<p>My daughter just sent me this ad. It’s for GoldiBlox and the creativity is terrific.
She especially had me note book that was used in this RubeGoldberg creation. (If you watch the ad, it’s at 40 seconds). </p>
<p>Spoiler: it’s a Saxon math book. lol. My kids had a love/hate relationship with those math books. It’s a very rigorous math curriculum and the lessons all have more problems that other math programs that I looked at. However, they all graduated high school with a very good grasp of math and had to trouble tackling the math classes required of them in college.</p>
<p>I think a number of frosh eng’g programs have students do these RubeGoldberg creations. Both of my kids did them. But that’s too late for many girls. </p>
<p>My kids had Saxon math. S1 did ok with it but S2 freaking hated it (a chip off the old block), and has always struggled with math.
A lot of people are praising the commercial, and rightfully so, but I think we need to remember that some girls are simply “English and History” people, just like some boys are, and and will never go into engineering or a STEM field no matter how much encouragment they receive. Girls (and boys) should be exposed to a variety of academic areas and if their preference is for STEM, that’s fine. If their preference is for the social sciences or humanities, that’s fine, too.</p>
<p>I agree footballmom104.
My two daughters are not STEM majors. Neither ever had any interest in STEM subjects or in history or English for that matter. . And I certainly gave them exposure to the sciences. One is a nurse and the other is an accountant.</p>
<p>I loved that video! I am not an engineer, but an English major who ended up in mechanical design/drafting. In the 30 some odd years I have been in this job, I’ve seen NO improvement in the number of women in the field. I am generally the only female. All the guys think of me as the “exception”. I think it’s a matter of culture - both overall and in engineering in particular. Tech jobs are generally well paying and I hate to see women not knowing that is an option. My husband works in video game production and there is an unbalance in that field also.
I found a ted talk video given by Debbie Sterling (the creator of Goldiblocks) this morning. Very enjoyable and enlightening talk. [Inspiring</a> the next generation of female engineers: Debbie Sterling at TEDxPSU - YouTube](<a href=“Inspiring the next generation of female engineers | Debbie Sterling | TEDxPSU - YouTube”>Inspiring the next generation of female engineers | Debbie Sterling | TEDxPSU - YouTube)</p>
<p>I’m a middle-aged female engineer. When I attend professional meetings, I’m usualy one of two women out of 20 to 50 men. When I sit in on my dad’s engineering classses, though, there is a good percentage of women. I think a lot of women quit the field once they have kids. It’s hard to be a full-time engineer and a mom. I used to work three days a week when my kids were young, and I would get sarcastic comments from contractors when they realized I wasn’t full-time: “Oh, you must be a MOM…” in a condescending tone.</p>
<p>I agree that middle school is the time to expose girls to engineering. It would be ehlpful for HS teachers to continue the encouragement, though.</p>
<p>Middle-aged female physicist here. I loved the way the ad turned the typical girly toys on their heads. My field is still male-dominated, but it is much better now than 20 years ago.</p>
<p>My d’s college does a summer program for pre-college women in science and engineering, and they have an accredited all-women engineering program, with an explicit goal of creating engineering managers.</p>
<p>Love that commercial! I never played with my toys the way they were meant to be played with. I was always building things with them. I am going into Engineering and I am a girl. I am a sopohmore and even my teachers are always making sexiest assumptions such as I am in the wrong class. My first day of engineering in my freshman year my teacher told me I just missed the ceramics class, it was a few doors down. I had to pull a Mean Girls quote out…“As refreshingly sexiest as that is, I am here for this class”</p>
<p>I work in a robotics lab where I am one of two females in with a dozen or so males. When I tagged along to my older brother’s college orientation, they got really excited because they thought I was an incoming freshman and they were excited for a girl in the computer science program. And now I am outnumbered 5:1 in my CS classes.
There’s definitely room for improvement.</p>
<p>There’s always always a fine line with this type of advertising and toys. Are we just changing something superficially to make it fit with our stereotypes of girlishness? Are we somehow sacrificing something of the content to make it appeal better to this audience? From the feedback I have heard of this so far, though, they have walked that fine line of being encouraging and not condescending.
Me, though? I stuck with my Legos as a kid.</p>