(Image Source: The New York Times)
BY ALLIE SPILLYARDS
You're watching multisource tech video news analysis from Newsy.
We’ve all heard the stereotypes. Boys excel at science and math. Girls at language arts and history.
But at Google’s first international science fair-- 3 girls blew that notion right out of the water. NBC Nightly has the details.
“This year’s Google Science Fair was swept by young women this year. Lauren Hodge, Shree Bose, and Naomi Shah. Their projects studied carcinogens, air quality, and cancer research. Each one more impressive than the next.”
The girls have been celebrated for bending gender expectations-- but many are celebrating another broken stereotype -- about Americans. According to Digital Trends...
“The three girls were chosen from among more than 10,000 students from 91 countries who entered the Science Fair. After the entries were narrowed down to 15 finalists -- composed of nine boys and six girls -- the remaining contenders presented their projects to judges last week.”
The media is buzzing about what this says about the American education system’s waning reputation, especially in regards to science. A blogger for Science 2.0 writes...
“These young women, also educated under the evil No Child Left Behind program … beat out 10,000 students from 90 other countries - kind of a slap in the face to people who insist American education is lousy...”
But a blogger for iVillage says-- let’s not get carried away.
“...even though girls start out being just as interested in science as boys, that level of enthusiasm drops off as early as second grade... As time goes on, women with degrees in science, technology, engineering and math are twice as likely to leave a scientific or engineering job as men with comparable degrees, [according the National Science Agency}.”
And more than just a clap on the back-- two of the girls won $25,000 scholarships and internships at Google and LEGO. Bose took home the grand prize that included a $50,000 scholarship, a trip to the Galápagos Islands with a National Geographic Explorer and an internship at CERN.
Transcript by Newsy.
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