Pal.STEM4girls

Such a privilege to have had the opportunity to facilitate a Professional Development Workshop for the student-teachers in the B.Ed. program at the Department of Education, Lady Irwin College (New Delhi, India) yesterday......an exhilarating feeling to be on the other side of the table—talking about my dissertation, facilitating, engaging, and learning with our future educators!

A heartfelt thank you to the professors, especially Dr. Prasenjit Roy, for their help in organizing and coordinating this special lecture, to the Department of Education for this wonderful opportunity, and to the incredible 2nd-year B.Ed. students for their energy, enthusiasm, thoughtful contributions, and awesome questions! 🙏

Waterloo Region District School Board
Waterloo Region Small Business Centre
Kitchener Public Library
Waterloo Public Library
Lady Irwin College Alumnii
Lady irwin college
Ontario Ministry of Education
India Today Education
U.S. Department of Education

Today, we mark a special milestone as we launch our very first Pal.STEM4girls’ Podcast!

With a mission to encourage STEM in students from an early age, especially girls, we bring together parents, educators, and community organizations to offer a supportive environment for students to learn and thrive in STEM, and reduce gender disparity in STEM fields along the way. Through our podcast -interviews and conversations, we uncover the complexities of STEM Education and bring forth the voices of women teaching, working, leading, and innovating in STEM.

For our first episode, I’m truly honoured to welcome Dr. Olukemi Akintewe, Associate Professor of Instruction in the Department of Medical Engineering at the University of South Florida. In this podcast-interview, we explore “Journey in STEM and the Power of Mentorship” and discuss ways students can pursue STEM and how mentorship can show STEM pathways and inspire curiosity, confidence, resilience, and persistence in STEM.

Episode 1--Pal.STEM4girls' Podcast: Journey in STEM and the Power of Mentorship-- is Live now!

https://youtu.be/ymFVAgqjLlw

As we launch on August 8th, we’re so proud to celebrate the birthdays of three inspiring Women in STEM: Dr. Anna Jane Harrison, a renowned educator and researcher and first women elected as a President of American Chemical Society; Svetlana Y. Savitskaya, Soviet Cosmonaut and an engineer, and also the first woman to walk in space; and Dr. Renu C. Lasker, an Indian-born American mathematician, specializing in graph theory and a professor at Clemson University.

I hope you’ll enjoy these interviews and conversations as we celebrate the journey and stories of our Women in STEM!

Best,
Taru @ Pal.STEM4girls
https://sites.google.com/view/palstem4girls/home


Waterloo Region District School Board
Waterloo Region Small Business Centre
Kitchener Public Library
Waterloo Public Library
Ontario Ministry of Education

Two contradictory ends of pendulum shaping our current education system-one end advocating on reducing children's exposure to technology & social media, the other racing to ensure our high-school and higher-ed students including our educators master Generative AI to prepare for future workforce!

What an irony! How are we protecting young children from media and technology while also preparing them for an AI-driven world?

France’s recent social media ban for minors under 15 has reignited the conversation of whether the U.S. should follow suit. America’s hesitancy is surprising from the perspective of someone who was that age not too long ago.

The debate surrounding a ban on social media has largely moved past questioning whether social platforms are positive, negative, or neutral tools. Studies abound demonstrating the addictive properties of social media and their correlation to sleeplessness, self-image issues, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts — especially among minors. The surgeon general even issued a statement recommending health warnings on social media platforms, akin to those required for to***co companies, and limiting minors’ access. By 2026, most people don’t need convincing that social media has its problems.

Moreover, research shows that the benefits of social media largely only exist because a majority of teenagers use it. The Pew Research Center finds over half of U.S. teens use YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat, placing those who forgo the platforms in the minority. Consequently, Pew found teenagers who choose to join the trend of social media use it because it makes them feel more accepted and connected with their fellow platform-using peers. This desire to fit in with peers, or “fear of missing out” (FOMO), would be a nonfactor if social media platforms were removed from teenage demographics entirely.

Moderates often try to walk the line between seeing social media as harmful and helpful by describing it as a neutral “tool” — but it is not the neutral tool many think. Social media algorithms are designed to spark engagement, often by rewarding controversial or inflammatory content. Earlier this year, whistleblowers inside Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, even reported receiving instructions to allow more misogynistic, violent, and conspiratorial content when stock prices were down so engagement would go up. As a result, children are exposed to more radical political and religious perspectives than they likely ever would in their in-person lives — all without the knowledge or oversight of their parents.

As children engage with this content, social media algorithms are designed to reward their engagement with more similar content, creating an echo-chamber effect. Uncoincidentally, radicalism on both sides of the political spectrum has increased among younger demographics. Polls show a quarter of young liberals now justify violence against their political opponents and almost two-thirds support socialist policies, all while young conservatives line up behind problematic voices like Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens. The echo chamber validates these extreme perspectives, places children in communities of millions of others who validate the views, and demonizes opponents — all while ensuring users never have to see or hear neutral, humble, or different points of view.

Anecdotally and academically, we know social media is harmful for our kids. And, though cellphone bans are recent and data is scarce, we have reason to believe less screen time is a positive.

State bans on cellphones in high schools give a hint at what the impact of a teenage demographic without social media could look like. A study released in April 2026 by the National Bureau of Economic Research examined 43,000 middle and high school students affected by cellphone bans in 26 U.S. states. Their findings discovered a brief adjustment period, followed by significant drops in cellphone usage and increases in student well-being.

So, other problems with French politics aside, why is the U.S. so reluctant to follow in their footsteps?

According to some conservative experts and parental rights advocates, concern stems from the idea that a widespread federal ban on student social media would replace parental authority with federal regulation.

And perhaps the concern is warranted. In the past, other areas of parental involvement, like s*x education, have resulted in harmful ideology and federal regulation worming its way in and undermining parental influence. Just last month, the Trump administration announced over $67 million in Teen Pregnancy Prevention program cuts to remove explicit content, abortion ads, and LGBTQ+ ideology from what was meant to be practical, objective health education.

But are parents up for the challenge of social media?

The numbers suggest maybe not. Pew Research data shows that Gen X and Baby Boomers use top social media platforms drastically less than younger generations, suggesting parents are unfamiliar with the functions, dangers, or tools available on each platform, not to mention the frequent new updates. And even if parents are up-to-date, children in public school or out-of-the-house activities spend hours a day away from their parents using a myriad of social-capable devices — personal cellphones, laptops, e-readers, school computers, smartwatches, and even video gaming consoles. It is presumptuous for parents to think they can be aware of — let alone control — all the ways their children access the internet.

Plus, in my experience, when it comes to social media, even the most proactive parent can be undermined by determined children. In high school, when friends would have their cellphones taken away or parental controls added, they would just access their accounts through another friend’s device at school or, believe it or not, buy a pre-paid burner phone online without their parents’ knowledge (Amazon has a whole category for it). Several friends used burner phones for years, all while their parents were thinking their devices were safely protected.

In contrast, the U.S. has a long precedent of restricting dangerous content at its source for the sake of children, and largely for the best. Consider alcohol, or to***co, or po*******hy. Imagine a child could walk into a bar and order a drink, and the bartender could serve him or her because a parent was not around. Such an interaction is unthinkable — not to mention illegal — in today’s society. Instead, the bartender is required to check ID, maintain a valid liquor license, and prevent the customer from drinking or driving irresponsibly. Failure to do so means heavy legal consequences for a bar — so why not hold social media companies to the same standard?

The Bible is clear that children are the charge of parents (Deuteronomy 6:6-7), and that parents are responsible for raising children up in the way they should go (Proverbs 22:6). Such authority should never be ceded to a government body. But the Bible also prescribes law and biblical authority to government to protect families from greater societal threats.

Whether it’s alcohol or social media, parents should always guide the conversation for how their children approach tricky topics. But with addiction, mental health crises, and radicalism on the rise, perhaps it’s time to consider that social media companies can access children in more ways than parents can protect them.

In the end, a social media ban would not mean parents give up on protecting or teaching their children — it just means parents can do it best with a little help.

𝑊𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑏𝑦 𝐽𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑎ℎ 𝑀𝑜𝑟𝑘. 𝑃𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑡𝑜𝑛 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑.

Last day of July.....and we are so excited to share that the registration link for Pal.STEM4girls' Weekend STEM Program for girls for the Fall term is now live!!!

Please click on the link below to review some exciting themes and topics coming up this term and do register soon for your grade 1-6 girls!

https://sites.google.com/.../weekend-stem-programs-for-girls

All our sessions this term will include an interesting touch of math within and we will also look forward to welcoming our next female role model in STEM.

Best,
https://sites.google.com/view/palstem4girls/home

Waterloo Region District School Board
Waterloo Region Small Business Centre
Kitchener Public Library
Waterloo Public Library
Ontario Ministry of Education

Pal.STEM4girls Pal.STEM4girls Towards Empowering and Building a STEM identity! (An Initiative to promote and instill love for STEM in girls)

"Mathematics Achievement Sees Some Growth over Time but Remains an Area of Concern....." (Dec 2025)
https://www.eqao.com/about-eqao/news-release/assessment-results-2025/

So, this Fall we are re-designing our Pal.STEM4girls' Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programs to intentionally integrate mathematics in all our STEM sessions.

Pal.STEM4girls' Fall 2026 schedule will be coming up soon! Stay tuned!
https://sites.google.com/view/palstem4girls/home

Ontario Ministry of Education
Waterloo Region District School Board
Waterloo Region Small Business Centre
Kitchener Public Library
Waterloo Public Library
Laurelwood Elementary School
Waterloo Public Library

So grateful for the opportunity to facilitate our hands-on STEM workshop at a Montessori School last week.

We worked on motion and it's real-world applications through inquiry, experimentation, and engineering design.

Students investigated how mass and friction affect the speed of moving cars, saw Newton's laws of motion in action, and designed and tested their own roller coasters, reflecting on features that influence the speed and motion of the ride.

It was amazing to see so much enthusiasm, curiosity, creativity, collaboration, and problem solving throughout the session.

A heartfelt thank you to all the teachers and coordinators for organizing and supporting the activity stations. 🙏 And, a special thank you to Anushka for volunteering her time and energy in making these activities a huge success. 💝

Waterloo Region District School Board
Montessori Academy
Waterloo Region Small Business Centre
Waterloo Public Library
Kitchener Public Library
Ontario Ministry of Education