Want to get your daughter more excited about engineering or STEM? Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is in February, or any time of they ear, is a great way help get them started. Get ready by discovering the best ways for parents and teachers to get girls involved. You can even check out some free ways to participate.
According to the latest STEM statistics, 27% of all STEM workers identify as women. And in some STEM sectors, such as life sciences and math, women represent 47% and 46% of all workers in that sector. Improving STEM’s gender diversity continues to be very important.
Enroll your child in award-winning live online free coding classes. Explore ways to bring computer science classes to your school.
What Is Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day?
Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is a holiday when organizations, partners, and teachers show girls how to get involved with engineering. Role models from diverse backgrounds encourage girls to learn engineering skills and show the eclectic variety of career paths they can choose. Many girls have a role model or mentor that helped them get started in engineering.
When Is Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day?
Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is February 27, 2025. It is part of Engineers Week, which goes from Feb 24 - 28. This is an annual event that first began in 2001.
Why Do We Celebrate Engineers Week?
We celebrate Engineers Week to foster the next generation of engineers. Educators and organizations come together to provide resources for school age students. A theme of the week is to increase interest in engineering subjects, promote amazing engineering feats in our society, and encourage students to consider engineering careers
Why Is Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day Important?
Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is important to make sure girls feel supported as they explore different engineering fields. Back in 1970, astonishingly only 8% of all STEM workers were women. Nowadays that has increased to 27% of all STEM workers. In some STEM sectors, such as life sciences and math, women represent 47% and 46% of all workers in that sector, equaling the percentage of all workers who are female at 47%. But that means not even half of all STEM jobs are filled my women. In addition, as of 2023, just 31% of students who take foundational CS in school are female. This special day can help girls see themselves in all sorts of different STEM roles.
Fun Ways to Celebrate Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day
Let's explore games, challenges, and more ways to celebrate!
1. Take a free online coding class
Award-winning computer science education platform Create & Learn offers many free introduction classes for kids. To celebrate Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, try a free introductory class from Create & Learn, designed to help parents find the perfect fit for their child's grade level. Younger students (Grades 2-5) can start with the Free Scratch Ninja class, where they will build interactive games and animations using block-based engineering. For middle and high schoolers (Grades 6-12), the Free Python class introduces text-based programming used by real-world software engineers. Explore all of their free coding classes to kickstart her engineering journey.
2. Enjoy a free kids' computer science event
Enroll your girls in free tech events by experts from Intel, Pixar, and more. They'll learn how to apply their coding power to escape Dr. Breakowski’s mysterious mansion by dawn; explore AI - one of the fast growing areas in technology; and even be able to build electronic circuits with Snap Circuits. These interactive sessions cover a wide range of engineering disciplines. Your child can explore Artificial Intelligence—one of the fastest-growing fields in software engineering—or dive into electrical engineering by building electronic circuits with Snap Circuits class. These expert-led sessions are perfect for showing girls what a career in tech actually looks like.
3. Try a beginner-friendly Scratch tutorial
Begin learning engineering with a fun step-by-step tutorial using the kids' coding platform most parents prefer: Scratch coding. First, try these Scratch exercises. Then, move on to beginner challenges. After that, explore these games to make:
- How to Make Pacman: This tutorial shows you how to create the classic Pacman game. It walks you through each step, including creating your own maze and sprites.
- How to Make Flappy Bird: Follow this tutorial to create your own Flappy Bird game. You’ll learn how to code the spacebar to move the bird through the pillars.
- How to Make a Memory Matching Game: This article teaches you how to create a memory card matching game, and emphasizes code organization through the use of blocks.
- How to Make Tic Tac Toe: Learn how to make a two player Tic Tac Toe game on Scratch. At the end, you can find challenges to add to your project.
- How to Make a Jumping Game: In this game, you’ll learn how to create a jumping game where a user needs to use the arrow keys to control a hedge hog.
Check out even more Scratch projects.
4. Watch a 'Day in the Life' video of a female engineer
Role models make a huge difference. Spend some time watching YouTube videos or reading interviews featuring female engineers from various fields, such as aerospace, biomedical, or mechanical engineering. Platforms like SciGirls or NASA's STEM channels offer great kid-friendly content showing what female engineers actually do on a daily basis. Discussing these real-world role models can help your daughter visualize herself in these careers and understand the broad impact engineers have on solving global problems.
5. Prototype virtual gadgets with Tinkercad Circuits
Curious about how how electronics work? Tinkercad Circuits is an easy to use online sandbox where she can build and simulate real electronic projects. She can drag-and-drop components like LEDs, batteries, breadboards, and even Arduinos to see if her design lights up or moves. It’s a fantastic way to learn electrical engineering concepts without needing a physical kit, and it allows for endless 'games' of trial and error to see what works. To go further, check out the Arduino for Kids class to build a variety of Arduino powered circuits and smart devices, and see them come to life.
Enjoy Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day
Now you know all about Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, and many ways you can get your child involved and celebrating! Next, learn all about famous women in computer science.
Written by Sophie Andrews, a Create & Learn instructor. Sophie Andrews is a student at Stanford University studying Math and Computational Sciences. She loves teaching and is a teaching assistant for Stanford's introductory computer science classes. Her work focuses on data science. Last year she built the online National Vote Trackers for The Cook Political Report, and she currently leads the Data Team at The Stanford Daily. She's also interned with the FCC and the National Renewable Energy Lab.
