By Mary O’KEEFE

Recent studies revealed that in the past girls were often discouraged from learning STEM (science technology engineering and mathematics) subjects. It seems the social norm of the era guided a misunderstanding that girls were unable to understand the complexities of STEM. Well, it’s a new day and girls can do STEM ¬– and so much more.

At a recent Girl Scout FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) LEGO League Day at the Girl Scout House in La Crescenta, girls not only understood science and engineering but also were excited about learning even more.

“I wouldn’t survive if science was just a boy thing,” said Mia Clementson, a fifth grade student.

LEGO League is organized by FIRST but the real power behind the program is the volunteers like Crescenta Valley High School Falkon 589 robotic team members. Guided by mentor Lyn Repath-Martos, team members work with Girl Scouts at the elementary school level to build a robot and enter it in competition.

“I was introduced to mentoring by my friends in robotics. They recommended me to help out,” said Adrian Lima, a senior at CVHS. “It’s fun to show these girls what it is like to build, create and test things out.”

Eric Limonadi, a CVHS sophomore, also liked mentoring but found there were some challenges.

“[The most difficult part] is distributing the work so all have something to do. In our group now there are some who want to build the robot all by themselves while others are too shy to help,” he said.

The high school mentors have to not only show the girls how to build and help them with questions about their robots but also inspire them to combine their imagination with their math skills.

“My sister does robotics. She does it with a lot of cool parts. She has to laser-cut parts and [use] 3-D printers,” said Amanda Eisen, sixth grader. “I want to get a little practice to be able to do that soon and I think this is a really good way to do it.”

It doesn’t hurt that she gets to enjoy building the robots with her best friend Sara Jefferies, a fifth grader.

“I also really like robotics. There is a lot of math,” Jefferies said. “And there are other aspects to it. I like building stuff.”

Clementson said she likes building robots, too.

“I like to build LEGOS and I like to program,” she said. “I come to this every single year.”

Sienna Dawson is sixth grader. She said her neighbor was in a LEGO League and thought she would like it. She is learning a lot and loves building, coding and competing.

Falkon 589 mentors several LEGO League teams, not just Girl Scouts, and at several elementary schools. The LEGO League is for boys and girls at the schools, showing there is no gender gap when it comes to creating, coding, engineering and competing robots.

There is room for more in the LEGO League. Anyone interested in joining can email Lyn Repath-Martos at lyn@cvrobots.com.

  Mary Okeefe