BITA: The First Female Robotics Intercollegiate Championship to Foster STEM Attitudes and Skills
Sandra Milena Merchán-Rubiano, Ronald Gutiérrez-Ríos, Carolina Medina Camacho, Estefanía Mahecha Miranda · 2024
This article presents the design, development and results obtained from a robotics female intercollegiate competition designed to promote STEM attitudes, seeking to deconstruct the social imaginaries that keep girls and adolescents away from choosing a career in STEM areas. The experience was developed around a space adventure as a central activity and theme, for which the participants were not only prepared in the technical skills and scientific knowledge necessary for their successful performance, but also developed a process of diagnosis and intervention on some of the socio-cultural factors that influence the moment of choosing a professional career, particularly in science, technology or engineering. The results showed that although some of the participants already had genuine interests in pursuing a STEM career, the experience allowed them to strengthen those interests and, in other cases, to reorient their career choices. The championship also proved to be an excellent alternative for integrating the students' families and teachers in the process of empowering and increasing girls' levels of self-efficacy and self-confidence to pursue careers historically dominated by men.