This class has opened my mind to the incredible impact that STEM Education can have on our society. I do not work in an institution that has a STEM program. I work at a preschool; this makes my practice of any type of STEM program extremely limited. However, it is a private school. All my students come from households where one or both of their parents are professionals. These professionals want their children to be academically prepared for school. This means we must academically, mentally, and emotionally prepare them for their future schooling. I teach my students how to be a functioning participant in a classroom while exploring mathematics, science, art, history, literature and pre-writing. Puzzles, counting, shapes, measuring, etc. are on the daily agenda. Science is a huge part of our curriculum. Science in the …show more content…
We base our curriculum off of the expectations of Common Core and STEM. Working in compliance with such standards, creates a learning environment that indirectly adheres with STEM Education standards. After thoroughly studying STEM education, achievement gaps, expectations, and the impact of mentorship, I believe I have a solid understanding of what STEM is and how to use the principles it teaches to propel my students to success.
Humans make judgements and assumptions almost constantly. This is an extremely difficult habit to break in the classroom. With my students, I feel that I can see their strengths and weaknesses rather quickly. It is easy to get caught up in my own perception of each student and not give them the credit and opportunities they deserve. Recently, I have started to evaluate my thoughts and actions, I have discovered some of the gender biases I tend to operate under. I believe that little girls can sit and do academic work easier because they do not have as much energy as little boys. This bias has been proven completely true and completely false at times. I have one
Society itself teaches us how our mindset is supposed to be. Children are being taught a certain idea at an early age. If children are taught at an early age about a certain idea, as adults, they will believe that the idea is true. In her article Reflections on Gender and Science, Evelyn Keller states that it was common to hear teachers, scientist, and parents say that women cannot and should not be a scientist (77). According to this idea, women lacked the strength, rigor, and clarity of mind that one needs to be a scientist. Only men had those characteristics, which is why science should be for men. If a child is taught that idea at a young age, he or she grows up believing it’s true. The people that interact with the children the most are the ones that have
Modern society is typically split into a strict gender dichotomy of males and females. Each gender has a set of socially constructed roles and stereotypes that determine how each individual is viewed and treated in society. As I have progressed through school, I have noticed that expectations for females differed from their male counterparts. In school and at home, girls are typically expected to be more well-behaved and studious than boys. Since girls are beginning to attend college more than boys, society expects more girls than boys to pursue a college education. I have probably internalized these expectations and inadvertently used them as motivation for success. In some ways, my gender has also put me at a disadvantage in school. From a young age, many girls are coddled and encouraged to act nicely (Conley 130). They are expected to be caring, loving, and quiet. Being raised as a female has ingrained these tendencies into my personality and behavior patterns. Therefore, in
As we went through each chapter of our book it would remind me of situations I already observed or would see that week. The more I learned about the educational theories I was able to see certain situations in a new light and it highlighted the differences I saw in the ages groups and different classes. The use of different motivation methods that were utilized by the teachers was great; most of them I didn’t realize were motivators until later and the one motivator I thought I understood was a reinforcer. I did see how the teacher’s preconceived ideas about students because of the type of community they are affected the students most of the time not positively. Some students were quickly disciplined and others were allowed to get away with similar offences with no comment all because of the relationship the teachers had with the families involved or the town gossip about them. I could see that this was negatively reinforcing the bad behaviors in both students. This made me aware of checking my own preconceived ideas and trying to judge the children based on what I have learned about how students learn. Overall I do believe the goals of the STEM camp were met and this has taught me to use multiple approaches to keep students engaged and
When children experience gender bias at an early age, not only can affect their development but it can affect their behavior, beliefs, and relationship with others. Children learn by what they see their parents do or what is acted out in their communities. Studies have shown, not only do children experience gender bias at an early age but that they also learn to stereotype as early as the age of three years old.
This can lead to students having low self-esteem when they are wrongfully judged. According to “Charity Reveals Gender Discrimination in Schools,” 36% of women believe their gender to be less confident in putting themselves forward for leadership roles. This article also states that women feel the men still dominate classroom discussions. These feelings that they have may be related to how women have been judged as lesser in the past and that may still be around however it is much less prevalent and intensional, now it is just a subconscious idea. When people are judged based on race it can be much more stereotypical and discriminatory. African Americans have been given very negative stereotypes as stupid, lazy, childlike, criminal, savage, and sexually promiscuous. This can be traced to an English and African contact in the sixteenth century. Those stereotypes became entrenched throughout American society and were used to justify slavery, discrimination, and segregation” (James R. Moore). The way these stereotypes have been place so far back and then have still continued to be thought of today is not good. People are judged based on their race from things thought of hundreds of years ago. By 2020 it is expected that students of different ethnicities will make up 50% of the classes in elementary and primary schools. And with they way these groups are judged this may cause a lot of discrimination and prejudice against them. With these numbers growing the idea of judging people must be looked at. If students are made more aware of the how there are unknowingly judging and assigning stereotypes to people causing them to be treated
The gender gap that results in the absence of women in STEM is progressive and persistent. Not only is this an issue of equity, but a lack of female participation in STEM results in a lack of diversity among perspectives regarding solutions to problems and other scientific endeavors. The gender gap in STEM can be seen as the result of several factors including teacher bias in the classroom, a chilly climate from male colleagues as they progress through their careers, little societal support for wanting a career and a family, lacking role models in their study of interest, and an overall lack of science preparation when it comes to pursuing a STEM career.
Mr. Grover has spent the last two decades with PCS working in the field of education designing, developing, and creating learning programs and services intended to facilitate student-centered, experiential learning. PCS programs are now deployed in over 7,000 sites in all 50 United States and 13 countries, bringing hands-on, engaging activities to students in public and private schools, science centers, and after-school programs. Mr. Grover has extensive experience in STEM education and has worked closely with a variety of organizations to design, implement, and study successful, hands-on STEM programs including the United States Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, the YMCA, the US
This hidden curriculum of lessons endured in the everyday functioning of the classroom where teachers are unaware of their own biased teaching behaviors for the sake their diligent duties as teachers. These teachers are applying their teaching based on how they obtained it. In the younger age, the learning environment is feminine since the adult females outnumber the male teachers. Teachers present curricular materials that contain gender stereotype behavior which the students internalize and exhibit these behaviors which in turn guide their own behaviors and preferences. In these institutions, teachers receive little training in combating gender stereotypes of their own and others and as a consequence, teachers often model, reinforce and lay the foundation for gender role differentiation among their
I envision a program that allows minority students in high school involved with STEM to mentor minority students in elementary school. This interaction provides young students with role models with similar cultural and ethnic backgrounds. It converts the possibility of a future in science from a geeky, unfeasible option to an exciting, realistic goal. Schools and organizations would need to help provide the resources necessary to build curricular and extracurricular programs targeting these minority students. Mentors help young students complete projects different projects, such as coding a simple progr...
Unfortunately gender biases still exist in classrooms and boys seem to benefit from them more than girls. The Sadker’s research shows that teachers tend to call on boys more than girls. They say this is because boys are more assertive and demand more attention by speaking out of turn to the teacher (Weiss, 2001). When girls call out answers it is shown teachers are more likely to point out their inappropriate behavior and not answer them, where boys generally do not get redirected and get better feedback from the teachers than girls do. Boys may also tend to have more interactions with teachers than girls and are more likely to dominate the classroom (Ryan & Cooper, 2000). Teachers have also been shown to praise boys for doing we...
STEM, also known as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, is the field that is advancing at a rapid rate. Within STEM, there are many occupations across the four fields. As years go on, more and more people start to have a growing interest in STEM, but this can’t be said for women. Women almost take up half of the workforce, but when it comes to STEM, women only take about 24%, almost half of the women aren’t participating in STEM. The numbers continue to get worse. From 2000 - 2009, the numbers have remained at a constant 24%. At this rate, employers could potentially see a decline in women’s representation, but there have been efforts to change this rate (Beede et al par. 6). This could mean disastrous problems in the world as more problems will arise and there’s nothing to be done because companies are non-diverse and
Teachers and all stakeholders in the students’ academic career must believe that all students can learn equally. The climate of our classroom and the teaching strategies we employ must provide an equitable opportunity for all students. In doing so, we must “value and respect the experiences that students bring from their background, articulate students’ background knowledge with disciplinary knowledge, and offer sufficient school resources to support student learning.
One of the main issues today 's students face is the act of being given gender roles and experiencing gender bias. To further explain, "Society treats boys and girls differently and expects them to develop different gender-role identities" (87). Throughout the gender section of the book, there are several examples given on how boys and girls are divided and given gender specific roles. For instance, girls are told that “Women aren’t good at math” and boys are told “Men don’t make good nurses” (87). These stereotypes affect the thinking of the students and later become obstacles when deciding careers. One way I would promote gender equality as a teacher is by completely eliminating the use of stereotypes in my classroom. This change will be accomplished by doing group activities and assignments in the classroom which avoid gender bias. It is important for students to have an equal opportunity to achieve their goals and follow their dreams. Sadly, when we expose our students to specific tasks and activities with respect to their gender, we limit their chances of having an optimistic approach towards their higher education and
In the first chapter of STEM Lesson Essentials, it asks you to write down your own definition of STEM education. Here’s what I wrote: STEM education is interdisciplinary lessons engaging the students in real life scenarios through hands on activities and explorations. Although I had not yet been properly given the direct definition till further in the chapter on page four. I was surprised to find that I was not that far off from what was given as the “real” definition. It states that some of us may have even been a STEM teacher at some point in their teaching career with out even knowing it. Looking back on my teaching, I believe this to be true for most of us at some point.
Education is man’s most valuable possession: it is the concept through which one’s love for learning stems, and the equipment used to pave an individual’s path to success. Although easily influenced by the opinions of others, education is one of the few concepts that neither internal nor external stress can strip from our being. The future of our society lies in the hands of our educators; the values and morals instilled by such figures govern the actions of the earth’s people.