A female or male STEAM professional who voluntarily participates in the programme to encourage the interest of young people, especially girls, in STEAM.

What is fundamental is: passion, vocation and enthusiasm.

It should be noted that Inspira STEAM is a project with a strong vocational and volunteer component. The participation of the mentors is completely voluntary and they do not receive any type of remuneration from the project (if they work in entities that subscribe to the Inspira STEAM commitment, they can have their dedication recognised within the corresponding working day; but we propose that this should always occur within the voluntary and vocational nature of the project).

Any woman and men in science or technology can be an Inspira STEAM male/female mentor. No particular qualifications are required; vocational training degrees, university studies, etc. in any of these areas are suitable. There are also male/female mentors who come from other degrees but who have close contact with science and technology in their professional activity. The most important thing is to have more or less extensive professional experience in organisations or activities closely linked to science or technology.

We are sometimes asked whether people who are not scientists or technologists can be mentors. The answer is yes, as long as their professional career has been linked to companies or organisations in this sector.

We also receive applications from Master’s and PhD students. While we favour the participation of people who have some professional experience, we also highly value Master’s or PhD students who are on the threshold of the world of work and who know what is involved in studying a career in engineering, science or mathematics. We believe, in any case, that the mentoring process requires a certain life journey that is normally favoured by personal experience. There is no minimum age for mentoring, but we do recommend that each mentor reflects on whether she feels ready to dare to do it and take responsibility for the process.

The important thing is that the group of mentors is diverse, with profiles from multiple sectors, women and men of all ages and experiences. We believe that each mentor forms a unique group with his or her girls or boys and that each brings something very valuable to the programme.

Commitment, enthusiasm and desire to promote STEAM areas among students, especially among girls.

Know, understand and be aligned with the objectives and values of the programme.

In terms of time and work, being a mentor involves:

• Attend the full training which is offered free of charge. The training consists of 5 hours online in a single session. It is recommended to renew the training every 4 years.
• Prepare the sessions. To do this, we provide some scripts in which the objectives of each session are defined and we make a proposal of activities that you can develop with the girls and boys. These activities are open to you to modify them according to your preferences and the group you are working with.
• Carry out the six sessions in the classroom with the assigned group of girls or boys. The sessions last approximately one hour, take place every 1-2 weeks, during school hours, and the timetable is agreed with the assigned school.
• Complete questionnaires requested by the organisation to evaluate the programme and measure its impact.

In addition, for a good organisation of the programme, we ask you:

• Follow the steps indicated by the organisation for the implementation of the programme in the classroom.
• Proper registration, enrolment, implementation and follow-up, providing all the information and documents requested during the various steps of the process.
• Submit the Certificate of Offences of a Sexual Nature where there is no record of any previous offence.
• Have a fluid communication with the organisation and the school. Read carefully the communications sent and respond to requests for documentation and information within the requested deadlines. Communicate to the organisation any change or incident regarding the planned approach.
• Know and accept the code of conduct defined in Inspira STEAM for mentors.

Live and enjoy the Inspira STEAM experience while transmitting to girls and boys our passion for science and technology.

All mentors receive mandatory training the first time they participate in Inspira STEAM. During this training, they work on the necessary competences to carry out the sessions with girls and boys following the proposed methodology: mentoring. The gender perspective of the project and the materials developed to facilitate the work of the mentors are presented.

This training is also important to strengthen the relationship between the mentors, to create a group and to align the vision on the aspects that Inspira STEAM addresses. Although it is compulsory the first time a person participates, it is necessary to be recycled every 4 years in order to learn about new developments and advances in the programme.

All mentors participating in the programme must submit, each edition, the Certificate of Sexual Offences to verify that they do not have a criminal record. This is a mandatory requirement in Spain for all persons working with minors.

The certificate is valid for two years from the moment it is issued, and will be required to be handed in each edition.

You can apply online or go directly to the corresponding offices. For more information, go directly to the website of the Territorial Office of the Ministry of Justice in your area or the website of the Ministry of Justice: https://bit.ly/36zdZpT

We recommend that a woman should not be a mentor to her daughter or son, to a family member or in the school where she teaches. The role by which this woman is known is very strong and positive, she also has a lot of power (mother, aunt, teacher) and we want this girl or boy to have, in addition, other female STEAM references. Of course, the same recommendation applies to male mentors. They can be mentors at their children’s school, but of other groups, not of them directly.

In some cases, the organisations in which the mentors work want to have a deeper commitment to the project, to recognise and value the work that these women are doing and to facilitate their participation in the project. To this end, we have drawn up the Inspira STEAM Commitment, a document where these organisations commit to:

• Assume the mentor’s dedication to Inspira STEAM within her working day.
• Facilitate their attendance at training, school sessions and dissemination events that it deems relevant.
• Work to disseminate and raise awareness in their community of the issues and problems addressed by the programme.

In recognition of this commitment, the programme makes these entities visible on the project’s website: https://inspirasteam.net/entidades-compromiso-inspira/

Once the assignment of mentors to the schools has been completed, the programme coordination office contacts the mentors with the schools to which they have been assigned. From this moment on, we ask the school to contact all the mentors and schedule a meeting to get to know each other and start the project.

At that meeting the mentor – group distribution should be adjusted and at least the first sessions should be scheduled.

It is important not to delay this process. From this point, each mentor agrees with the centre the agenda of the six sessions (days and timetable). The coordination does not intervene in this process, both the centre and the mentors must be active during the process and, if they have any problems, contact the coordination to identify the causes of the lack of communication.

It is important to stress that:

• Inspira STEAM sessions must be held during school hours.
• The six sessions should be scheduled 1-2 weeks apart (no more, no less).
• To facilitate the management of the school, all mentors assigned to the same group should do Inspira STEAM at the same time.
• Considering that the mentors participate on a voluntary basis and that they are likely to do so during their working hours or within their busy schedules, we also ask the centres to be flexible in terms of planning the sessions.
• In case a mentor has more than one group assigned to her/his group, the centre is requested that the two groups do the sessions consecutively to minimise the travel time of the mentor (with some exceptions).

Once the contact between the mentors and the schools has been initiated, the Inspira STEAM sessions can begin, on the days and at the times agreed between the mentors and the school.

The Inspira STEAM programme aims to promote STEAM areas among students, especially girls, and schools can participate in the programme as long as they are committed to these goals. To do so, they must:

• Correctly complete the registration through the intranet for the corresponding edition (https://intranet.inspirasteam.net/).
• Attend the information meeting organised by the coordinating entity.
• Obtain the authorisation of the legal guardians so that the pupils can participate, if required, in this type of activities at the centre.
• Facilitate and support the work of the mentors at all times.
• Maintain fluid communication with the organisation.
• Complete evaluation questionnaires as required by the organisation.
• Attend the closing day organised by the coordinating entity.

In short, the aim is to live and enjoy the Inspira STEAM experience, giving girls and boys the opportunity to meet STEAM references close to them and share their concerns about science and technology so that they can choose their future without conditioning.

Any school that wants to promote STEAM among its students, especially among girls.

What is fundamental is: passion, vocation and enthusiasm.

Schools participate free of charge in Inspira STEAM with 6th grade primary school groups and, if they do not have those grades, with 1st year secondary school groups.

The mentors will work with the girls and boys in the centre for six 1-hour sessions during school hours, every 1-2 weeks. The specific schedule of the sessions will be arranged by the school with the assigned mentors.The only cost of the project is a material that the school has to provide to each girl and boy who participates. In its reduced version, this means approximately 12 sheets of paper for each student. In addition, if the mentor requires any material for the development of the sessions, this must also be provided.

The mentors will work with the girls and boys in the centre for six 1-hour sessions during school hours, every 1-2 weeks. The specific schedule of the sessions will be arranged by the school with the assigned mentors.

It should be noted that Inspira STEAM is a project with a strong vocational and volunteer component. The participation of the mentors is completely voluntary and they do not receive any type of remuneration from the project.

In order to favour the climate of trust and security that is established between the girls and boys and the mentor, we recommend that schools do not allow teachers to be in the classroom during the Inspira STEAM sessions. However, it is important that teachers and mentors have a fluid communication before and after the sessions.

Teachers can provide valuable guidance to the mentor on how to manage in the classroom, help design the sessions and support the mentor as needed.In addition, the fluid communication with the mentor will allow teachers to know how the sessions are developing, the highlights and thus reinforce the messages and learning in the regular activity of the school.

Schools that require the authorisation of legal guardians in order for students to participate in Inspira STEAM must distribute, collect, sign and keep the informed consent of the legal guardians of the participating students.

It is essential that all participating students have the appropriate authorisation, in accordance with the school’s usual procedure.

Although the programme is especially aimed at girls and the barriers they face when opting for STEAM studies and professions, we consider the participation of boys to be fundamental. It is very important for them to discover STEAM studies and professions, identify the stereotypes that affect them, learn about historical and current female STEAM references, etc.

We also want them to learn about the reality of their peers and women working in science and technology. In addition, Inspira STEAM proposes an experience of shared reflection among boys, with an egalitarian prism of gender differences that will allow these boys to be more aware and active in the creation of egalitarian conditions in the future.

We know that there is currently a general lack of interest among young people in science and technology studies and careers that affects both boys and girls. Many reasons why young people are not interested in these areas are common: lack of knowledge about engineering or scientific professions and what is done in them; the wrong perception of their difficulty; ignorance of the wide range of possibilities for professional development in these degrees; the low social relevance given to science and technology in many contexts.

However, there are other issues that reach girls and boys very differently. Stereotypes of science and technology professions are highly gender-biased. Public references of professionals receiving recognition are affected by a society that is still far from gender neutral. It is still common today to hear that women do not like technology, that there are no good women scientists, that the most important technologists are male/female; and stereotypes such as the lonely scientist, the asocial computer scientist or the incomprehensible technologist. All this imbues science and technology with an added difficulty for girls that becomes a spur for boys. It has been shown that with the same academic performance in science, a girl’s self-perception of her potential and viability to pursue a career in science is lower.

It is especially valuable that in this contrast of reality that means that gender matters, girls and boys are separated to reinforce their reflection: in our society, opportunities are still not the same for boys and girls. What a girl gets is not the same as what a boy gets. What a woman is told is different from what a man is told. This separation facilitates identification and reflection.

The Inspira project proposes a one-off activity of introspection and reflection by girls with girls, and boys with boys, with the intention of sharing the conclusions in the joint group afterwards. It is particularly valuable for girls to confront the variety of causes and barriers that make it difficult for women to realise their potential in science and technology, and we have found that the atmosphere created in the small groups is very trusting and highly enriching. During only 5 sessions, the girls work with a female professional reference as a mentor, and experience first-hand one of the main causes of the problem of gender bias in science and technology: the lack of female references. Valuable dynamics are generated from the small group of girls and the small group of boys, which can then be shared and passed on to the larger group. In our experience, it is not useful to isolate boys and girls in a fantasy that society does not differentiate by gender, when this is not the case. It is useful to recognise the existing reality and become aware of it (boys and girls) in order to transform it.

After having worked with hundreds of girls and having contrasted experience and opinions, the Inspira project has validated the opportunity to carry out the mentoring process in this way. The methodology is as follows: in session 1 and 6, girls and boys are together. In sessions 2, 3, 4 and 5, the mentor will be with the girls and the mentor with the boys (unless we have enough mentors for that school). In this way, the Inspira girls take advantage of and enjoy the common ‘girls’’ space, it helps them to feel like protagonists, they discover a space of freedom and deepening and develop different dynamics than those that would occur if boys also participated. The boys at Inspira in turn have the opportunity to discover this gender difference, to question the advantages and differences that society has established, and to generate an enriching space for reflection for themselves.

It is also essential to ensure that the working groups are much smaller than a standard class (we prefer groups smaller than 15, and better closer to 10). The process that takes place, facilitated by the mentor, provokes reflection, expression and participation of all and seeks to make each girl aware of her importance and capacity. In turn, after this work in small groups, the return to the large group generates beneficial dynamics and better cohesion in the groups.

The Inspira project separates in order to integrate, differentiates in order to understand. Improvement is more feasible from the awareness of reality.

In addition to the aforementioned reasons, we believe that Inspira proposes an opportunity to generate a first experience of sorority among girls, in line with relevant social movements in our society today: it promotes in girls positive relationships and alliances with other girls to contribute with specific actions to the visualisation of all forms of machismo and gender marginalisation, and mutual support to facilitate the vital empowerment of each girl.

There are many initiatives to encourage young people’s interest in science and technology aimed at secondary and high school, which is where vocations and choices for higher education become more concrete. However, several studies have shown that fundamental vocations, preferences and interests are stated at these ages, but influences occur earlier. Key ages are found between 11 and 13 in terms of what they like and dislike, what they feel they are good at and what they feel they are not good at.

Girls in particular are found to perform better in mathematics or science, but they perceive, influenced by their environment, that engineering, physics or mathematics are ‘not for them’, so they often choose to pursue other branches or other fields. This is why we believe that 6th grade, just before the change of education cycle, is the best age at which to intervene.

On the other hand, the transition from primary to secondary school coincides with a change in the girls’ self-perception, a stage in which certain insecurities, fears and changes in self-esteem appear. This is another reason why the transition from primary to secondary school is a good time to carry out the Inspira programme.

We also want families to be part of Inspira STEAM, so we propose a simple material that introduces the ideas that the girls and boys work on in each Inspira STEAM session in class and proposes some activities to do as a family. We want to raise awareness and sensitise families to the need to address the central themes of the programme, such as female STEAM references, careers in science and technology and the stereotypes associated with these professions.

We have designed a material, which is distributed among the families of the centres participating in Inspira STEAM, where we share the topics that are being worked on in the sessions and some activities to do, in a playful way, with the young people.