Work in Progress: Evaluation of Canadian high school girls´ perception of CSET using a play

Women have always been under-represented in Canadian engineering faculties despite all of the efforts to attract them to this profession. Historically, less than 25% of all undergraduate students in Canadian engineering faculties are women. To counteract this phenomenon, it is essential to promote women´s participation in the fields of CSET. An educational tool has been developed to promote and heighten knowledge of CSET fields for Grade 9 and 10 girls. This tool is a theatrical play that presents different professions which are linked to CSET in a humorous manner using lay language. The project evaluates Grade 9 and 10 students´ perception of CSET, and validates whether the educational tool can change those perceptions. The methodology uses individual interviews of 24 students from two high schools to ask about their perception of CSET fields. The validation was done by a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data collected. Preliminary results shows that after the presentation of the theatrical play, many girls mentioned that the play made them think more about their career choices and some of them acknowledged that CSET disciplines could be an option for those who already have an interest in science and in engineering