Girls Have No Limits
The Montana Girls STEM Collaborative, which is housed with the MSU Science Math Resource Center at MSU, was selected for a national outreach program that aims to connect Montana
kids with role models in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and help
combat a social stigma that certain toys are for boys and certain toys are for girls.
The program, called Girls Have No Limits, uses Matchbox cars to help address stereotypes of what is typically a “boy toy” versus a “girl toy.”
The program was developed by the National Girls Collaborative, Mercedes-Benz and toy-maker Mattel to commemorate 1962 Argentinian Grand Prix, a grueling road race won that year by a woman at a time when women barely participated in such competitions. For the program, Mattel created a Matchbox replica of the winning car, a 1962 Mercedes Benz 220SE, driven by Ewy Rosqvist.
“The program addresses a gender imbalance in the STEM fields – just 28% of science and engineering professionals are women,” said Suzi Taylor, director of the Science Math Resource Center. “Exposing very young girls to female role models and positive messages about their gender can reduce the later impacts of stereotypes on what careers are for women and which are for men.”
As part of the program, early childhood education students at MSU will create lesson plans and activities to accompany the die-cast cars and will then use those activities with students in local schools.
Around Montana, the cars will be used in programming at the Missoula Food Bank, in ExplorationWorks’ annual Girls STEM Roundup event and through outreach programming from women students in automotive technology at Helena College.
“The goal of No Limits is to show children, particularly young girls, that they can aspire to be and do anything they desire,” Taylor said.
In addition to MSU, other partners include the Montana Afterschool Alliance and spectrum Discovery Area of the University of Montana. The Science Math Resource Center and spectrUM co-lead the Montana Girls STEM Collaborative, a statewide network that was founded in 2012 as an outreach program of Montana NSF EPSCoR in order to bring more science, technology, engineering and mathematics opportunities to Montana youth.
To learn more about Montana Girls STEM Collaborative, visit facebook.com/MontanaGirlsSTEM or sign up for the quarterly e-newsletter at bit.ly/girlsstem-news. The Science Math Resource Center is at montana.edu/smrc.