My staff and I are very proud of all the young girls in the Pittsburgh area that are partaking in activities to become the healthcare practitioners, engineers, scientists and researchers of the future!
The Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematic (STEM) Education Coalition does fantastic work in encouraging children and young adults of both genders to pursue their interests in these fields. Director of STEM programs at the Carnegie Science Center Linda Ortenzo and Ellis School spokeswoman Kitty Julian are quoted in this WESA article about lingering stereotypes in the math and science fields:
There’s an old notion that girls are not as good at math and science as boys. That thought still persists today even among teachers – according to a study by the University of Texas. Girls and educators in the Pittsburgh region are working against that stereotype.
“Girls can do anything that guys can do, and maybe even better…especially science,” was the answer given by a group of girls at Carnegie Science Center’s Click! Camp for Girls, when asked if they thought boys were better at math and science.
On a summer day, campers were testing water quality in the Ohio River. The girls, broken into small groups, collect water samples. After the water collection, they follow directions to test for things such as PH, or acidity, and dissolved oxygen levels.
Teacher Bias
A recent University of Texas study found a prevailing notion among high school teachers that white girls were not as skilled in the subjects as white boys, even when evidence to the contrary, such as test scores, was presented. In contrast, teachers rated minority students of both genders as less adept at math and science than white students, but that idea disappeared once actual grades were taken into account. So why does the idea persist for white females? Part of it may be interest.
“When you look at the research, girls are just as interested as boys, if not slightly more than, all the way up until about fourth grade. Around middle school we see a drop in the interest in students in general in math and science, but for girls it is a precipitous fall off a cliff,” said Linda Ortenzo, director of STEM programs at Carnegie Science Center.
STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. There many reasons that interest declines, among them are the images girls see of themselves in their everyday lives.
“There’s that whole idea that girls who are smart in math and science might seem less attractive to boys. There’s also this lack of female mentorship at a very critical time,” said Ortenzo.
In addition, there’s something called “stereotype threat” at play.
“Culturally girls believe they’re not supposed to be as good as boys at math and science and girls are particularly susceptible to stereotype threat. So the idea is, if you tell a girl or you convey unconsciously to a girl that she’s not going to be as good as boys at math and science, then she will behave as if she is not,” said Kitty Julian, a spokeswoman for the all-girls Ellis School in Pittsburgh.
Read the full article here: http://wesa.fm/2012/08/20/pittsburgh-girls-battle-age-old-stereotype-females-arent-good-math-and-science-boys
