Mathematical Modeling to Reduce Gender Gaps in STEM: Characterization of STEM Skills in High School Students

Women are underrepresented in STEM fields due to socially installed stereotypes that influence their skills to reach their full potential. Since mathematical modeling serves as a bridge to integrate STEM, a program was implemented to characterize the STEM skills of high school students and analyze gender gaps. In the selection of the sample (n = 219, 14 and 16-year-old) the technique by conglomerates with proportional probability was used. The data comes from a pretest and a posttest, with problems close to their sociocultural reality, using mathematical modeling. The techniques were descriptive statistics, principal components and factorial analysis. The findings show that the gender factor is not influential in the performance of STEM skills. Although they integrate skills, 14-year-old students lack closeness with the scientific and 16-year-old men to technological ones.