BT Young Scientists crown is coming back to Leeside; Students discover gender stereotyping in young kids

CORK students have again scooped the overall prize at the BT Young Scientists competition. 

Sixteen-year-olds Cormac Harris and Alan O’Sullivan, 4th-year students from Coláiste Choilm, Ballincollig,  took home the top prize for their project entitled “a statistical investigation into the prevalence of gender stereotyping in 5 to 7-year-olds and the development of an initiative to combat gender bias”.

The students take home the trophy as well as a top prize of €7,500.

Head judge Joe Barry said: “The aim of Cormac and Alan’s project was to determine how early gender stereotyping can be identified,” he said.

“They conducted workshops with 376 5-7-year-olds from a range of school settings with a number of different tasks including choosing between gender-specific and gender-neutral toys; drawing and naming an engineer, and; rating male and female competency at a number of gender-specific roles.”

Their research found that 96% of boys drew a male engineer while just over 50% of girls drew a female engineer. 

Mr Barry added: “The project is particularly impressive in that Cormac and Alan also created very pertinent and useable resources for primary school teachers to combat gender stereotyping among young children.”