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ADDRESSING THE GENDER GAP 743

Unlike Celaena and Magdalena, who came from innovator who shifted her ways of thinking about
a STEM school and saw themselves as inventors, STEM and started envisioning herself as pursuing a
Chelly, whose InvenTeam work was an afterschool career in STEM.
project, did not call herself an inventor yet. However, The shifts the three young women described in
the year-long invention process precipitated shifts in their interviews made visible that engagement in
the way she saw invention projects, STEM subjects, team-based invention education provides opportu-
and her own future. Table 7 demonstrates four shifts, nities for females to envision themselves in STEM
the experiences that influenced those shifts, and the fields and invention pathways. We draw on the young
outcomes of those shifts. women’s interviews in the next section, exploring the
Analysis of Chelly’s transcript revealed her first elements of their sociocultural environments that
shift in ways of thinking of herself when she described supported and/or constrained their entry, partici-
her experiences in the Mid-Grant Technical Review pation, and future pathways in STEM overall and
(MGTR) that all InvenTeams undertake in February. specifically in invention.
The MGTR involved the team presenting their work-
to-date to the community, intended recipients, and Supports and Constraints to Women’s
invited audience members, including local media and Participation in STEM and Invention
elected officials. Reviews are intended to gather feed- Analyses of the interviews of the three female
back that helps teams continue and/or improve their InvenTeam participants suggest that the InvenTeam
projects. Chelly’s account of the review and feedback experience increased the likelihood of their pursuing
process indicated that the interviews she experienced STEM college/career pathways, with two expressing
“here and there” and the significance conveyed by identities as inventors and one identifying as an inno-
adults shifted her thinking of the InvenTeam project vator and switching from an undeclared college major
from being an “after-school activity” for which “we to considering computer science or a STEM-related
just never got that concept” to being a major project in field. Their accounts alluded to multiple factors that
which she played a significant role. She said that once influenced their pathways toward STEM and inven-
she understood the significance of the InvenTeam tion; therefore, we revisited the transcripts to examine
work, she deepened her commitment to producing further what supported and what constrained the
the prototype and presenting it at the capstone event, young women’s work as InvenTeam members and
EurekaFest, at MIT. their developing identities as leaders, inventors, and
Understanding the importance of the project and innovators.
seeing the significance of her role also supported
Chelly’s shift in the way she saw STEM and engi- Supports
neering. She shared that the InvenTeam experience Collectively, the three participants identified four
helped her to overcome her dislike of engineering factors that supported their work and four that
and learning about STEM fields, which led her to functioned as constraints, with three factors pro-
consider studying “something in STEM” in college. viding both a support and a constraint. Factors
She even started shifting her thinking toward wanting that supported the work of InvenTeams included:
to learn how to code, exploring more majors, and 1) the organization and processes of InvenTeams;
possibly studying computer science. Possibly the most 2) resources; 3) people; and 4) personal qualities,
significant shift for her was developing confidence values, and beliefs.
in her “ability to see ways of going through those When describing their experiences with inventing
hardships in college.” Having experienced “highs and during the year, the participants talked about the
lows and doing something of this magnitude” led to InvenTeam initiative’s organization and processes as
her seeing InvenTeams as a unique experience and important supports. Celaena emphasized the distrib-
invention as a possibility for her future. Though she uted leadership model used in InvenTeams, saying it
did not refer to herself as an inventor, the year-long was “good to give each person who was a leader some-
team experience helped her claim that she was an thing to lead … to take charge.” Each team member