Learning Goal: First, the participants will gain experience in using the scientific method as applied to the fields of science and engineering. Second, the participants will gain a sense of accomplishment at GirlScience. This will provide them with the confidence to participate on a more level playing field with boys when they return to their traditional mixed-sex classrooms.
Challenges: At this age, many girls who achieve high grades in science begin to express negative attitudes toward science as they struggle with pressures to conform to socially accepted gender roles. Research shows that this change in attitude may be counteracted through a network of supportive peers and adult role models. When participants leave the GirlScience program, we aim to provide them with tools such as blogs and web pages to help them maintain connections and friendships.
Rationale: According to the National Center for Education Statistics, women receive about 50% of the degrees awarded in math, and 60% of the biology degrees. However, women recieve only 20% of those awarded in engineering, and 40% of degrees in physics. There are many hypotheses to explain these differences. The foremost hypothesis is that the life sciences are perceived as more nurturing, and therefore more feminine and appropriate for women to study.
The lack of women in the physical sciences and engineering both reflects and constructs a gendered view of science and a bias in the scientific community. Rectifying this bias will require change in the way educators teach science as well as change in the way students perceive science. In order to initiate change in the way students perceive science, GirlScience hopes to give girls confidence to participate in areas of science that may have appeared closed to them.
Theory: Simpkins, Davis-Kean, & Eccles conducted a study which concluded that positive experiences in science during the middle childhood years create positive beliefs about science. Students who hold positive beliefs about science are more likely to take advanced science courses in high school. For this reason GirlScience will provide middle school girls with positive science experiences.
Fredricks and Eccles performed a study that found adolescents benefit most from extracurricular activities when they experience accomplishment, recognition, support from peers and adults, and a feeling that they are a valued member of a community. For this reason, GirlScience will provide girls with a strong community during the program, and tools to continue those relationships over a distance through blogs and web pages.
Norton and Wiburg wrote in Designs for Knowledge that "Teaching the disciplines as 'ways to think' about experience has more lasting consequences than teaching 'about' the disciplines." For this reason, GirlScience will provide participants with experience using the scientific method in the physical sciences and engineering.
Educational Units:
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Each session of the GirlScience program lasts three weeks. The first week will be an introduction to the scientific method, relevant math skills, computer programming, and the physical sciences. Girls will also explore tastes of different areas of engineering. At the end of the first week, the girls will choose an area of engineering that appeals to them: mechanical, chemical, electrical, or computer science. During the second week, the girls will learn about the cutting edge ideas in each area of engineering, and how they can apply them to projects of their own design. In the third week, girls will form groups and use what they've learned about engineering and the scientific method to design and present their own projects.
Sample Lesson Plans with Technology:
Rollercoaster Tycoon 3
Fractint and Building a fractal
Data analysis with Microsoft Excel
Introduction to blogging
Top Figures: A physics lesson
