Women are more likely than men to get discouraged by a particular math class and give up on their quest for a degree preparing them for a career in science, technology or engineering, according to a new study from researchers at Colorado State University. A key reason for the higher ''I give up'' rate, the study suggests, is women's lack of confidence in their ability to do mathematics, particularly when they try to take Calculus I, a class most universities require in the pursuit of a degree in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM). The study, which was published Wednesday in PLOS ONE, a journal published by the Public Library of Science, found that while both men and women experience a loss of confidence in their math skills at a similar rate in Calculus I, the problem is that women have a lower confidence rate to begin with.

Teachers can inspire students to pursue a degree in science, technology, engineering and math - or they can turn them off from these subjects forever. In recognizing the role of educators, schools are coming together to remake STEM teacher prep in the early grades, and the government is pushing for a STEM Master Teacher Corps, which would seek to produce a cadre of STEM-savvy educators who would, in turn, spread their knowledge to their peers.

For National Women in Engineering Day W-T Engineering, Inc. asked engineers to submit a video encouraging young women to pursue engineering! Hear what everyone has to say .

Outgoing SWE President, Colleen Layman, discusses the effects of young girls' ebbing interest in science and math, the programs Society of Women Engineers - SWE offers females at every life stage, and the responsibility we have to raise up future generations to assume gender-neutrality in STEM.

Appearing at NASA headquarters as part of a ''United State of Women'' Summit, NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman noted that fewer than one-third of the agency's scientists, and just over one-fifth of its engineers, are women.

In 1946 German mathemathician,Maria Reiche was asked to take over research of the Nazca Lines in Peru. She fell in love with them and made it her life's work to study them and to protect them from being obliterated by human activity. She discovered many more solstice markers and begin her life's work, mapping the celestial matrix of the Nazca Pampa, Four decades later she was asked what events in her life had prepared her for this lifelong passion.

How America's early aerospace engineers ignored computers because they considered programming to be women's work.

Recent statistics show that women are significantly underrepresented in STEM careers. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, women now comprise 57 percent of the U.S. workforce. Yet, the U.S. Census Bureau reports, they make up only 26 percent of workers in STEM fields. Experts say STEM jobs are critical to America's global competitiveness and economic development. Nearly one-quarter of digital leaders say they believe diversity and inclusion are key to business success, and one-third link financial performance to diversity, according to Patricia Fletcher, SAP's head of Global Cultural Transformation for SAP Global Marketing. Fletcher spoke at SAP's Sapphire Now Conference, held recently in Orlando, Fla. SAP is a global software company based in Germany.

In 1939, the National Academy of Sciences awarded a grant to the Suicide Squad, a group of three students experimenting with rockets at Caltech, now more formally known as the GALCIT (Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology) Rocket Research Project. Until then, the group, comprised of Frank Malina, Jack Parsons, and Ed Forman, had no way to fund the rockets they were working on, and was on the verge of disbanding. That first award, $1,000, rescued the group, bringing them back together. When they were awarded a second grant the next year for ten times as much, it was life-changing. It was the U.S. government's first investment in rocket research. In deference to the Army Air Corps, which had proposed the funding, they changed their name to the Air Corps Jet Propulsion Research Project. Their goal was clear: Develop a rocket plane. The risky project was the beginning of what would become the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

You can now watch Full Episodes of Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers Online from Board of Director Member Mayim Bialik.