Learning @ Home With Girls4Tech™ Connect

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

 Mastercard has extended access to its signature STEM curriculum, Girls4Tech™, through a suite of new online, creative educational resources. The programme has been designed to help parents and teachers engage and inspire kids, ages 8-12.

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

These activities are built on global science and math 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 in New Zealand, 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.

“Mastercard knows 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,” says Ruth Riviere, country manager, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, Mastercard. “The easy access to the website enhances what Mastercard has done in so many workshops. Mastercard looks forward to building on both efforts when it’s once again safe to gather in person.”

Beginning this week, new activities will be posted on a weekly basis at the Girls4Tech website, Facebook page and Twitter handle. Lessons are currently available in English, with additional Spanish and Chinese language content to follow in the coming weeks.

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

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 programmes also extend to girls ages 13-16 with Girls4Tech 2.0, as well as a 20-week coding programme, Girls4Tech & Code for girls 8-10.

To learn more about Girls4Tech and access the online lessons, please visit Girls4Tech Connect.

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About Mastercard, www.mastercard.com

Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realise their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.

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