Girls May Cause 'Major Trouble' at World Robotics Event, But Lag in STEM Fields

A Michigan middle school robotics mentor gave seventh- and eighth-grade girls the space they needed to succeed. Now they’re headed to world robotics championships, a bright spot in an otherwise dismal picture of diversity in STEM fields. (Screenshot via YouTube/VEX Robotics)

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So, girls have had it drubbed into their heads that they’re lousy at the STEM subjects for so long they’ve subconsciously underachieved in school, unwittingly limiting their own opportunities in those fields and threatening U.S. competition.

Is that how the story goes?

Not according to a team of Michigan robotics wiz kids, all middle school girls, who make up “Major Trouble.”

The team from Grand Blanc East Middle School is headed to Louisville, KY, for the VEX Robotics World Championship competition Wednesday-Saturday, April 15-18. And they’re crushing stereotypes along with the string of competitions that got them to the championships.

Their teacher, Tim Yauch, told The Flint Journal/MLive.com that he gave the team of three seventh- and two eighth-grade girls the space to succeed.

“I’ve always had a few girls on the team,” Yauch, who has mentoring robotics since 2002, said. “They just didn’t seem to be able to do everything I knew they could do. Girls are sometimes faded to the side.”

Anna Poirier, a 13-year-old aspiring mechanical engineer, told the newspaper robotics competition helps her sharpen and expand problem-solving skills. Making it to robotics world championship is a “really big deal, especially with us being such a small group,” she told the Flint newspaper.

But nearly 15 years after a major push to steer more girls like Poirier into science, technology, engineering and math careers, the middle school girls who make up Major Trouble may still be an anomaly.

More Strategic Approach

The STEM workforce is no more diverse today than in 2001, according to U.S. News & World Report that cited Change the Equation data revealing an aging – and shrinking – workforce in engineering and advanced manufacturing.

Women haven’t made any significant gains in STEM employment, representing only 24 percent of the engineering workforce (down from 25 percent in 2001), 36 percent of the computing (flat since 2001) and 18 percent of the advanced manufacturing workforce (down from 19 percent in 2001).

During a recent panel discussion hosted by the group, a coalition of Fortune 500 companies focused on increasing STEM education, experts said a more strategic focus is needed to target talented female and minority students in schools currently overlooked in schools nationwide.

But some business leaders were dismayed by how stagnant STEM diversity has remained.

“I had hoped that after all these years we would have made more progress, because I see so much activity,” said panelist Velma Deleveaux of the Washington, DC-based consulting firm, Booz Allen Hamilton.

“But at the end of the day, I realize that the way we’re attacking this problem, we could actually be a lot more strategic,” she said.

Panelist Sandra Evers-Manley, vice president of global corporate responsibility for the Falls Church, VA-based global security firm Northrop Grumman, said strides can be made bridging the STEM gap by increasing outreach in underrepresented communities.

“I believe the dialogue often ... does not take place in [underrepresented] communities,” Evers-Manley said.” I see that as a big issue that we often don’t have those organizations and the communities that we talk about at the table.

“Until we change the dialogue and the engagement of where it’s happening, unfortunately I think we’re going to continue to have a problem.”

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The strategy at the middle school Grand Blanc, a Genesee County community of 8,145 and a suburb Flint where the median household income is $58,521 a year, seems to be turning girls toward STEM careers in formative middle school years.

“I wanted to get them their own little space so they could be successful,” Yauch, who coached his first VEX Robotics competition team in 2013, told The Flint Journal. “They’ve done that.”

More than 1,500 students representing more than 800 teams from around the world will compete in this week’s VEX World Championships. Each team will be given the same parts for the task of building a robotic device.

Tell Us:

• What more can be done in your community to encourage underrepresented groups, especially girls and minorities, to pursue STEM education?

“I didn’t think we would make it this far when we started out,” Josie Anderson, 13, told the Flint newspaper. “I’m really excited to see how other teams design their robots. I think it would be fun to see how they build it because we all have the same parts.”

Major Trouble has already shown itself to be a force in robotics competition. The team qualified for Michigan state competition in February by winning the VEX’s Excellence Award, then won the Design Award at state, which qualified Major Trouble for both the national and world tournaments.

Other Michigan Schools at VEX

Michigan teams are participating in the VEX World Championships include:

Middle School Spirit Division: Team Major Trouble from Grand Blanc East Middle School, Team TIDBIT from Grandville Middle School, and Team Virus, a Michigan Technology First team.

Middle School Opportunity Division: Team Taychon from Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Township, Team Automotons from Grandville Middle School, and Riley Team 2 from Riley Middle School.