深夜亚洲福利久久

UCC welcomes BTYSE Winners Cormac Harris and Alan O鈥橲ullivan

26 Feb 2020

Cormac Harris and Alan O鈥橲ullivan, winners of the 56th BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, visited UCC today to present their project on 鈥淎 statistical investigation into the prevalence of gender stereotyping in 5-7 year olds and the development of an initiative to combat gender bias鈥�.

We were delighted to host Cormac Harris and Alan O鈥橲ullivan, both aged 16, fourth year students from Col谩iste Choilm, Ballincollig, the winners of the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE), and their teacher Karina Lyne. Cormac and Alan presented their winning project 鈥淎 statistical investigation into the prevalence of gender stereotyping in five to seven-year olds and the development of an initiative to combat gender bias鈥�.   The exhibition was held in the Ground Floor Atrium of the Hub and was attended by a large number of UCC students and staff. 

The aim of Cormac and Alan鈥檚 project was to determine how early gender stereotyping can be identified. They conducted workshops with 376 five to seven-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. One of the most striking findings emerging from the research was that 96% of boys drew a male engineer while just over 50% of girls drew a female engineer. 

Cormac and Alan presented their project in the Intermediate section in the Social and Behavioural Sciences category.    Head Judge of the Social and Behavioural Sciences Group category, Professor Joe Barry said about Cormac and Alan鈥檚 project, 鈥楧espite awareness of the lower percentage of females relative to males pursuing study and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), we still do not understand exactly why this is the case鈥�.

For more on this story contact:

Dr. Sandra Irwin, Deputy President & Registrar's Office, 021 4904874 or s.irwin@ucc.ie