The effect of same gender scientist role models on student attitudes towards science, career or vocational interestBy: Lisa Bruno

Fall 2012

To study the effect of same gender scientist role models on the attitudes of students towards science.

To improve the interest level of students who would other wise stay clear of science because of past negative experiences.

To show students there is some one just like them studying science or involved in STEM careers.

Purpose

Who? 11th grade earth science students

Where? HS CTEA (a technical high school in Queens.)

Out of the approximately 100 students participating in this study, 28 are females and the rest males.

The majority of the student sample being males is a major limitation of the study, however at the same time it could have a more interesting effect on the results.

Meet the participants…

To conduct this study students’ will complete a project on a chosen scientist. But first they must complete a pre-assessment

Pre- Assessment Questions: How do you feel about science? Why? How do you envision a scientist? Draw how you picture a scientist to look

How will this be tested?

Male Unstable Odd Evil Crazy hair

The Stereotypical Scientist

Women in Science

Students will be asked to choose a scientist from a list knowing none of them previously.

The idea is to have the student’s research different scientists on the lists and determine the reasoning behind the choice.

In the project students will create a mock Facebook page poster for the scientist.

Placing themselves in the shoes of the scientists the student must imagine who they would be friends with, what groups they would be in, what their interests would be, etc.

The Project Design:

After the submission of the project, there will be a gallery walk around the room giving students an opportunity to either like or friend the different scientist’s pages.

This will hope to show what gender groups they would gravitate towards and why.

During the gallery walk I will be keep track of what they like by assigning the students different colored post-its or markers to like the pages or friend the scientist. At the end I will organize the data in a chart.

What happens next?

1. Students will reflect on their project/scientist and why they chose the person they did.

2. Did this research affect your vision of a scientist?

3. Did this improve your attitude towards science?

4. Did this project make you change your ideas on potential job opportunities?

Post Assessment Questions and Reflection

Day 1: Students will complete the pre-assessment questions and turn them in for evaluation.

Day 2: Students will choose a lesser known scientist from the list provided to them. This will include time for them to research names on the list.

Day 3: Students will submit their choices to prevent students from choosing all the same one and cheating but also being careful to keep track of who they originally picked if this becomes a problem.

Day 4-10: Students will have 1 week to complete this project.

Day 11: Students will submit the project and prepare for gallery walk and presentation of their scientist.

Day 12: Post Assessment Reflection and Questions

Schedule

Qualitative Analysis: Pre- assessment questions will be analyzed and

predictions will be made about their choices in scientists. In addition their drawings will be collected for correlations among visions of a scientist.

During the Gallery walk I will be making observations on the behaviors of the students and the choices of “Facebook friends” they make. In addition I will be drawing conclusions based on these observations.

Post assessment questions will be analyzed to observe the changes in attitudes of the students towards science and how the project affected their career paths.

Data Analysis

Quantitative Analysis: Will be creating a data chart to keep track

of trends among student choices in addition to a graph.

How do the results reflect the student population?

Data Analysis

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Femal

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BoysGirls

Positive relationship between girls and female scientist choices.

Girls who chose female scientist improve their attitudes about science and their ability and interest in like fields.

Boys who chose female scientist gain a greater appreciation for women in science.

Wishful Thinking

“ A Scientist Can Be Anyone!” Oral Histories of Scientists Can Make “Real Science”

Accessible to Youth By: Jrene Rahm and Jayne Downey

What does the literature say?

• This article discusses the stereotypical notions on science and scientists and how these stereotypes have prevented students from seeing themselves as scientists.

• The article provides a description of a study of a group of inner city kids and the effect of meeting and interviewing a select group of scientists.

• The kids in the study chose the questions to ask and what type of scientists they wanted to meet.

• Scientists were chosen by the researchers in the hard and applied scientists while also balancing gender and ethnicity.

• This activity taught students that scientists are real people with normal lives

• Offers a deeper and more realistic view of science

The Why Chromosome How teachers gender affects boys and girls

By: Thomas Dee This article discussed the gender gap in education This article will be used for the purpose of historical

context and the affect of teachers and role models. The article sought to prove that girls would do better with

a science teacher of the same gender as well as boys. “One theory asserts that teachers Gender shapes the

communication between teacher and pupil, while another says that teacher acts as a gender-specific role model.”

“A teacher like me”

What does the literature say?

Young Women’s Science/ Mathematics Career Goals From Seventh Grade to High School Graduation

by: Patricia Van Leuvan The Author of this study examined changes in the educational and

career goals of 66 young women who completed surveys in Grades 7-12.

Participants in this study identified the desirable and undesirable aspects of mathematics and science based careers.

This survey (questionnaire) was used to understand that characteristics that do or do not attract women from these fields.

The primary goal of this study was to a. describe and examine girls/ degree-level expectations and career aspirations from the junior to senior high school years.b. Identify factors that either contributed to or decreased their interests in math or science based careers

What does the literature say?

Young Women’s Science/ Mathematics Career Goals From Seventh Grade to

High School Graduation by: Patricia Van Leuvan

Young Women’s Science/ Mathematics Career Goals From Seventh Grade to

High School Graduation by: Patricia Van Leuvan

Gender Stereotypes about Mathematics and Science and Self-Perceptions of Ability in Late childhood and early adolescenceBy: B. Kurtz-Costes, S. Rowley, A. Harris-Britt and T. Woods

“One purpose of this study was to test hypothesized linkages among children’s perceptions of adult stereotypes, children’s own stereotypes, and their perceived competence in mathematics and science.”

Girls in the study reported lower self-competence in those domains than boys.

The Self-concepts of boys were enhanced by the adult stereotypes favoring boys over girls.

What does the literature say?

ANY QUESTIONS????