Maloka has developed an informal science education program called Chicas STEAM aimed at promoting interest in pursuing scientific vocations among girls between 12 and 15 years of age. Participants gain confidence in their abilities through various educational activities to explore different fields of knowledge provided in safe, supportive environments. It is a 12-week virtual program focused on the development of attitudes through meetings with pairs of the same age from different parts of the country and mediators from the program, mentoring sessions with women scientists, the delivery of a kit that includes protoboards, sensors, and other coding devices and tablet with the contests of the program and experimentation apps.
This program aims to influence the reality of the participant by promoting self-recognition of their skills, intelligence, and capacities to produce knowledge, as well as to enrich their engagement in science by linking their vital questions to propose initiatives to transform their surroundings. At the same time, it aims to generate learning environments carefully disposed to build confidence and to avoid gender bias, which have historically been a cause of exclusion to many women from science fields.

https://maloka.org/noticias/chicas-steam-2022-mintic-inscripciones/

• Colombia

• Youth
• Women
• Indigenous and nomadic peoples
• The poor
• Migrants
• Refugees and internally displaced people
• Remote and rural communities

All the elements that are part of the project can be put in place somewhere else due to the fact that it has a virtual implementation and the kit contains parts that can be purchased anywhere, the kit is understood as an unfinished kit, and that it is constantly being built
by the girls. The project has the quality of being replicable, so it is easily implemented somewhere else.

Sustaining this educational social innovation, carried out in a science and technology museum, required building a network of stakeholders within the Colombian educational system. This network begins with the pairing of objectives between the museum and a national Ministry to scale the initiative as a program of coverage and public interest. Thus, it was possible to connect the program with various levels of the State structure, to guarantee the functioning and sustainability of its actions. At a regional level, school associations, universities, education secretariats and territorial allies were linked, who support monitoring and encourage participation. At a local level, educational institutions were targeted to commit to inviting and encouraging the participation of families and girls and young women.
This interaction of actors allows the articulation of interests, resources and actions based on the educational experience of the participants, building a shared vision and a framework of governance and leadership, according to their role.

The program is aimed to reduce gaps in participation of women in ICT, so the principal value promoted is equality and citizen participation, however the pedagogical approach has demonstrated to promote solidarity among participants especially from mentor women to the girls as well as freedom in terms of opening access to knowledge to girls that do not have possibilities to explore different opportunities to participate in knowledge society as well as to express their interests, worries and dreams and to have the educational accompaniment of professional mediators in various areas that stimulate and provide feedback on their initiatives. Finally the diversity of participants and the constant invitation to understand their context and to actively participate in taking actions to improve its conditions through their actions fosters shared responsibility, respect to nature, critical attitude and values diversity as a way to have a better understanding of the different realities of inequality in Colombian society.