BURIEN, Wash. —
March is Women’s History Month. The National Science Foundation reports that as of 2021, about 35% of the STEM workforce is female.
KING 5 meteorologist Leah Pezzetti visited the third graders at Shorewood Elementary in Burien to talk to them about being a woman in STEM. Before the conversation, she wanted to gauge their perception of scientists and tasked them with an art project: draw a picture of a scientist.
Every boy drew a male scientist, and most of the girls drew a female, except for three girls who drew a man.
One of the young girls said she's currently enrolled in Girls Inc. PNW, an after-school program that teaches about female empowerment.
“I want to try to be a scientist so I can help the population of girl scientists. Maybe it can inspire other young girls to think, ‘Wow, girls and boys can be scientists?’” said Emilia.
What does a scientist look like?
Catherine Gustafson, who teaches one of the school’s third grade classes, said she hopes this exercise starts a conversation about equality.
“I think it’s a really interesting opportunity now to go back and talk to them further as a class to really think about why is it that you chose to draw a boy or a girl and really launch that conversation as we move into different parts of our curriculum,” said Catherine.
What did the students take away from the experiment?
"It's unfair. Maybe we should make a law where, like, all girls can do stuff," one third grade boy said. "Just like Martin Luther King Jr., we can give a big speech out that girls and boys should be able to do any job they want."
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