Not enough American students want to be engineers, mathematicians, or scientists. The Obama administration wants to change that. They are spending money to do it. The government will invest three billion dollars in the education of young Americans in science, technology, engineering, and math. The four areas together are known as STEM.
希望成为工程师、数学家或科学家的美国学生数量不够多。奥巴马政府希望改变这种状况。他们开始就此投入资金。美国政府将投入30亿美元用于美国年轻人在科学、技术、工程和数学上的教育。这四大领域合称为STEM。
Many jobs in the STEM fields will open in the coming years. The U.S. government's investment aims to increase the number of Americans who can take those jobs.
未来数年，STEM领域将会开放很多岗位。美国政府的投资旨在提高能胜任这些岗位的人员数量。
Yet girls appear far less interested in STEM subjects than boys. Only 25 percent of STEM students are girls.
然而对STEM学科，女孩似乎比男孩不感兴趣得多。只有25%的STEM学生是女孩。
Camsie McAdams is at the U.S. Education Department. She says girls simply do not feel welcomed in STEM subjects. Ms. McAdams says young women look at industries such as engineering and computer science and see most of the leaders are men.
麦克亚当斯（Camsie McAdams）就职于美国教育部。她说女孩只不过认为自己在STEM学科中不受欢迎。麦克亚当斯女士表示，年轻女性一看工程和计算机科学等行业，发现领军人物大多数都是男性。
"We, as women, want to have people that look like us, people that we can relate to. A lot of times what distracts people from entering the field, or, even when they get the degree, keeps them from wanting to work in the field, is because they don't feel welcomed."
她说，“作为女性，我们希望能接触到自己的同类人。很多时候阻止人们进入这一领域，哪怕她们获得了文凭也不想进入这一领域工作，是因为她们觉得自己不被欢迎。”
Debbie Sterling is an engineer. She invented a construction toy for girls. The name of the toy is "Goldie Blox." Ms. Sterling hopes Goldie Blox will help girls develop spatial skills. Spatial skills help engineers and builders to think about objects in three dimensions.
黛比·斯特林（Debbie Sterling）是一名工程师。她为女孩开发了一种构造玩具。这个玩具的名称是“Goldie Blox”。斯特林女士希望这种玩具能够帮助女孩发展空间辨识技能。空间辨识技能能够帮助工程师和建筑师用三维方式来考虑物体。
To interest girls, Sterling created the character "Goldie." Goldie does not care about beauty or clothes. Goldie tells stories, solves difficult problems and creates pretend worlds.
为了吸引女孩，斯特林创造了“Goldie”这个角色。Goldie不关心美貌和穿着，她会讲故事，解决疑难问题和开发虚拟世界。
Mia is a seven-year-old girl who likes science. In her room, she has no fashion dolls. Instead, she has a pegboard, wheels, blocks and an inventor's journal to write her observations.
米亚是一个喜欢科学的7岁女孩。在她的房间里没有时尚娃娃。相反，她有构图板、轮子、积木，以及一本记录自己观察所得的发明者日记。
Mia received a set of Goldie Blox from her grandmother. She learned to make a machine with the blocks.
米亚从奶奶那收到了一套Goldie Blox玩具。她学会了用这些积木制作一台机器。
"When my grandmother first sent me the present, a spinning machine, I was really excited. I knew it had to do with engineering, so I grabbed the box and opened it. Then I went for more -- I went to the web site; I went on YouTube to find more videos. My mom asked me why I was just watching videos instead of building. I told her I didn't have enough pieces. She got me the builder survival kit."
米亚说，“奶奶给我送的第一件礼物是一台纺丝机，当时我很兴奋。我知道它和工程有关，所以我抓住盒子并打开了它。然后我进入YouTube网站寻找更多视频。妈妈问我为什么只看视频而不动手做，我告诉她说我没有足够多的的积木。她给我买了一套建筑师工具套装。”
Experts say parents should do more than just buy toys to interest their girls in STEM subjects. They should also provide a good education. At school, girls should participate in projects that require teamwork and creative thinking.
专家表示，家长应该不仅仅是购买玩具吸引自己女儿对STEM学科的兴趣。他们还应该提供良好的教育。在学校里，女孩们应该参加需要团队合作和创造性思维的项目。
Women in scientific and technical jobs are also working to encourage young women to explore STEM. One is Anu Tewary. She studied Applied Physics and worked for technology companies. After she had a daughter, she started Technovation Challenge. The challenge is an international competition for young women from 10 to 18 years old.
科学和技术岗位的女性也鼓励年轻女性探索STEM学科。Anu Tewary就是其中一人。她攻读了应用物理学并在科技公司就职。在她有了一个女儿之后，她创办了“技术创新挑战”。该挑战是一项面向10到18岁女孩的国际竞赛。
Technovation offers girls the opportunity to learn how to start a company and become high-tech entrepreneurs. Since 2009, over 2,500 girls from 28 countries have developed 650 mobile phone applications. They learned to launch start-up companies through Technovation.
“技术创新”挑战为女孩学习如何开办公司并成为高科技企业家提供了机会。自2009年以来，有来自28个国家的2500多名女孩开发了650个移动手机应用。她们通过“技术创新”挑战学会了如何开办创业公司。
There's a good chance that soon, more young women using mobile phones will also be developing programs for them.
也许过不了多久就会有更多使用手机的年轻女性也在为自己开发程序。
I'm Anne Ball.
我是安妮·波尔(Anne Ball)。(51VOA.COM对本文翻译保留全部权利，未经授权请勿转载，违者必究！)