Today my students in Geometry learned about geometric probability. By doing a little math, we determined that if an unskilled person threw a dart at a dartboard, there was a 19% chance it would land on a 4"x4" square at the center of the board. A skilled person however, should be able to beet these odds.
We tested these odds by asking students to volunteer to be in either the skilled group of dart throwers or the unskilled group of dart throwers. Not one single girl volunteered to be in the skilled group. Only boys. I asked the boys why they thought they belonged in the skilled group, and most of them just shrugged and said it was because they figured they were good at it. Then I asked who wanted to be in the unskilled group. Only girls raised their hands.
Were the boys more skilled than the girls? Well, they thought they were. The reality was that neither group was skilled, but the boys were confident enough to believe they could beat the 19% odds. The girls on the other hand, did not have this same confidence.
This activity, meant to teach my students about geometric probability, ended up teaching me a lesson on the self image of young girls. If girls doubt their ability to succeed in "boyish" activities, then what happens when they start to see math, science and engineering as "boyish"? As educators dedicated to social justice, we should be doing our best to make these subject appealing to young girls, and help them to have confidence in their abilities.
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