On International Women’s Day, we’re celebrating EdTech and STEM female founders and their companies, including 7 Generation Games co-founder Maria Burns Ortiz (second from right) – and GoldieBlox founder Debbie Sterling (center), seen here speaking at the White House’s United State of Women Summit.
It is International Women’s Day, so if you’re a woman congrats to you! If you’re a man, then congrats to you too, because you’re blessed with the presence of women every day! Despite how great it is to be a woman, it does come with its challenges, especially when you’re a woman in tech. Just this week a report came out detailing the gender bias and pay inequality that still exists. But, there are some kick-ass boss ladies breaking the pink glass ceiling, specifically when it comes to STEM and EdTech companies. We wanted to not only tell you about them, but to tell you to support them !
Check out our list of awesome tech companies owned by women.
7 Generation Games
7 Generation Games is obviously one of the greatest ed tech companies out there (no bias). Learning math and history shouldn’t have to be boring so we make sure it’s not. Our games make you smarter. That simple. Two of our founders also happen to be women! AnnMaria de Mars apparently hadn’t accomplished enough after being a World Judo champion, raising four daughters and getting her Ph.D so she co-founded 7 Generation Games. Oh, and one of those four daughters is our other co-founder, Maria Burns Ortiz. Maria, also an underachiever, is not only our co-founder but also an award-winning journalist and international best-selling author. At some point, she also got married and had three kids because, why not?
You can check out our awesome games created by these amazing ladies HERE.
Bookopolis
Bookopolis is like a digital book club for kids. Kari Ness Riedel realized that her bookworm sons would listen to their friends’ suggestions for books over their parents, so she decided to create an online community for them. Kids can leave book reviews and make recommendations. There’s also a gamification component to it! Readers can compete and earn points and badges. It’s also a great source for teachers since they can create accounts and set up their students. Like 7 Generation Games, Bookopolis was also named one of Educents top apps for kids in 2017. And yes, it’s 7 Generation Games parent-tested and approved as our CEO Maria first learned of it when her oldest daughter’s class used. Her daughter kicked her book reading into overdrive in a desire to earn the most points in her class. (Wonder where that competitive drive comes from…)
Parents, teachers, and students can all sign-up for Bookopolis right on the homepage.
DIY Girls
DIY (“Do-It-Yourself”) Girls works towards increasing the interests of girls in technology and engineering by providing educational experiences and (most importantly) mentorships. DIY Girls has innovative afterschool and summer programs that focus on everything from electronics to coding and even community involvement. Founded in 2011 by engineer and educator, Luz Rivas, DIY Girls now provides hands-on STEM experience for over 500 girls.
You can get some free lesson plans, download some signs for your classroom or even get an entire club kit for your students HERE.
GoldieBlox
GoldieBlox is a powerhouse of a brand. It describes itself as a “…children’s multimedia company disrupting the pink aisle in toy stores globally and challenging gender stereotypes…” With its books, toys, apps, videos, and merchandise focused on engineering with a female character at the center of it all. GoldieBlox was founded in 2012 by Debbie Sterling.
Check out all their awesome products on their site for girls and women of all ages!
iFlipd
Remember being a broke college student and then having to spend $250 on a book you’d MAYBE open up 2-3 times in class? Don’t you wish you could’ve just rented the book as needed? Kati Radziwon wondered why you could rent a giraffe in Florida (we at 7 Generation Games love all things crazy in Florida) but you can’t just rent a textbook. With iFlipd you “pay-as-you-play” which means you rent it for a minimal fee, study for your test, and then you flip it back. In the meantime, someone else can rent it for the remaining days for half the price!
You can sign-up for and support iFlipd over here.
LiveBinders
Remember those 3-ring binders your parents had to buy for you at the beginning of the school year? Or maybe you’re forced to buy them for your own kids now! Instead of 9 million pieces of looseleaf paper flying around, imagine a world where your binders could be digital. Even better, imagine if instead of having to find a hole-punch (who even owns one of those any more?) to fill your binder with articles, assignments, links, etc. that you could curate and share all online. Well, with LiveBinders – founded by Tina Schneider and Barbara Tallent- you can do just that. You can even create your own shelf that people can check out your binders on. In fact, it’s one edtech tools AnnMaria’s uses when she teaches online courses.
You can sign-up and build up to 10 binders for free RIGHT HERE.
Literator
Michelle Ching was a 2nd grade teacher who found herself struggling to cater to the different reading needs of each of her students. She created Literator to help solve that problem. Literator is a free app that organizes classroom data for teachers and provides real-time insight into every student’s performance.
You can get the free app or the “Premium” version here.
Sabio
Liliana Monge is the sabia (Spanish for “wise woman”) behind Sabio. Sabio focuses on growing and developing tech talent, especially when it comes to those under-represented in the tech field – like women and minorities. Sabio is open to anyone who wants to learn to code. They offer a 12-week code bootcamp. Basically, they take your tech nerd skills to the next level. And considering that we’ve hired from their alumni pool, we can attest that to the fact that Sabio turns out talented developers.
Check out if you would be interested in any of their programs.
Second Avenue Learning
Second Avenue Learning is described as, “…a friendly group of nerds who are passionate about learning!” Under CEO Victoria Van Voorhis the company focuses on building interactive learning products. It also provides custom services to other ed tech companies like Pearson and McGraw-Hill to name a few.
You can check out their products Voters Ed and Martha Madison.
Teachley
Co-founded by three female teachers, Teachley focuses on helping schools personalize learning through the use of apps. The apps are available for grades K-5 and use games to teach math which keeps the students engaged.
Feel free to check out and download their apps.
Definitely, check out all these incredible companies that are doing amazing things and happen to be founded and/or owned by women. Support them. Support their product. Tell other people to support their products because they’re doing cool things. Happy International Women’s Day and remember
