Women have made significant progress in education through marked increase in enrolment. However, the same zeal has not been demonstrated in STEM based subjects and careers. The gender STEM scale still tips in favour of men in many countries across the world. This imbalance in the STEM fields owing to dominance by men is what creates the STEM Gap. In this paper, we synthesize literature and secondary data to show these disparities. We appreciate that STEM gap drivers are numerous and therefore zero in on what we consider the critical STEM gap drivers with respect to Kenya. We identify and succinctly discuss these critical drivers which are: self-concept and lack of resilience, teachers’ and parental expectations, role models and stereotyping, work environment and family obligations and finally weak scholastic performance. We also assess how this gender STEM gap is likely to affect the achievement of a number of Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) and the Big Four Agenda and in the process, steer the country away from the path of industrialization envisaged in Vision 2030. We explain why it is important to mitigate the STEM gap and get more women in STEM. We recommend that, parents should deconstruct their own stereotypes; teachers should debunk the myth about STEM being the preserve of superior mental abilities that girls lack, students should acknowledge that STEM drives the economy and opens up employment opportunities, institutions should have a STEM endowment fund and industries should institute policies that enhance retention of women in STEM careers. It is expected that these if addressed should enhance women’s participation in STEM based subjects so that they can build careers in STEM.

This study investigated students' performance in electricity practical through the usage of micro electricity kits and conventional laboratory apparatus in Kakamega North sub-county as an intervention mechanism. Specifically the study compared the learners' performance in an electricity practical test by students who used the micro electricity kit and those taught using conventional experimental apparatus. The research design adopted for the study was a two group quasiexperimental randomized pretest-posttest experimental design. A sample size of 537 form two students from fourteen schools were selected by stratified random sampling technique. The experimental group was exposed to the use of micro electricity kits while the control group was conventionally subjected to the same instructional technique. Two performance tests (EPT1 and EPT2) which acted as pre-test (bulbs in series and parallel) and post-test (ohms law) respectively of reliability index 0.74 and 0.87 were administered to both groups at an interval of one month between them. Validity of the instruments was determined with the help of three experienced secondary school teachers at values between 6 and 9 out of 10 for each of them. The obtained data were analyzed according to the hypothesis using both descriptive (means, percentages frequencies tables) and inferential (t-test chi square and anova) statistics. The findings indicated that students who used micro kits performed better than those who used conventional apparatus in electricity practical. Students from county schools performed better than those from sub-county schools. Male students who used the kits performed better than female students. Therefore the kits should be incorporated in the Kenyan school curriculum. These kits can be mainstreamed in physics practical work so as to provide practical experience and conceptual understanding of physics concepts. The government should provide adequate finances, laboratories, apparatus and teachers to sub-county schools so as to compete with the county schools. Physics teachers should also give attention and encourage female physics students during practical sessions such that both male and female students can perform better in the study of physics.