Mastercard Provides Free Online STEM Lessons to Students, Teachers and Parents

Mastercard has extended access of its signature STEM curriculum, Girls4Tech, through a suite of new online, educational resources.

The programme intends to help parents and teachers engage and inspire kids, ages eight to 12, in developing creative skills during such unprecedented times when learning has been disrupted indefinitely.

“We know that these are challenging times for parents and teachers on many fronts and hope that these learning resources are a fun way to engage and inspire kids about STEM while at home,” said Ifeoma Dozie, the Director, Marketing and Communications for Mastercard in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Through the newly launched website Girls4Tech Connect, as well as through activities made in collaboration with Mastercard’s education partner Scholastic, teachers and parents can download lessons to help students learn about STEM topics, from the comfort of their homes.

These activities are built on global science and maths standards – and incorporate Mastercard’s deep expertise in payments technology and innovation – to enable children to discover a range of STEM careers, such as Fraud Detective, Data Scientist and Software Engineer.

Now in its sixth year, Girls4Tech has engaged more than 800,000 students across the globe, including more than a 200 in Kenya, through inquiry-based activities and real-world challenges, all with the goal of inspiring more girls to pursue STEM careers and reduce the gender gap in these fields. Just last month, Mastercard hosted its first 2020 Girls4Tech programme in Kenya where it reached 68 girls aged between nine and 11.

Beginning this week, new activities will be posted on a weekly basis at the Girls4Tech website, Facebook page and Twitter handle.

While all lessons are designed for students to work independently, materials are also available for teachers to guide online sessions. These materials are currently available in English.

Impact Highlights from the First Six Years

To date, Girls4Tech has reached more than 800,000 girls in 27 countries and on 6 continents.
The programme has engaged more than 4,400 employee mentors worldwide.
Mastercard has partnered with Scholastic, Be Better China, Major League Baseball, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), R&A and YCAB in Indonesia to further scale the programme and offer STEM skills in unique ways to girls ages 8-16.
As technology skills evolve, a new curriculum was launched in 2019 to give students deeper exposure to the growing fields of cybersecurity and AI – Girls4Tech Cybersecurity & AI.
Girls4Tech programs also extends to girls ages 13-16 with Girls4Tech 2.0, as well as a 20-week coding programme, Girls4Tech & Code for girls 8-10.