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But evidence is weak that there is such a thing as “girls’ learning,” online or offline, if what is meant by that is that each gender has cognitive differences that should be accommodated by different instructional methods. Neuroscientist Lise Eliot has argued persuasively that, while small inherent differences in aptitude between males and females do exist (even as infants, for example, boys seem to have an edge in spatial cognition), society takes these small differences and makes them much bigger—by supporting boys in math and science, and by discouraging girls who study these subjects.

These same dynamics play out online, as Cheryan demonstrated in a subsequent study. Changing the design of a virtual classroom—from one that conveyed computer science stereotypes to one that did not —“significantly increased women’s interest and anticipated success in computer science,” Cheryan and her colleagues reported.

Cheryan notes, “was sufficient to boost female undergraduates’ interest in computer science to the level of their male peers.”

Another way to promote female students’ sense of belonging in online math and science courses would be putting more women at the head of virtual classrooms.

All these approaches have in common a focus, not on teaching girls and women differently, but on helping them to feel differently about their place in the fields of math and science. Just as in the physical world, in the virtual sphere the barriers to girls’ and women’s advancement in STEM fields remain very much in place. With informed intervention and clever design, however, the digital walls may prove easier to scale.

the brain remodels dramatically during the teenage years.

Adults often tell teens that their feelings are at full blast because of “hormones.” This usually doesn’t go over very well, plus it’s probably inaccurate.

research suggests that the impact of pubertal hormones on teenagers’ moods is indirect, at best.

Here’s the bottom line: What your daughter broadcasts matches what she actually experiences.

Really, it’s just that intense, so take her feelings seriously, regardless of how overblown they might seem.

Collaboration also makes coding more fun. Group projects turn it into a social activity, which engages all students, including girls

e rules of pair programming are simple: Each pair of students must share a single computer. One student acts as the “driver” and takes control of the mouse and keyboard. One students is the navigator, whose responsibilities include checking instructions, reading code and finding errors as they occur.

ast year, three sixth grade girls decided to use Processing with Khan Academy’s JavaScript implementation to create a multi-page yearbook.

Split the class into groups of four and spread them around the room. Each team will need paper and pencils. At the front of the room, place copies of a document including all of the material that has been taught in some sort of graphical form--a spider diagram, for example. Then tell the students that one person from each group may come up to the front of the classroom and look at the document for thirty seconds. When those thirty seconds are up, they return to their group and write down what they remember in an attempt to re-create the original document in its entirety. The students rotate through the process until the group has pieced the original document back together as a team, from memory. These end products may be "graded" by other teams, and as a final exercise, each student can be required to return to his desk and re-create the document on his own.

Rather than penalize the boys' relatively higher energy and competitive drive, the most effective way to teach boys is to take advantage of that high energy, curiosity, and thirst for competition. While Reichert and Hawley's research was conducted in all-boys schools, these lessons can be used in all classrooms, with both boys and girls.