According to a study by the Girl Scouts, 74 percent of girls report an interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). The problem starts when they decide to pursue a career—only 13 percent express an interest in STEM as their top career choice. The result is some 200,000 STEM jobs going unfilled annually in the United States despite the fact that women in STEM fields earn 35 percent more than their peers.
“This is why so many organizations have launched STEM initiatives for girls, including the Girl Scouts, NASA and the New York Academy of Sciences. While encouraging interest in STEM is important, what they are missing is the need to teach a growth mindset that will enable lifelong learning, instill purpose and teach the kind of grit that powers through life’s setbacks,” says writer and educator Robin Stevens Payes.
Payes is tackling this problem on multiple fronts as she launches her EDGE OF YESTERDAY media company with her interactive website gamification modules, book series and teaching curriculum. “There isn’t a lot of STEM content for middle school girls that teaches the social and emotional skills they need to succeed,” says Payes. To address that, Payes is engaging young women in the media they love most—gaming, novels, videos, podcasts and social media, and combining this with innovative lesson plans—to teach girls how to succeed in STEM and in life.
Science fiction has been a gateway for generations for STEM achievers. In her science fiction series, the EDGE OF YESTERDAY, which continues with the DA VINCI’S WAY (Small Batch Books; October 2018), Payes introduces readers to heroine Charley Morton. The eighth-grader creates the science fair project of the century—or perhaps the 13th century—when she finds a way to travel back in time to meet her hero, Leonardo da Vinci. Payes uses da Vinci’s Key to Universal Learning:
