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