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Seventeen years ago, I walked into the classroom for the first time as a teacher. The very first assignment that I put in front of students was to draw a picture of a scientist doing their work. I was shocked at the results of that activity. I taught in a very diverse school and yet all but one student drew a picture of a scientist that suspiciously looked like Albert Einstein--older (as seen by white, wild hair), white, and male. Each year of my career I have revisited this activity and slowly over time, I have seen more and more diversity creep into the pictures drawn by my students. This year was no exception.
What was different today, however, was what I did to discuss my students drawings. Today we collected demographic data on the scientists that my students drew--their gender, age, race, and field of study. Again, the majority of students drew scientists who were old, white, and male. Students then discussed four key questions: 1) What are the patterns in this data? 2) Why do you think these patterns were observed? 3) What does this data make you wonder? 4) Do you think this data is representative of science today? Why or why not? As students discussed these questions, they brought up repeatedly that the only scientists they felt like they see in pop culture were white men. They also discussed that they felt that science was starting to open up to more diverse communities, so the demographics were slowly changing. This lead us into our question of the day--what are scientists and engineers really like? To answer this question, each student selected a STEM professional from the Secret Lives of Scientists and Engineers from NOVA and created a trading card for their subject. Students were amazed at the wide variety of topics studied to the cool secret lives that were discussed. Students then shared about their scientists with their classmates to learn about the diversity in the Scientific community. Following sharing, we once again collected demographic data and discussed the four key questions. This time, students began to open up that science needs all voices at the table and that they were hopeful for their generation to make this change. Students talked about how they all had the power to be STEM professionals if they believed they could. Talked turned to Charlottesville and that we should not exclude people in science because of any "-ism." We finished the lesson today by students creating their "secret" identify of what special gifts they bring to our science class. I discovered that I have world travelers, bilingual students, chefs, artists, programmers, gammers, and many, many other creative souls. By the end of the lesson, my heart was filled that my students saw themselves as scientists with gifts to bring to the table. This is the first step towards a positive, inclusive feel in our classroom. Interested in trying this lesson with your student? Check out the power point here!
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AuthorMrs. Noffsinger is the 8th Grade Science and Engineering educator. Archives
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Photos used under Creative Commons from Howdy, I'm H. Michael Karshis, r.nial.bradshaw