[ti:How Do You Develop More Female Engineers] [ar:Anne Ball] [al:Education Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]Not enough American students want to be engineers, [00:05.75]mathematicians, or scientists. [00:08.94]The Obama administration wants to change that. [00:13.24]They are spending money to do it. [00:16.23]The government will invest three billion dollars [00:20.06]in the education of young Americans in science, [00:24.52]technology, engineering, and math. [00:28.95]The four areas together are known as STEM. [00:33.22]Many jobs in the STEM fields will open in the coming years. [00:38.60]The U.S. government's investment aims to increase [00:43.92]the number of Americans who can take those jobs. [00:47.47]Yet girls appear far less interested in STEM subjects than boys. [00:54.33]Only 25 percent of STEM students are girls. [01:00.24]Camsie McAdams is at the U.S. Education Department. [01:05.48]She says girls simply do not feel welcomed in STEM subjects. [01:11.92]Ms. McAdams says young women look at industries [01:17.42]such as engineering and computer science [01:20.73]and see most of the leaders are men. [01:25.39]"We, as women, want to have people that look like us, [01:28.54]people that we can relate to. [01:30.21]A lot of times what distracts people from entering the field, [01:34.28]or, even when they get the degree, [01:36.71]keeps them from wanting to work in the field, [01:38.73]is because they don't feel welcomed." [01:41.00]Debbie Sterling is an engineer. [01:43.39]She invented a construction toy for girls. [01:47.01]The name of the toy is "Goldie Blox." [01:50.67]Ms. Sterling hopes Goldie Blox will help girls develop spatial skills. [01:57.26]Spatial skills help engineers and builders [02:01.57]to think about objects in three dimensions. [02:05.83]To interest girls, Sterling created the character "Goldie." [02:10.89]Goldie does not care about beauty or clothes. [02:15.25]Goldie tells stories, [02:17.37]solves difficult problems and creates pretend worlds. [02:23.36]Mia is a seven-year-old girl who likes science. [02:27.54]In her room, she has no fashion dolls. [02:31.35]Instead, she has a pegboard, wheels, blocks [02:36.35]and an inventor's journal to write her observations. [02:41.12]Mia received a set of Goldie Blox from her grandmother. [02:45.87]She learned to make a machine with the blocks. [02:49.02]"When my grandmother first sent me the present, [02:52.28]a spinning machine, I was really excited. [02:55.14]I knew it had to do with engineering, [02:58.00]so I grabbed the box and opened it. [03:01.49]Then I went for more -- I went to the web site; [03:04.96]I went on YouTube to find more videos. [03:08.60]My mom asked me why I was just watching videos instead of building. [03:13.28]I told her I didn't have enough pieces. [03:15.87]She got me the builder survival kit." [03:19.52]Experts say parents should do more than just buy toys [03:23.52]to interest their girls in STEM subjects. [03:26.61]They should also provide a good education. [03:30.03]At school, girls should participate in projects [03:34.26]that require teamwork and creative thinking. [03:38.45]Women in scientific and technical jobs [03:42.63]are also working to encourage young women to explore STEM. [03:48.09]One is Anu Tewary. [03:51.20]She studied Applied Physics and worked for technology companies. [03:56.46]After she had a daughter, [03:58.43]she started Technovation Challenge. [04:01.98]The challenge is an international competition [04:05.39]for young women from 10 to 18 years old. [04:10.17]Technovation offers girls the opportunity [04:14.09]to learn how to start a company and become high-tech entrepreneurs. [04:20.36]Since 2009, over 2,500 girls from 28 countries [04:27.97]have developed 650 mobile phone applications. [04:33.95]They learned to launch start-up companies through Technovation. [04:39.24]There's a good chance that soon, [04:42.20]more young women using mobile phones [04:45.40]will also be developing programs for them. [04:49.22]I'm Anne Ball. [04:51.30]¸ü¶àÌýÁ¦Çë·ÃÎÊ51voa.com