Two fourth year students from Coláiste Choilm in Cork, were announced as winners of the 56th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE) on Friday,
Cormac Harris and Alan O’Sullivan, both aged 16 took home the top prize for their innovative project.
It was entitled, "A statistical investigation into the prevalence of gender stereotyping in 5-to-7 year olds and the development of an initiative to combat gender bias."
The coveted prize was presented to the winners last night in the BT Arena by Education Minister Joe McHugh and Managing Director of BT Ireland, Shay Walsh.
Cormac and Alan presented their project in the Intermediate section in the Social and Behavioural Sciences category.
The aim of Cormac and Alan’s project was to determine how early gender stereotyping can be identified.
The pair carried out workshops with 376 5-to-7 year olds from a range of school settings with a number of different tasks including: choosing between gender-specific and gender-neutral toys; drawing and naming an engineer, and; rating male and female competency at a number of gender-specific roles.
Professor Joe Barry, the head judge, said: “Despite awareness of the lower percentage of females relative to males pursuing study and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), we still do not understand exactly why this is the case.”
Cormac and Alan carried out workshops with 376 5-to-7 year olds from a range of school settings with a number of different tasks including: choosing between gender-specific and gender-neutral toys; drawing and naming an engineer, and; rating male and female competency at a number of gender-specific roles.
One of the most striking findings emerging from the research was that 96% of boys drew a male engineer while just over 50% of girls drew a female engineer.
