Critical Pedagogy in STEMThe Need for SJ in STEM Fields
Women make up 48% of the U.S. workforce but, hold only 24% of STEM
jobs
The gap starts early. According to an American Society for Quality
poll of 8- to 17-year olds, 24% of boys said they were interested
in an engineering career, versus 5% of girls.
In grades 4, 8 and 12 the average scores of white and Asian/Pacific
Island students have consistently been higher than the average
scores of Black, Hispanic and American Indian students.
Discussion on Discovery
Many discoveries in STEM are attributed to Male, Western
individuals
Some have roots from, Middle Eastern, Egyptian, Chinese, African,
and many other non-western civilizations
Zero
Social Problem Sets
Problem sets that can raise Social Issues, give marginalized groups
role models, have basis in reality and mitigate/minimize
differences in capability for groups.
EXAMPLE: In the August 2011 in Olomouc, Czech Republic
Jackie Cristiansen, a male amputee from Denmark, recorded the
world record for the Paralympic games in shot put at 18.38m.
Comparatively, the world record in the Olympics set in 1990
by
Randy Barnes of the USA is 23.12m. Assuming both throw at an
optimal angle to maximize distance what is this angle? and
what
is the release velocity each shot-putter?
Why this is a social justice problem:
Both throw at 45° to maximize distance. Jackie throws at 13.4m/s
and Randy at 15.1m/s, this minimal difference can be discussed in
class to attribute more value to students and persons with
disability. As a nice bonus Jackie’s name can be used to spur a
discussion on breaking gender roles/standards.
Interest Based Problem Sets
Introduction note cards
“Popsicle Stick day”
Questions based on current interests of students that can cause
students to think about content in their out of school
activities
Social Justice in Math
Standardized Testing - Because of the No child Left Behind (NCLB)
pressure, it is challenging to avoid "teaching towards the test."
However, it is possible to prepare students for such exams and
still teach about social justice.
Lets discover how we can do this..
Who’s Being Left Behind?
Discuss with students after the lesson:
- How students’ test scores are related to their
income level?
or his race?
- How a students’ race is related to her or his
test scores?
Where does the counter hegemony come in?
After students have come across their discoveries in this lesson, I
ask them to write what they would say to the U.S. Department of
Education about the change they think needs to be made to have
equal education among all students.
We will paste our favorite quotes from each of our pieces onto a
poster board along with other visuals we made (graphs), and hang it
in the front lobby of our school.
Where does the counter hegemony come in?
We will not stop there, my students will take all of their ideas
and formulate it into one strong letter that we as a class will
send to the U.S. Department of Education.
Issues discussed in Energy
WebQuest - Finding the Funding
In a group of 3-5 find information about the distribution of
funding for energy resources
Answer the following
these inequities are present?
Who does this impact?
Where does the counter hegemony come in?
By students tracking the funding of energy sources they discover
the inequities in funding for new developments in sciences.
Students in groups will be asked to create a blog site discussing
the impact this has on poverty both immediate (tax breaks), long
term/environmental (hydrofracking, CO2 emissions, global
warming)
Using information they collect in the blogs students will be asked
to appeal to the local politicians in email discussing their view
points.
Resources
Digest of Education Statistics. (2011, September). Retrieved
April 16, 2013, from National Center for Education
Statistics:http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d11/tables/dt11_153.asp
Slashinski, M. J. (2004, January). Girls and Science, Math
and Engineering. Retrieved April 21, 2013, from Girls Incorporated:
http://www.girlsinc.org/downloads/GirlsandSME.pdf
Social Justice Math. (2007). Retrieved April 16, 2013, from
RadicalMath:
http://www.radicalmath.org/main.php?id=SocialJusticeMath
Resources
Troutman, J. R. (2007). Who's Being Left Behind? Retrieved April
16, 2013, from RadicalMath:
http://www.radicalmath.org/docs/Standardized_Troutman.pdf
APS Physics. (n.d.). Percentage of African Americans earning
bachelor's degrees in stem fields.. Retrieved from
http://www.aps.org/programs/education/statistics/upload/Fraction-of-AA-by-major-
PDF.pdf
Obama for America, Women and girls in stem. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://obama.3cdn.net/82ce05f57fd4b2e06d_biw7mvq1a.pdf
Resources
EKGclasses.com 15 female scientist who changed the world. (n.d.).
Retrieved from http://www.ekgclasses.org/15-
female-scientists-who-changed-the-world/
DeKosky, R. (n.d.). Introduction: History of science in
non-western traditions. Retrieved from
http://www.hssonline.org/publications/NonWesternPub/introchapters.html