Filling the STEM Gap
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The document discusses the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields and provides potential reasons and solutions. It notes that while girls take as many math and science courses in high school as boys, fewer pursue STEM degrees. It explores factors such as beliefs that intelligence is fixed, gender stereotypes that associate males with STEM, lack of female role models, and implicit biases. The document recommends teaching a growth mindset, exposing girls to successful female STEM professionals, raising awareness of implicit biases, and encouraging spatial skills development from a young age to help address the gender gap in STEM.
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Filling the STEM Gap
- 1. Filling the STEM gap Stephanie Gillespie gtgradsweoutreach@gmail.com Material adapted from Dr. Christine Valle, Director, Women in Engineering Program
- 2. 2 Outline • My Background • Generational Fast Facts • Girls in STEM • Our Current Situation • Issues Women Face in STEM: – Beliefs about intelligence – Stereotypes – Self-Assessment – Spatial Skills – Implicit Bias • Conclusion and Action Items
- 3. 3 My Background • Undergraduate degree from University of Miami • Graduated as the only female electrical engineering in my class • Taught an engineering course to high school students at the Miami Science Museum • Third year Ph.D. student at Georgia Tech • Enrolled in Tech to Teaching Certificate Program • Goal is to be a professor and teach, focusing on student retention • Without SWE, I would not be an engineer • I had mentors and have mentored students that encourage me • Many of my friends (and my younger brother) switched out of engineering for various reasons
- 4. 4 Generational Fast Facts Generation Y/Millennials (1980-2004) • Key Characteristics – Tech-native, media-immersed, praised and raised for success, expectation of immediacy, good for me = good for everybody sense of entitlement, socially and environmentally conscious, flow between family/work/school/play • Values – Diversity, empowerment, belonging, connectivity, identity, creativity, experience, sharing • Greatest Hopes – Being (sorta) rich, being (totally) happy, being at the center of it all, being respected, making a difference Generation Z /Homeland Generation (2005+) • Note: This generation is still very young (still being born) • Key Characteristics – Tech-native, media-savvy, content creators, spiritual, pan-cultural, diversity as reality, pressured for academic success • Values – Creativity, individualism, freedom, relationship, authenticity, connectivity, personalization, trust, exploration, inclusiveness http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2014/10/27/introducing-the-homeland-generation-part-1-of-2/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/millennials_report.pdf http://www.valueoptions.com/spotlight_YIW/workforce.htm http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/gx-dttl-2014-millennial-survey-report.pdf
- 8. 8 The STEM Gap Fast Facts • By 2020, United States employers will create about 2.1 million jobs in (STEM) • Only 45 % of 2011 U.S. high school graduates were ready for college-level math • Only 30 % were prepared for college-level science. • Only 4.4 % of undergraduate degrees in the U.S. are awarded in engineering • The global average is 13 % • In China, 31% were engineering (2008) • Only 40% of those who declare STEM field will complete their degree http://www.pittsburghquarterly.com/index.php/Education/the-stem-gap.html
- 9. 9 Girls and STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math • We lose girls somewhere….. – In 4th grade about equal amounts express interest in STEM subjects – By 8th grade boys express more….. – Where did all the girls go? • It only takes a seed to plant a garden. Your insight may inspire a girl to pursue more classes in the area of science, math and engineering. • AAUW report “Why So Few?” at http://www.aauw.org/learn/research/whysofew.cfm
- 10. 10 STEM interest overall • Estimated 1 million more STEM jobs than we have professionals in next decade • <40% who choose a STEM degree stay and finish • Why do students leave? • High performing: uninspiring introductory courses • Low performing: difficulty in math required for the intro level classes • Minorities: unwelcoming atmosphere from faculty in STEM courses
- 11. 11 Our Current Situation Women are almost always below “critical mass”
- 12. 12 Its not about abilities… • Women take just as many math and science courses in high school as their male cohorts • Additionally, they actually get higher grades in the courses Grade Point Average in High School Mathematics and Science (Combined), by Gender, 1990–2005 Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2007, The Nation's Report Card: America's high school graduates: Results from the 2005 NAEP High School Transcript Study, by C. Shettle et al. (NCES 2007-467) (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office). Source: National Center for Education Statistics. (2007). Digest of Education Statistics.
- 13. 13 Beliefs about Intelligence • Math and Science is often “new” and considered difficult. • Dr. Dweck, Professor of Psychology, Stanford, focused on the mindset necessary for success in a STEM fields, and it benefits girls • In Asian cultures, the basis of success is generally attributed more to effort and less to inherent ability (Stevenson & Stigler, 1992) Fixed Mindset Growth Mindset Intelligence is static. Intelligence can be developed. Leads to a desire to look smart and therefore a tendency to Leads to a desire to learn and therefore a tendency to • avoid challenges • embrace challenges • give up easily due to obstacles • persist despite obstacles • see effort as fruitless • see effort as path to mastery • ignore useful feedback • learn from criticism • be threatened by others’ success • be inspired by others’ success
- 14. 14 Beliefs about Intelligence • WHAT TO DO: – Teach children that intellectual skills can be acquired – Praise children for effort – Highlight the struggle • EXAMPLES: • I didn’t do well on my math test. I hate math and am terrible at it. • Ask: Why didn’t you do well? • Create action plans: study time, homework check, log the effort • Student refuses to work on science fair project, saying they won’t win. • Ask: What have you already completed?? What parts do you enjoy? • Create action plans: student can set small goals, focus on what they enjoy
- 15. 15 Stereotypes • Professor of developmental, social and educational psychology, NYU • Two stereotypes: – Girls are not as good as boys in math – Scientific work is better suited to boys and men • Stereotype threat: self-fulfilling fear that one’s behavior will confirm an existing stereotype of a group with which one identifies • Discrepancy b/w higher grades and lower SAT scores Girls do every bit as well in their graded work [as] boys [do], but girls lose confidence as they advance through the grades and will start to do more poorly than boys on timed tests, despite getting good grades. On reason for this loss of confidence is stereotyping that kids are exposed to – in school and the media and even in the home – that portrays boys as more innately gifted [in math]. Without denying the fact that boys may have some biological advantage, I think that psychology plays a big role here. - Joshua Aronson
- 16. 16 Stereotypes and STEM http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/nov/19/-sp-barbie-can-be-a-computer-engineer-but-only-with-help-of-a-man http://voices.suntimes.com/arts-entertainment/the-daily-sizzle/where-are-the-female-engineers-in-volkswagens-super-bowl-ad-playing-with-goldieblox/ http://pgbovine.net/tech-privilege.htm At breakfast one morning, Barbie is already hard at work on her laptop. “What are you doing, Barbie?” asks Skipper. “I’m designing a game that shows kids how computers work,” explains Barbie. “You can make a robot puppy do cute tricks by matching up colored blocks!” “Your robot puppy is so sweet,” says Skipper. “Can I play your game?” “I’m only creating the design ideas,” Barbie says, laughing. “I’ll need Steven and Brian’s help to turn it into a real game!” I started programming when I was five, first with Logo and then BASIC…. Okay that entire paragraph was a lie. Did you believe me? If so, why? Was it because I looked like a kid programming whiz?
- 17. 17 Stereotypes • Threat is induced by having a larger ratio of men to women in a test (Inzlicht & Ben-Zeev, 2000) • WHAT TO DO: – Encourage students to have a growth mindset – Expose girls to successful role models in math and science – Teach girls about stereotype threat • EXAMPLES: • “I’m the only girl in my group. They took over because they knew so much more than I did on the topic already.” • Ask: Why do you think they know more than you? • Action: Find mentors, don’t be the group’s secretary, and make promise to speak up at least once on every topic with your opinion.
- 18. 18 Spatial Skills • Professor of mechanical engineering & engineering mechanics, Michigan Technological University • MS girls who take spatial visualization class also take more advanced math and science class in HS • WHAT TO DO: – Emphasize that spatial skills are not innate but developed – Encourage children to play with construction toys, draw, take things apart and put them back together again, and play games that involve fitting objects into different places Most engineering faculty have highly developed 3-D spatial skills and may not understand that others can struggle with a topic they find so easy. Furthermore, they may not believe that spatial skills can be improved through practice, falsely believing that this particular skill is one that a person is either “born with” or not. They don’t understand that they probably developed these skills over many years. - Sheryl Sorby
- 20. 20 Implicit Bias • Professor of social ethics, Harvard • Implicit bias encompasses stereotypic and prejudicial associations acquired from one’s socio-cultural environment/context • WHAT TO DO: – Take the Implicit bias test at https://implicit.harvard.edu – Raise awareness of implicit bias A widespread belief in American culture suggests that group membership should no constrain the choices and preferences of group members. Being a girl need not prevent one from becoming a police officer, senator, or mathematician. Being a boy need not prevent one from becoming a nurse, kindergarten teacher, or primary caregiver. In fact, all programs promoting equal opportunity seek the removal of external constraints for individual pursuits. Yet until the internal, mental constraints that link group identity with preference are removed, the patterns for self-imposed segregation may not change. - Brian Nosek, Mahzarin R. Banaji, and Anthony Greenwald
- 23. 23 Conclusion & Action Items • Spread the word about achievements in math and science, especially those by girls and women • Provide opportunities for your child to fix things and/or take stuff apart, around the house • Be on the lookout for teachers or school documents that reinforce implicit bias • Teach children that intellectual skills are acquired • Teach girls about stereotype threat, impostor syndrome, and a growth mindset • Encourage all students to take calculus, physics, chemistry, computer science, and engineering classes • Expose children to role models in STEM fields
- 24. 24 Other Outreach Opportunities at GT • GT SWE student section outreach: http://www.swe.gtorg.gatech.edu/ • Check out the Women in Engineering website for other events: www.coe.gatech.edu/wie • GT summer camps are available: – http://www.ceismc.gatech.edu/summerprograms/highsc hool
- 25. 25 Questions? Thank you for your time!
Editor's Notes
- Introduce title of presentation and ensure that Dr. Valle is credited for the original creation of some of the slides presenting the material.
- Explain your personal background here. I focus on my educational background and career goals, the fact that I was a minority in my engineering program, and the importance of SWE for my continued pursuit of an engineering degree.
- So this slide might make some of you in the audience feel old, so I won’t ask you where you fall in terms of the generational terms. Most of you are familiar with the terms “Baby Boomers,” “Generation X,” and “Millennials.” You can see in the chart, pulled from a whitehouse report in 2013, the age distribution of the population and their generational title. Why am I showing you this? Because it is important to understand the differences in your parent’s work expectations and values, your work expectations and values, and your children’s work expectations and values. Generation Y, also known as millennials, are the generation that was raised by Baby Boomers and early GenX, so they have been nurtured and protected. They grew up with phones, internet, cable tv always available, and thus are a tech-savvy generation that is used to immediacy. However, when we look at their core values, they believe they are special and feel that success is a must-have. However, their definition of success may not be based on the traditional values of financial and career stability and focuses instead on personal fulfillment and a sense of making a difference. Now, there are those of you with children in this room that might fall into this generation, and maybe some of what I have said resonances with you. Keep in mind these are general characteristics and each child will have his or her own sense of values. There may also be some of you in this room with children who are in the next generation. There hasn’t been a formal agreement on what to name the generation. Some call them Gen-Z due following the alphabet progression, while there is also the term Homeland Generation based off of the events of 9/11, creation of the homeland department, an increased sense of national pride, and other events. This generation is still a bit young so we don’t know what their greatest hopes are. However, it is clear that many of the tech and media-immersed traits are present with this generation as they were with the millennials, and they are also looking at diversity issues more and more. So bringing this all back to our goal of understanding STEM gap and gender bias, let’s remember that we can really consider those 18+ or 21+ to be considered as part of the work-force, and Deloitte has predicted that b 2025, 75% of the workforce will be millenials.
- I think many of you would agree that there is a society expectation, of a sort, that many high school graduates will continue on to college, be it for career preparation, self discovery, or the ability to “mature” while in the traditional college experience. However, there has also been a recent push to help evaluate the “worth” of college based on the tuition prices, student debt, and ultimately their job prospects and salary upon exiting. The next few slides were pulled from the White House infographics, and we can see that college is most definitely not “cheap” for the average household.
- As a part of the study, they compared who was actually attending college after high school graduation. You can see there is a 30% gap from the 52% of low-income students immediately enrolling and the 82% of high-income students.
- On top of entering college, the goal is to exit with the diploma. However, when they looked at completion rates, you can see only about 60% of students finished their program in 6 years. That is actually a larger time-frame than the traditional 4-year degree that many people associate with college. Consider that if your student starts at a community college, it often takes 2 years for the associate degree, and then 3-years to finish the bachelors after transferring to a larger university or college. This means that students are either dropping out early OR progressing more slowly through their coursework, though it is more often than not the drop-out rate.
- Now, let’s delve a little deeper into what it looks like for the STEM job market. The National Math + Science Initiative indicates that only 45 percent of 2011 U.S. high school graduates were ready for college-level math; in that same cohort, only 30 percent were prepared for college-level science. The U.S. Navy&apos;s STEM2Stern project reports that only 4.4 percent of undergraduate degrees in the U.S. are awarded in engineering; the global average is 13 percent. Our takeaway from this slide- there are jobs in STEM that aren’t able to be filled.
- Now looking to fill this workforce, we look at our upcoming students. However, we often see more men than women entering the field, and staying in the field. The American Association of University women (AAUW) completed a large study investigating this problem in 2010. The remainder of this presentation will highlight the findings for why women choose not to enter, and why they might choose to leave.
- With such great job prospects, why are students choosing not to stay in the field? The AAUW report found that it varied based on the type of student. Top-achievers often don’t feel inspired in their first-year classes; remember that this millennial generation is looking for social good. Physics and Calculus don’t bring that to life. Low performing students often find that math required is more than they expected and may not know where to look for help, or even how to ask for help. Minority students often attribute leaving due to the culture and atmosphere. While diversity in students is increasing and new-faculty hires focus on diversity, in general there is a large percentage of white males and asian males as the professoriate in STEM fields still.
- This slide show the percentage of women in some selected STEM fields, pulled from the Department of Labor’s resource on women in the workforce that is published annually. The numbers fluctuate a bit year to year, but the overall trend is really the same. STEM in general is lacking women, and engineering is the worst of it. You can see that starting at aerospace engineers and extending to the right side of the graph, women range from 7% to 17% of the field.
- So what can we do to encourage girls to pursue STEM? It all begins with how we treat them when something becomes difficult. If a student is having trouble and believes that they are having trouble because its something they will never learn or can’t learn, it block their ability to overcome the challenge and succeed. Dr. Dweck, a psychology professor out of Stanford, spent time investigating motivation in relation to mindset, and found that those with a growth mindset benefit in STEM fields. This is especially important in STEM fields where things are difficult and girls are often told “Well, you just might not get this topic, and that’s okay.”
- So what can you do to tackle these beliefs about intelligence? It starts with helping students understand that things may be hard, but if they work through it, they can become smarter and things will actually get easier. As an example, if your child doesn’t do well on a math test and claims to just be “bad at math”, you should start by asking why they didn’t do well, and pinpoint if it was a lack of effort, proper study skills, instruction item, a misunderstanding of a concept, etc. Similarly, if a student wants to give up on a their science fair project because they “won’t win anyways,” focus on creating an action plan of small goals that help them understand that they have made progress and can finish the large task by breaking it up into smaller ones.
- Under stereotype threat, the anxiety of potentially confirming negative stereotypes prevents the sufferer from fully demonstrating his or her ability. A case in point might be the findings discussed by Claude Steele, a professor of psychology at Stanford. His paper reviewed some of the research on &quot;identity contingencies,&quot; meaning &quot;things you have to deal with because of your social identity.&quot; One such contingency is what he called &quot;stereotype threat&quot; -- a situation in which an individual becomes aware of the risk that what you are doing will confirm some established negative quality associated with your group. And in keeping with the threat, there is a tendency to become vigilant and defensive. Steele did not just have a string of concepts to put up on PowerPoint. He had research findings on how stereotype threat can affect education. The most striking involved results from a puzzle-solving test given to groups of white and black students. When the test was described as a game, the scores for the black students were excellent -- conspicuously higher, in fact, than the scores of white students. But in experiments where the very same puzzle was described as an intelligence test, the results were reversed. The black kids scores dropped by about half, while the graph for their white peers spiked. The only variable? How the puzzle was framed -- with distracting thoughts about African-American performance on IQ tests creating &quot;stereotype threat&quot; in a way that game-playing did not. In STEM, we see two common stereotypes affecting girls. There is the common misconception that girls are not as good at boys in math (which the data proves otherwise). However, when we test their intelligence on a test and ask them to mark their gender, their test scores drop. Just asking them to differentiate themselves from the student population into male/female provides the boost for male students and a drop in female studnts. There is the additional misconception that science is better for men then women. We at SWE are living examples that this is not true, and as the workplace grows to promote diversity an inclusion, it is becoming easier to balance between work life and family life.
- So this slide is a compilation of some examples of stereotypes. There was a new Barbie book that came out in the last couple years and the top quote is an excerpt. In it, Barbie wants to create a videogame and has created a storyboard. However, she ends up needing the help of her two male peers to actually turn it into a real game. This has since been corrected, but the fact that this was published by a reputable manufacturer in a book that was supposed to encourage STEM shows just how far our stereotypes extend. A second example occurred during the 2014 Superbowl advertisements. Volkswagen was highlight their “every time a volkswagen passes 100,000 miles, an engineer gets his wings” campaign. However, only male engineers were seen receiving their wings, and there was an apparent lack of diversity (gender and racial) in the add. There was actually a scene from which I’ve taken the picture on the right- the lone female engineer in the commercial is in the elevator with her male coworker as he earns his wings. As they sprout, the wings end up hitting her on her rear end, and she gives the cowork a startled look. VW received quite a bit of backlash for the ad, and released a followup ad highlighting the female engineers, but the damage was already done for every young girl who was watching the superbowl that year. The last example I pulled is from a blog of a STEM graduate. He posts the picture on the left, and begins the blog post by highlighting his extensive programming experience starting from an unusually young age. However, the second paragraph he questions if you believed him or not, just because of the picture. In fact, the computer was his Dad’s for work, they had him take a photo with it because it was brand new, and he didn’t learn to program until college. When he had trouble, he received backlash that programming should be easy for him because he is an Asian male. The examples go on and on, but the point here is that the media does not help promote diversity in the STEM workplace. With every small occurance of this that someone encounters, their stereotype is reinforced whether they are aware of it or not.
- So what can you do? The main this is to make girls aware of the fact that the stereotypes exist, but that they are not true. Show them the AAUW report with the data showing that girls take the math and science courses and do well. Introduce her to mentors that are in the workforce and can talk to what they do in a typical day. When girls feel isolated they are less likely to want to be involved (again, going back to the millennial needs for social connectedness). So when she comes home and says that the boys are leading the group project, help her understand her knowledge is valuable and help her to feel confident to contribute.
- Another important factor that can contribute to women leaving STEM is spatial skills. Engineering faculty are experts, and sometimes forget what it is like to be a novice. In general, girls haven’t yet had a chance to develop spatial skills the same way the boys in their classes have due to a difference in hobbies and toys growing up. If they are exposed early, they do well. But when they don’t have the chance to develop those skills, they encounter a challenge and may not know how to overcome it without support. So as a parent, if your child is interest (and sometimes even if they aren’t), you can provide them with opportunities to learn these skills.
- Here are just a few examples of toys out on the market that can help develop spatial skills. Some are more traditional (the catapult and K’Nex rollercoaster set), but there are also toys that aren’t as traditional that mix the “classic” interests of girls that include doll houses and the arts.
- Is there an objective function for merit? Records from major US symphony orchestras from 1970-1996: audition data from 14,000 individuals show the use of a screen increases the probability that a woman will advance from preliminary rounds by 50%. the switch to blind auditions accounts for 30% of the increase in the proportion of women among the new hires (Goldin & Rouse (2000) “The American Economic Review”, 90(4), 715-741) Implicit bias is the idea that group membership contributes traits (both good and bad) and you change your expectations on someone because of this. While some of this is based on evolution, a lot has to do with how we are raised. Yes, traditionally the men were the hunters. However, that doesn’t mean that today, all men are strong, capable of providing fresh meat to the dinner table. As an example of just how prevalent this is, I encourage all of you to take the implict bias test available above. Additionally, just raising awareness of this bias will help you and others to be aware of your own thoughts and reduce how often you apply the characteristics of a label to someone.
- One easy example of this is based on the toy market. The figure on the left was the top recommended toys at Target for the 2014 Christmas Seasons for girls age 12-14. You’ll see an inflatlble chair, a karaoke machine, and a fashion design kit. Are these really the “top sellers” that you think every girl wants to receive for the holidays? On the right, I’ve included a letter that circulated on the internet a few times that was originally from Lego in the 1970’s. Their letter states that some girls may prefer spaceships and some boys may prefer dolls, but they should all be given the chance to explore their interests.
- [TIME PERMITTING] This video clip that I have next shows how teachers, mentors, and parents helped influence the top names in STEM.
- We encourage your SWE group to include links to other STEM outreach activities or programs available in the area to help parents find other opportunities for their children who are interested in STEM. As a tip, always check your links prior to sending out a presentation to ensure that secondary party links are still available and functioning.