It's Speyer Girl Power! Lower School Kicks Off Girls&Math and Girls Design Squad!

Spotted on and off the Boulevard: our younger female Speyer students tinkering, building, and exploring their love of design and math! Yes, guided by some of our fearless Lower School faculty, our students kicked off two new groups: Girls&Math and Girls Design Squad! 

Coming together before school (both online and socially distanced at Speyer), our students gathered to learn new skills and have fun! For the Girls&Math club, our students enjoyed a girls-only space where they can work together or independently on challenging problem sets and learn new aspects of mathematics. Speyer is keenly aware that a gender gap continues to exist between how young women and men perform in and perceive mathematics courses and exams. We actively encourage girls to trust in their abilities and feel confident in their performance and this club is one way we are fostering this.

Meanwhile, the Girls Design Squad began with a five-day mini-club for our youngest female makers, our Kindergarteners! You can see in the pictures above: our students in the Design Squad had a lot of fun as they designed and built a variety of unique creations! At Speyer, we recognize the importance of making, tinkering, and play in early childhood. Every time a child creates something -- from cardboard boxes, washi tape, craft sticks, or found materials -- she is engaging in the roots of problem solving and critical thinking. This work is the foundation of design thinking, an empathetic approach to creative problem solving, which provides students the tools to consider the many possible solutions and steps necessary to solve real world problems. 

We know females in the fields of mathematics, science, technology, and engineering are underrepresented, and here at Speyer, we believe we can be a force in change. To do this, we need to embrace the challenges of gender equity in school and ensure we are offering our girls opportunities to build the necessary skills, knowledge, and love of these fields from an early age. 

Stay tuned for more updates from these amazing groups!