Schools Empower Girls in STEM Post-Pandemic

At de Zavala Middle School, girls worked on a Lego machine. They had trouble getting it to work at first. They learned the machine reacted to different colored cards they used.

The school wants more girls in science and math. Some classes have very few girls now. Schools are trying to get girls interested in these subjects again.

Girls had closed the gap in math scores before. During the pandemic, girls lost ground in math. Boys' scores went down too, but they recovered faster than girls did.

Online learning hurt programs for girls. Some think old ideas about girls and math came back. Experts say when things are hard, people go back to old, bad habits.

Some teachers think girls doubt their math skills. Even young girls might say they are not good at math. Schools are working to build girls' interest and skills in science and math again.