With our society becoming increasingly dependent on technology and STEM literacy, it’s becoming even more imperative to close the drastic gender gap that exists within STEM fields. A recent study by Microsoft found that girls and young women tend to lose interest in STEM fields as they age. By the time they finish high school, their interest drops significantly. Microsoft's study reinforces what we’ve known at EiE for many years: We have to start early. As our founder Christine Cunningham articulated last fall during an AtlanticLive event, “We have to [reach students] before they’ve been socialized [to believe] that they can’t do it.” We need to empower all learners and help them see the value of science, technology, engineering and math. These strategies can empower young girls to discover their inner engineer.

Next week, the EiE team is hitting the road to attend the NSTA (National Science Teachers Association) National Conference in Atlanta! We love conference season here at EiE—it’s a blast meeting educators, answering your burning questions, and finding out about the amazing things you’re doing in your own classrooms or districts. And when you come visit us at NSTA, you’re guaranteed to have fun and learn something new. Find our booth to get a first look at our upcoming early childhood curriculum, engage in some hands-on design challenges, and chat with our PD professionals. Read on to learn more about our booth and sessions at NSTA from March 16th–18th! We hope to see you there.

EiE Professional Development is excited to offer two free webinars this month that can help you improve your teaching practice. Both "Effective Questioning Strategies for Your STEM Classroom" and "Getting Started with EiE: Materials Management" are suitable for elementary teachers of engineering and STEM specialists, as well as professional development providers and administrators who want to learn more about meaningful integration of STEM subjects and effective questioning strategies. You don’t need previous experience teaching the EiE curriculum to benefit from these engaging webinars. Learn more about the webinars below and register today!

Engineers Week is one of our favorite times of year. Each year, we celebrate the engineering field and the amazing engineers who solve problems, design technologies and make our world safer and better. This year’s theme, “Engineers: Inspiring Wonder,” is all about inspiring kids to discover their inner engineer and become innovative problem solvers. As the DiscoverE website describes, let's “encourage them to wonder, ‘Is engineering my future?’” To help educators inspire wonder this week, we thought we’d share our favorite videos of kids engineering, working together, learning, and of course, being inspired.

This blog was originally posted on January 7, 2016.

We’re always interested to learn how districts adopt and implement the EiE curriculum. One challenge many districts face is simply finding the funds for curriculum materials, another is building consensus and enthusiasm among teachers.

Amphitheater Unified School District in Tucson is a great example of a district that’s seeing a highly successful EiE implementation despite serious budget constraints.