Telling Our Stories...

Image Source: Science Diversity Group, USC Berkley

Topics: American Association of Physics Teachers, Diversity, Diversity in Science, Economy, Education, STEM, Women in Science

It's usually left to women teachers and people of color: African American, Asians, Hispanic/Latino to publicize or relate any information about specific characters or celebration months. I would have loved to participate in the American Association of Physics Teachers/AIP’s Teaching Guides on Women and Minorities in the Physical Sciences and participate in giving them feedback.

This blog started when I was employed as a physics and math teacher. It was a convenience to pull something up and project it on the screen in class, especially if it related to diversity. Some of my former students have found me on the Internet and in this format, I still "teach" them. I continue it universally for kids curious about science; adults that want to learn about STEM fields and teachers that can use my posts during African American History Month, Women's History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month as material or as a warm-up "hook" (it's kind of important for teenagers).

Our stories are the stories of this country; the inventions contributed by those who were deemed not worthy to produce anything at all contributed impacting, ground-breaking discoveries. They are under assault by the homophobic; racist; the sexist the xenophobic that would divide us and make "United States" an oxymoron. Ignoring our diversity will NOT bring us together as I've heard someone emphasize on the campaign trail: learning accurate histories eliminates ignorance, and ignorance is the father of intolerance.

We've come a long way, and we still have much further to go if we possess the courage for the journey. As a nation, we're in this together. Concrete, real world solutions, not soundbites and sloganeering - are what we need.

Nine teachers from California, Texas, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, and Massachusetts participated, representing public and private elementary, middle, and high schools. They critiqued AIP’s Teaching Guides, digging deeply into some of the lesson plans, and offered ideas for how to include the stories of female and African American role models in a hands-on classroom. During the workshop, the teachers learned many things, including:

• Students should know about several influential scientists such as Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Inge Lehmann, Mildred Dresselhaus, Sylvester James Gates, Jr., and Neil deGrasse Tyson.

• Antinepotism laws kept women with PhDs from working at the same institutions as their husbands until the mid-20th century.

• Women astronomers observed at Harvard Observatory before 1900.

• Women worked on the Manhattan Project, at NASA, and in computing.

• The first African American to obtain a PhD in physics was in 1876 (Edward Bouchet, Yale).

• African-American physicists first found employment outside of historically Black colleges and universities with the US military, with NASA, and in other government scientific agencies.

American Institute of Physics:
Telling the stories of women and African Americans in the physical sciences
Scientific American:
Diversity in Science: Why It Is Essential for Excellence, Fred Guterl