Girls and LEGO

On a recent post to a group about LEGO that I like to read called LEGO Engineering, there was discussion about why girls aren't as attracted to LEGO classes or even LEGO bricks in general. The company tried making an effort to appeal to girls by creating a princess line of DUPLOS and LEGO brickss. Hmmm...just because something's pink, will that attract little girls?? My own little girl thought it was very attractive at first. We got one of the "pink" sets. She built it, but then lost interest. There wasn't a whole lot she wanted to do with the set after having it built.

Anyways, when I posed the question about girls, I got lots of great, but diverse answers that I'll try to summarize here. It's just been on my mind since I'm currently teaching an all boy class.

My question was:
"Would it be better for girls if I created an all girl MIndstorms NXT class? Does it matter? How do you create a different type of Mindstorms class that would appeal more to girls?"


Answers (that are all opinions from others experiences):

1. Incorporate projects that are more creative such as making music, theme park rides, dancing robots. Don't focus too much on speed and strength competitions. Have an end of the unit exhibition rather than a tournament.
2. Don't do anything different. Just separating them from the boys may be enough to build their confidence in building. The "appeal" of the class might simply be that there are no boys in it. Girls can be just as competitive as boys.
3. Boys are happy to do robotics w/o any context at all. Making your robot go is enough for them. Girls are more engaged if there is a reason such as build a robot to do something useful or helpful to someone else.
4. Have strong female role models.
5. Don't create a separate class for girls. The ones who really want to be involved with LEGO will be there no matter what the ratio or the topic.

So thoughts are all over the board. I think the great thing is that we are so diverse in our thinking and personalities that there really is no right answer to this question. I might go down the list and try them all!

P.S. My daughter recently discovered the LEGO Creator Building sets where you can build three different types of houses. She enjoys those and is able to adapt the sets and play more creatively with those.