The problem isn't interest Most young girls love science. Ask a class of seven-year-olds who wants to build a robot or study animals, and the girls' hands go up as fast as the boys'. The trouble starts later. Somewhere between middle school and university, many girls quietly drift away from science, technology, engineering and math, often before they have ever tested how good they could be. This drift is not about ability. Girls perform as well as boys in math and science cla

BioEndeavor's Virtual STEAM Lab for girls is a live, online program where gifted and ambitious girls learn science, technology, engineering, arts, and math above grade level, and then use those skills to tackle real problems in their communities . The real-world problems align with BioEndeavor's focus on connecting STEM to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Why girls' confidence matters now Girls have every reason to thrive in STEM, but the data shows their confidence ofte

Ask a girl why she should learn algebra, and you may get a shrug. Ask her how algebra could help clean a river or design a safer city, and watch her lean in. That is the idea behind purposeful learning: connecting what students learn to real challenges they care about, so every lesson has a reason. For girls, research suggests that reason may be the difference between drifting away from STEM and claiming her place in it. What the research says Girls' interest in STEM is risin

Kaitonna Ezomike was named a finalist for the John Locke Global Essay Competition. Kaitonna chose the prompt: 'The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ Is it? Does it? In his piece, Kaitonna suggests that "King’s claim in Alabama that the moral arc bends towards justice is neither blind optimism nor a universal fact. It is a ‘truth’ that only exists with the proper conditions. In this ever changing world, if we make no effort to foster empathy for

Girls Who Innovate Business Idea: Busy Bees Busy Bees is an environment sustainable program targeted to create awareness about endangered pollinators and it's benefits to our ecosystem in alignment with the UN SDG 15. I have built an interactive app called Busy Bees ON, which is aimed at the youth of Ontario, Canada and has multiple eye-catching features like Spot the Bee contest, which helps in tracking sightings of bee populations, games and quizzes help generate awareness

Girls Who Innovate Business Idea: SmartSpend AI SmartSpend AI is an AI powered personal finance app designed to help teenagers develop healthy money habits before they enter adulthood. While many financial apps are created for adults with complex features, SmartSpend AI is built specifically for young people, making budgeting, saving, and financial literacy simple, engaging, and easy to understand. The app allows users to track their income and expenses, create personalized b

Girls Who Innovate Business Idea: SpotGuard AI SpotGuard AI is an artificial intelligence-powered app designed to help users identify potentially concerning moles through early screening. Users simply take a photo of a mole, and the AI analyzes it by comparing it to thousands of previously trained images of benign and malignant moles. The app then predicts whether the mole appears more likely to be benign or malignant and encourages users with suspicious results to seek profe

Girls Who Innovation Business Idea: SPARKLE & GIVE: Beyond Cause-washing and Pinkwashing Imagine buying a product or visiting businesses that claim they are raising awareness for causes like breast cancer and animal shelters or charities, only to find out that some of these businesses benefit from social causes they are promoting but donate very little to the cause itself. This is called by some pinkwashing or cause-washing, where the profits are only used for the business

Girls Who Innovate Business Idea: HomeChefs Homechef is a business platform to empower women and save kids from the severe disappointment of opening their lunchboxes to the regular dry sandwiches and cold pastas. A big problem in the world is extremely talented mothers who stay home to take care of their kids wishing for a chance to earn for themselves. So, what better way is there to help those mothers and kids by connecting them both? All we have to do is let the mothers c

Girls Who Innovate Business Idea: Meow & Mocha A cat café and adoption center where every drink sold funds shelter cats' care and re-homing. The concept blends a kawaii-themed menu with a mission-driven lounge: visitors pay entry fees ($7 - $25, waived with $15+ purchase) to spend time with adoptable cats from partner shelters. The revenue streams include specialty drinks ($5 - $6.50), desserts, merchandise, workshops (cat yoga, latte art, youth job-skills), memberships, and

Girls Who Innovate: STEM Program for Middle School Girls This summer, Imran Allarakhia co-founder of BioEndeavor hosted a 4 week virtual series called Girls Who Innovate Social Entrepreneurship Program - for girls in grades 6-8 from across Canada. Girls Who Innovate was a four-week experiential learning program designed to empower middle school girls to use science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and artificial intelligence (AI) to address real-world challenges connect

On March 27–28, Chetanna Ezomike, a grade 7 student took part in the Ottawa Regional Science Fair. His project, titled When Does AI Get Confused? Testing AI Wildfire Detection on Zombie Fire Images, explored the reliability of artificial intelligence in an increasingly important real-world application: wildfire detection. As artificial intelligence becomes more widely used to monitor wildfires across Canada, Chetanna became curious about how well these systems perform when fa

Siqi Tan presenting at ISEF, Arizona, 2026 Pancreatic cancer remains deadly, with fewer than 1 in 8 patients surviving beyond five years. Current tumor cell analysis methods assume activity follows a straight or branching trajectory, potentially missing more complex patterns hidden in the data. Topological data analysis, specifically persistent homology, looks for loops in high-dimensional data, revealing patterns in gene activity that linear methods may overlook. Working at

As Editors at BioEndeavor, we were so inspired by this project and learning how one team member's health journey inspired this outstanding CWSF project, we want to share Judy and Isabell's story to empower other students, teachers, and parents. Science fairs are about celebrating innovation as well as creating impact for our communities and societies through STEM. These stories should be broadly shared as we strive to bring purpose to STEM. Thank you Judy and Isabell for shar

Emily developed an app called SmartScrolling, which uses AI to help the app detect misinformation on social media platforms. Emily was one of 390 students who recently competed at the CWSF in Edmonton, Alberta. Several parents and attendees expressed support for the app and are anxiously waiting for its launch. Emily shared more about her project and her thoughts from the Canada Wide Science Fair with BioEndeavor. I created this app because misinformation is everywhere onlin

Imran Allarakhia achieved outstanding success at the 2026 Canada-Wide Science and Engineering Fair (CWSF), earning the Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair (BASEF) delegation's only Gold Medal, as well as a Challenge Award for the top project in his category and the prestigious Youth Can Innovate Award. His award-winning project, CareBotix II, addresses one of the world's most pressing challenges: the growing caregiving crisis. With the global population aged 60 and older ex

Saving My Earth: 52 weeks of Making a Difference Bringing STEAM-Based Climate Education into the Classroom Book of Quotes, Photography, and Student Activities BioEndeavor (a non-profit organization focused on global citizenship and green innovation) has been actively designing climate education materials for teachers and students. The materials and activities are designed to be aligned with the STEAM curriculum, are thought-provoking, and extend beyond just climate change to

Scientists are now trying to take advantage of nature’s experience. Scientists study wildlife because nature can solve problems our society needs solved. Once we have gathered the information that we need, we can design better products or solutions that mimic nature. This is called biomimicry . Biomimicry expands climate education into the sustainability and sustainable design arenas. Octopuses are one of the many different species of marine life that fascinate scientists and

Where Purposeful Learning and Teen Future Readiness Meet “STEM opportunities, as provided through this journal, challenge the status quo by opening doors and breaking down walls. It is a call to action: to democratize science and ensure that every student, regardless of background, has the chance to participate. This journal is designed to be a launchpad for student research, a place where young scientists can publish their findings, share their insights, and connect with a b

As college admissions become increasingly competitive, universities are looking beyond grades and test scores to understand who students are, how they think, and how they will contribute to campus life and the world beyond it. In this evolving landscape, the BioEndeavor teen accelerator plays a powerful role in helping teens build authentic, compelling college applications grounded in purpose, curiosity, and real-world impact . Rather than focusing on résumé padding or short-