Museum, University and school: triad to promote girls in STEM

Abstract

Initiatives that promote the inclusion of young girls in science areas through actions in schools, science museums, and universities have been developed in the country, resulting from investments made by public and private development agencies in the last ten years. In this article, we present a Project developed in cooperation between the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro - Duque de Caxias campus and the Science and Life Museum, in the territory where they are located. The project includes a set of activities such as physics, chemistry, and nanotechnology workshops at the University, meetings with researchers at the museum, and the historical exhibition about women in science and math combined with a round table composed of invited researchers at schools. The object of the research presented is based on the set of questions that the students asked the researchers during the discussions in the round table, which were later analyzed using the technique of content analysis in the inductive perspective. The results show how important examples of women who have built careers in the exact sciences are for shaping the perception that these spaces can be occupied by female students in the future. The participants were curious about the universe presented and interested in the discussion about women in science. At the same time, promoting the meeting of young students with other young women from Duque de Caxias who are excelling in their science careers seems to contribute to the young participants in the project seeing themselves, to a certain extent, represented, stimulating the sense of belonging to scientific careers.

Keywords:
science museum; fundamental education; women in science; STEM; nanotechnology