Girl Scouts will soon get a new opportunity to learn to think like programmers and engineers.
Girl Scouts of the USA announced Tuesday it released 23 new badges related to STEM and the outdoors.
The new STEM-related badges — for things like "What Robots Do" or "Programming Robots" — are meant to expose more young girls to the fields of robotics, mechanical engineering and computer science.
Girl Scouts partnered with tech-focused organizations like GoldieBlox, Code.Org and the Society of Women Engineers to create the new programs.
The organization hopes these new badges and programs encourage more girls to get into STEM fields. In 2010, a study found fewer women than men were earning degrees in almost every science and engineering field.
Social psychologists say this is because of "outdated stereotypes" and societal subtleties that enforce the idea that girls are not as good as boys in math and science.
These are just the latest Girl Scouts badges related to STEM.
In June, the organization collaborated with Palo Alto Networks to introduce 18 badges for cybersecurity. In that program, girls learn how viruses and phishing attempts work. The Girl Scouts also already had badges to teach girls how to use computers and build websites.
With the new programs and badges for robotics put in place, who knows? Someday, Girl Scouts could build robots to sell cookies for them.
