Google Earth in Reston, Virginia opened their doors for the first time to elementary school students and they did this to support young girls interested in science and technology. The GEMS Club of Dogwood Elementary School in Reston, Virginia took 30 club members to learn more about the field of technology as a career. 

Mike Bradshaw of Google Earth welcomed them with words, "After this, you will never think of maps the same way again!" He was so right. The girls were given inflatable globes and were challenged to determine the distance between Reston and Paris, France. The girls had to think creatively. Some tried using a ruler, and one girl said, "I could use my hair!" The point was to show that it's pretty hard to measure a round object with a flat object like a ruler unless the round object can be made flat or the ruler can be made round! We learned about the advanced math that goes into creating the Google Earth mapping process. Satellites circle the earth and create pictures that are pieced together. We found out about the time slider that took those images back 20 years ago and we could see how that geographical area had changed. The girls discovered that Google Earth is more than maps!

Michele Weslander Quaid, Chief Technology Officer at Google Earth, shared her career goals with the girls. She said that it is important to have good grades and work hard in school, but also to be able to think critically and to know how to apply what you learn. That's probably even more important in the field of technology when jobs that didn't exist 10 years ago are evolving rapidly. People who interview for jobs at Google Earth are often asked to solve a real-world problem. It's not just memorizing facts, but really understanding and using what you know and knowing how to think out of the box. Another important ability is being able to work with a team. Michele said that many times her projects involve teamwork and everyone has their own special training and skills. She said being able to work with a team and share ideas was very important.

All the professionals who interacted with the girls emphasized the need to learn as much as you can and find a career that inspires you. Thanks to funds and support from a Dominion Educational Grant the girls in the GEMS Club were able to learn from Google professionals.

Research has shown that one of the fundamental barriers to success in engineering is the lack of development of spatial skills, particularly spatial visualization, mental rotation, and transforming from two-dimensional to three-dimensional and back. Many girls lack this skill set, due in most part to lack of experience, not genetic capabilities, as been implied occasionally in the news.

In my work as GEMS Club Founder and Director, and as a technology specialist and robotics teacher in an elementary school, I see girls struggle with this frequently. Many girls will open Lego Technic sets and stare at the pictures blankly, unsure where to start, and unable to translate the 2-D flat pictures into the 3-D models they are trying to make. Other girls will open up K'nex roller coaster sets, highly motivated to build the Screaming Demon, and give up after a few pages because they can't figure out how to assemble it from the diagrams.

But this frustration can be changed through simple structured experiences.

After reading a great deal of the research on developing spatial skills (see below), I realized that even though most of the interventions have been done with college age students, we can easily work with younger students, hopefully changing attitudes and encouraging more girls to try engineering. I developed a set of multiple forms of practice which allows girls to work either individually or in a group, in school or at home, and become more comfortable with building and reading diagrams.

I use three different sets of activities, but any parent or teacher can adapt these, using the materials at hand.

Collect all the Legos you can.

I start with Legos, because we are fortunate to have the world's greatest collection of mismatched Lego sets donated by parents and scavenged from yards sales and the school system's science warehouse. This collection allows us to let girls explore, build and not feel compelled to create exactly what is on the screen or the box.

Then I download the latest version of Lego Digital Designer from the lego site.  This is a cool free download from Lego that, even though it is a marketing tool, is one of the best 2-D/3-D building tools I have ever used in elementary school. I just close all the marketing and sharing windows. We use this software in many different ways.

1. First I ask them to build a model on the screen using the examples that are pre-loaded. Using the pre-loaded models helps the girls get past the fear of "What do I do?" that happens frequently. In my experience, many girls fall into the trap of being afraid to click around in a program or fear they will "mess it up".  Using the pre-loaded models gets them into the program and allays the fear. By the time they are ready to build something new, they know they can't break it.
2. After they have built their model on the computer, I have them build the actual model out of blocks. This is where having millions of random blocks helps. One of the great things about the software is that you can rotate the model to see all sides, the top and bottom - mental rotation in action. This is such a revelation to the girls, and helps them to build the exact thing they are trying to build. Then we reverse the process. I ask the girls to build a simple Lego structure and then they use the library of blocks built into the software and recreate it onscreen.
3. After that, since we are usually in a group setting at lunch or Junior Lego League, we do the same process as partners, building onscreen and handing over that structure for the partner to build, and then reversing the process.

Last year I had a Junior First Lego team of six kindergarten girls and their dads who were not ready to compete, but wanted to learn how to get ready for competition in a few years. I offered them this LDD idea, and they used this process of building and sharing with Lego Digital Designer all year long as the girls designed and built more complex designs and structures. As the year went on, the girls branched out into designing hospital rooms and doctor's offices to go along with the year's JFLL challenge. This school year as first graders, they immediately jumped into the theme of food safety and designed grocery stores and restaurant food prep areas complete with hand-washing stations. They then built these models out of Legos and are preparing for the local JFLL showcase.

With my older girls or Lab Lunch, I also use a strategy that I call Blind Building as a way to show them that building can be learned - that it is not a inborn talent that only certain people have. Girls pair up and are given (or choose ahead of time) a small selection of Lego blocks that are divided into two equal groups. Each member of the pair has the exact blocks as the other member of the pair. I then set them across across from each other with a testing divider in front so that they cannot see each other's desks. One girl is the designated director and builds with her blocks while telling the other girl how to build the same thing. When all the blocks are used, the girls lift the testing barrier to see if the structures look the same.

When we reflect on this activity, we remember the laughter as the girls compare their structures, many of which do not resemble each other in the least. But there will always be a few pairs of girls who were able to build exactly the same thing, and the group will begin a deep discussion about how they succeeded. Eventually they come to the realization that precise language and use of spatial words like under, on top, between, and more are the keys to success.

As individuals, parents and teachers can use the many manipulations available in daily life to work on spatial skills - tangrams, both online and as blocks, 3-D puzzles, any building toy such as K'nex, Construx, Marble Mazes, etc. I am a huge fan of Legos, and you will find out that girls are too - they will admit that they never get to play with them because their brothers hog them, or they never get a chance.

Another fabulous free software that my older (5th and 6th grade girls) enjoy after they get comfortable is Google SketchUp. This is professional-quality CAD software from Google. I never give this to girls unassisted however, as it is easy to be intimidated by the blank screen and toolbars. I have seen girls open it and close it immediately, and I can relate. I always show them a few tricks, such as the Push-Pull tool and the online warehouse. Once they get the hang of creating 3-D model using the tools, girls will use this for hours, building cities, designing dance studios, building houses, etc. They also can download models of buildings and other structures, and add their creations to the warehouse. It is a very creative yet STEM-filled program.

Developing spatial skills in younger girls should be a component of any program that desires to encourage their interest in and participation in STEM fields.

For more information see the research below.

1. Women in Engineering Program - Spatial Visualization 

2. AWE Overview: Visual Spatial Skills

3. Effectiveness of Technology Education Learning Activities on the Improvement of Spatial Skills

4. Spatial Ability of Engineering Students

5. Developing 3-D Spatial Skills for Engineering Students

To learn more about GEMS Club contact Laura Reasoner Jones or visit the GEMS Club website here.