and economically disadvantaged students, Staggs said. 

“This past summer, TRSA provided nearly $30,000 in grant funds to expand access to summer STEM camps,” she said. “A two-day training was provided to ensure partners have a shared view of STEM and how powerful learning opportunities can shape beliefs about student identity, their confidence and competence in STEM, and their view of how STEM is used in their world.”

She added that they plan to expand summer STEM camp learning opportunities over the next few years by working closely with neighborhoods around Tulsa to understand their role in overcoming opportunity gaps that continue to persist.

From 2014 to early 2020, just before the pandemic, the U.S. saw a 1.3 million-student drop in afterschool STEM participation, falling from 7 million learners to 5.7 million, according to the paper, which was published by the nonprofit organization Afterschool Alliance.

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Those drops were starkest among poorer students, who were already underrepresented in STEM fields. In that timespan, the number of young people from low-income households participating in afterschool programs, STEM or otherwise, fell from 4.6 million to 2.7 million — meaning 79 percent of afterschool attrition came from less wealthy families despite such students making up only 38 percent of all participants in 2020.

“We left those students behind,” said Nikole Collins-Puri, CEO of the California-based nonprofit Techbridge Girls.

Simultaneously, however, the share of afterschool programs offering STEM opportunities grew. Nearly 3 in 4 young people learning outside of school hours have science and technology programming available to them. That’s up four percentage points from 69 percent in 2014.

“The inequities are troubling and must not continue,” said Jodi Grant, Afterschool Alliance’s executive director, in a press release. “We need to increase access to afterschool overall, because even though parents report a greater percentage of programs are providing STEM, fewer children are in afterschool programs today than in years past.”

Data for the report come from a randomly selected, nationally representative sample of U.S. families, including a total of more than 31,000 phone interviews, making the report the most comprehensive look at out-of-school learning to date.

The interviews revealed that, even amid drops in afterschool program participation, more parents than ever before would like to see their children get involved in such opportunities. For every child in an out-of-school learning program, another three are waiting to get in, according to the study. The parents of some 24.6 million students said they would enroll their child in afterschool programming if the offerings were readily available to them.

Cost and transportation appear to pose key barriers. Fifty-seven percent of parents said afterschool opportunities were too expensive and 53 percent said they weren’t sure how their kids would get to and from activities. STEM programs may be particularly pricey, with a $107 mean weekly reported price, compared to $74 per week for other offerings.

Despite barriers, however, science and math opportunities are an increasing priority for parents. Some 72 percent of families, up from 53 percent in 2014, told researchers that STEM and computer science learning were important factors in their selection of afterschool and summer programs. Rates were especially high among Black, Hispanic and Asian families.

STEM-related occupations tend to be more lucrative than non-STEM fields, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts the former will grow by 8 percent in the next decade, while the latter will only grow 3.4 percent. STEM fields, however, tend to employ a more white and more male workforce than the general population.

Collins-Puri’s organization, Techbridge Girls, works to counter that trend by providing STEM learning opportunities to low-income girls of color and gender-expansive individuals.

Widening access to STEM programs, she said in a briefing held on the Afterschool Alliance report, means eliminating potential barriers to participation for underrepresented groups. For example, young women more so than young men tend to shoulder caregiving responsibilities, the CEO pointed out — which for many families only increased during the pandemic.

“When girls have the responsibility to take care of their younger sibling, to take care of their elderly family members, or even take on some of the economic responsibilities to support the household, that is a direct impact to their participation in afterschool programming,” said Collins-Puri.

“You have to make your afterschool programming flexible,” she continued. Adults should encourage students to come to activities, regardless of their home responsibilities, by telling them, “Make sure you bring your younger sibling so they can be part of the learning experience,” the Oakland afterschool leader advised.

Programs may soon have additional resources at their disposal, Grant, of the Afterschool Alliance, pointed out thanks to funds from the American Rescue Plan, which could allow some organizations to subsidize program costs, bolster transportation options or make other adjustments to meet families’ needs.

Even amid persistent disparities in access to afterschool programming, gaps have never been due to any deficiencies among individuals who belong to underrepresented groups, Collins-Puri reminded viewers.

“Our girls lack nothing. Our girls are capable. They’re ready and they’re willing to be in the STEM revolution.”