The study involves having students first assess their views of science and scientists, then research and develop a mock Facebook page for a scientist of their choosing. Students will view each other's scientist pages and their choices will be analyzed to see if same-gender scientists are preferred

1. By: Lisa Bruno
Fall 2012

2.  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.

3.  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.

4.  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

5.  Male
 Unstable
 Odd
 Evil
 Crazy hair

7.  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.

8.  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.

9. 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?

10.  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

11. 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.

12. 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?
5
4
3
Boys
2
Girls
1
0
Male Scientist Female Scientist

13.  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.

14. “ A Scientist Can Be Anyone!” Oral Histories of
Scientists Can Make “Real Science” Accessible to
Youth By: Jrene Rahm and Jayne Downey
• 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

15. 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”

16. 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

17. Young Women’s Science/ Mathematics Career
Goals From Seventh Grade to High School
Graduation
by: Patricia Van Leuvan

18. Young Women’s Science/ Mathematics Career
Goals From Seventh Grade to High School
Graduation
by: Patricia Van Leuvan

19. Gender Stereotypes about Mathematics and Science and Self-Perceptions of
Ability in Late childhood and early adolescence
By: 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.

20. ANY QUESTIONS????