Math for girls: There are Girls' Digital Camps at 13 Karlsruhe schools

Here, math is a girl’s thing: at the Girls’ Digital Camps, schoolgirls are introduced to programming in a playful way by experienced tutors.

The coding clubs for girls have been funded by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economic Affairs since 2018 and are now organized at 13 schools in Karlsruhe by the CyberForum high-tech entrepreneur network as part of the Karlsruhe Technology Initiative . There is a simple reason why there are special groups for girls: in mixed working groups, girls were often alone or at least clearly outnumbered by boys.

Even the coronavirus pandemic has not slowed down the science-savvy power women in Karlsruhe. The Girls’ Digital Camps continue to take place for a total of around 130 schoolgirls, either in small groups at school or online via conference platforms.

“Women are just as talented as men”

The purpose of the Girls’ Digital Camps is obvious: by providing targeted support for schoolgirls, the aim is to significantly increase the proportion of women in professions in the fields of mathematics, IT, natural sciences and technology (STEM). “There is plenty of evidence that women are just as talented as men in technical and IT professions. Nevertheless, the proportion of girls who are interested in these subjects is alarmingly low,” emphasizes Dirk Fox, board member of CyberForum and founder of the Karlsruhe Technology Initiative. At the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT ), the proportion of female students in STEM-related subjects has only risen slightly from 25.1 to 26.9 percent over the past five years, despite numerous support programs. At the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences (HsKA), the proportion of female students on science courses is even lower. In some courses, such as computer science, the proportion of women is sometimes less than ten percent.

There is a lack of female role models

According to Dirk Fox, there are several reasons for the gender imbalance in classic male domains such as computer science and mechanical engineering. “A lot of it certainly has to do with girls’ misconceptions or unclear ideas, with social or familial traditional images of women and the lack of female role models,” says the Managing Director of Karlsruhe-based IT security company Secorvo Security Consulting GmbH. Visits to companies and discussions with women in scientific professions are therefore an integral part of the Girls’ Digital Camps.

Girls’ Digital Camps in the northern Black Forest from 2021

In 2021, the project is to be expanded to the northern Black Forest region together with the Northern Black Forest Economic Development Agency. In addition, further extracurricular modules are to be integrated into the coding club program, which will be offered and carried out by STEM partners such as KIT, HsKA or the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University Karlsruhe under the joint umbrella brand Girls’ Digital Camps. “Not discovering talent and letting it atrophy is always tragic. In specialist areas in which skilled workers are desperately needed today and in the future, wasting talent is not only a human tragedy, but also an economic and social one. This is exactly what we want to change,” emphasizes Fox.

Karlsruhe technology initiative is one of the best 100 ideas for the future in Germany

In Karlsruhe, the Girls’ Digital Camps are not the only way to get girls interested in the natural sciences. The numerous working groups of the Karlsruhe Technology Initiative are open to boys, girls and teenagers alike. Building robots with fischertechnik construction kits is on the agenda of the working groups, as are insights into Karlsruhe’s research institutions and IT companies. The Karlsruhe Technology Initiative is the largest regional STEM support program with offers for over 1,500 school students and was included in the list of Germany’s 100 best ideas for the future by the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft.