Subject:
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Re: More Thoughts about Girls and Legos
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.edu
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Date:
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Fri, 18 Aug 2000 01:00:46 GMT
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Viewed:
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7023 times
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Howdy,
David Eaton wrote:
> Yes, there are some cognitive differences between men and women...but I
> > cannot seriously believe that someone would argue that this would
> > explain why there are significantly fewer women in the fields of science
> > and technology.
>
> Well... I'd say that's exactly why! <snip>
Not so. There may be psychological barriars, but I suspect they are learned ones.
In the Lego Lab environment
I observed the same interest in building and creating with both genders. The
differences came from teaching
strategies and the learning environment. I think you are going to have to search
very hard to find the
"aniti-technology" gene in females.
> Although
> women IN GENERAL do NOT enjoy the above as much as men....
That is not true. Female students enjoy building with Lego as much as men. That
was one of my points! The question I pose myself is how I can encourage more
female students to explore technology...why don't we see more women in
technology...the question is astounding when you consider female students *do*
enjoy it as much as male students. At least one factor that comes into play are
the way we gender type roles. As an educator I need to pay attention to methods
and the environment.
> I highly agree here. And I think the key to getting women involved in the
> building/scientific/technology world is motivating them to actively WANT to do
> it. And therein I think is the underlying issue.
That is why I do not like the genetic argument per se. It lends itself to
determinism...girls cannot ( generally speaking )
enter the world of technology because of their genetic make-up. I would rather
focus on learning styles tailor
my teaching to encourage more female participation. One way of doing that is to
foster hands-on project based learning
in science labs such as a Lego Engineering Lab.
> It's too bad that a classroom environment isn't really the right place to
> experiment, though.
If nothing else, it is a good place to start. I wish more educators would use Lego
elements in the classroom.
> Most humans are
> little motivated or competent enough to want to become actively involved. Of
> those that are motivated and competent, a greater percentage are males than
> females, mainly due to male's generally greater motivation in the area'.
We do agree on many points. Thanks for sending in a reply!
Richard
rwright@pcsedu.com
www.edventures.com
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: More Thoughts about Girls and Legos
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| (...) Well, I'll have to go and semi-agree with the statement. However, I think that what the statement was implying vs. what it said by the letter was a bit different. I think that I would say something along the lines of "male and female minds (...) (25 years ago, 16-Aug-00, to lugnet.edu)
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