Building Gender-Equal Classrooms in STEM!

aydin imrak
4 days ago
3 min read

Today, I’m sharing a meaningful educational resource titled “Classroom Set Activity – Gender Equality in STEM.”This set includes practical, engaging activities designed to help students challenge gender stereotypes and reflect on their own experiences.

Inside the activity set, you will find:

✔️ Warm-up exercises that reveal hidden gender stereotypes

✔️ Agree/Disagree spectrum activities that spark discussion and critical thinking

✔️ Gender lens exercises to help learners explore how stereotypes shape subject choices

✔️ “Lightbulb moment” reflections where students share personal experiences of gender bias

These activities help educators create safer, more inclusive learning environments—especially in STEM subjects—while empowering students to recognize and challenge everyday gender stereotypes.

I’m sharing the document below — a great resource for teachers, youth workers, and project teams promoting equality in education. 👇✨

✅ Classroom Activity 1: It’s a Girl Thing or a Boy Thing?

Purpose: A warm-up activity to raise awareness of gender stereotyping in our thinking.

Instructions:Read the following list aloud.

If students think it’s a girl thing, they raise their hand.
If they think it’s a boy thing, they keep their hand down (or vice versa).

List:

Burping and Farting
Rescuing
Dancing
Teacher
Cooking
Pink
Doctor
Nurse
Cars
A six pack
Diet drinks
Scientist
Blue
Cleaning
Lawyer
Engineer
Set of spanners
Computer programmer
Red
Glitter
Mathematician

Follow-up Questions:

Why was there so much agreement?
Where do these ideas come from?
Are these really just “girl” or “boy” things?
How did we learn these answers?

✅ Classroom Activity 2: Where Do You Stand?

Purpose: To help young people express their opinions and raise awareness of gender stereotypes.

Instructions:

One side of the room = agree
Other side = disagree
Students stand in the middle.
When a statement is read, they move to a point on the agree/disagree spectrum.
Discuss why they chose that position.

Statements:

People should go for the jobs they think they would be good at and are interested in.
Maths is really difficult.
Your gender should have no impact on your subject choices.
I would always encourage my peers to do whatever subjects they want.
Nursing is a profession best suited to women.
Males and females are equal.
Boys are better than girls at Maths.
Girls do better in school than boys.
Design Technology is a “boys” subject.
Being the only male/female in a class would put me off choosing that subject.
The best job for you is one that matches your skills, abilities and personal qualities.
Boys are better at computers than girls.
Girls are better at sports than boys.

Educator reflection questions:

Does this activity work?
Would you use it?
What would you do about the issues it raises?
What support do you need?
How do you ensure a safe space?

✅ Classroom Activity 3: Gender Lens Exercise and Subject Choices

Purpose: To help pupils reflect on how gender stereotypes influence subject choices.

Concept:A gender lens = looking at the experiences of women through one lens and the experiences of men through the other.

Activity:

Discuss whether pupils feel their subject choices are shaped by gender expectations or school culture.
Explore how boys and girls experience subject choice differently.
Can be done as a carousel with different questions and stations.

✅ Classroom Activity 4: Gender Lightbulb Exercise

Purpose: To help pupils identify moments when they became aware of gendered expectations.

A “gender lightbulb moment” could be:

A girl being told she can’t play football
A boy being told he shouldn’t play with dolls
Experiencing different rules for boys and girls
Feeling uncomfortable because of gender