What have you done to build your students' science identity? Do you have another resource to share about this topic from your discipline?

I make great pains to include diverse people in the slides and videos I show in class both traditional and online. I particularly focus on females and remind my classes that geoscience is a very diverse scientific community that would welcome them. It was very cool seeing Katharine Hayhoe featured in the PPT file because I use her as an example often. We know each other and have had many conversations. She is a great messenger for climate change because she is a female scientist who can reach the faith-based communities. Many of my students think religion and science are mutually exclusive and she is very adept at putting that myth to rest. BTW, her name is spelled incorrectly in the PPT. Katharine and not Katherine. Oops!

What might you apply and/or adapt in your teaching?

I will try to use the people featured in the PPT and add Science Spotlight as HW assignments next fall.

Overall, our dept is diverse with about a 50/50 split in gender and several international backgrounds. We have been trying for years to hire and African American scientist but so far we have not been able to locate a qualified candidate.

It was very cool seeing Katharine Hayhoe featured in the PPT file because I use her as an example often. She is a great messenger for climate change because she is a female scientist who can reach the faith-based communities. BTW, her name is spelled incorrectly in the PPT. Katharine and not Katherine. Oops!

I have three female students out of 50 in the courses I'm teaching this semester, for example.

So Polly has been finding some science spotlights we can use in our courses and I've been posting them also-- they are all about geologists that are not the typical 'white, male, elder' stereotype-- in light of Black History Month we are highlighting black geologists as well.

She has also been sending them to ALL the geology faculty (part time and full time) so all they need to do is copy and paste into their classes.

I really need to convert this into a homework activity or group activity (or something they can create and post like a video or slideshow). It could easily be an extra credit project as well... I could incorporate a scientist spotlight for each unit (find someone that works in the field of study that we happen to work on).

Polly created a 'meet your professors' video introducing us to them (we are team teaching the historical lectures and labs online this semester) so we are sharing course materials. Not only are we very youthful (lol) and female but when we go to GSA meetings we always try to get pictures of students at poster sessions that represent student diversity WE see at GSA and make sure we add these pictures into our presentations.

Someone mentioned in activity 1 or 2 they advertise geology by using the students in the pictures not the faculty-- this seemed to improve student interest in geology.

Like many, I'm sure, I found exploring this topic fascinating.

What new insight did you get from the resources on science identity?
I have been aware for a long time of the need for increasing both the diversity of STEM students, and increasing the awareness of the need for STEM majors to my students. It has always bothered me that so many of the resources that are available for student recruitment and retention mainly showcase the " typical geoscience student" ( white male). I was so encouraged to see there are many more scientists of diversity out there than I thought, and that so many resources available to showcase this to our students.

What have you done to build your students' science identity? Do you have another resource to share about this topic from your discipline?
I try to point out where diversity is lacking to my students. And I try to incorporate "diverse" scientists and activists where I can find them. One activist that I like to showcase in my Environmental science courses (where I might point out it is relatively easy to find contributions from many diverse backgrounds) is Margaret Gordon, a mother and grandmother in Oakland, CA whose concern about air quality and health issues in her own family led her to become an activists for improved air quality in Oakland. I like to point out how she was just an ordinary citizen who started noticing something and did something about it. It seems to energize my Environmental science students, and show them that anyone can make a difference. This is harder in a Geology course, but now that I know of some of these resources through SERC, I will start incorporating them more.

What might you apply and/or adapt in your teaching?
I want to make a more concerted effort to include "Scientist Spotlight" in my courses - I'd like to have such a post on the course home pages of my online courses as well. I just love the posters that showcase the contributions of the very diverse group of women scientists, and I'd love to get our college to agree to make print copies to post in our hallways.

I have started to notice that my students really respond the seeing the personal stories of scientists (like Sylvia Earle, Tanya Atwater, etc), so I plan to incorporate a modified idea of the scientist spotlights. I think it would be cool to have a big list of interesting scientists and have students research whoever sounds interesting to them and then contribute to a discussion board or perhaps collaborative website or powerpoint or something like that.

Here is one thing that I do in all of my classes, on the first day, to help establish science identity:

This lesson serves as an introduction to science process skills for non-science majors in Earth Science, Environmental Science, and Physical Geology classes. The purpose is (1) to allow them to see that they are already capable of doing the tasks necessary to do science, thereby increasing their confidence and science identity, and (2) to provide examples of how these skills are applied specifically to scientific problems.

I begin by asking if anybody in the room is a scientist (nobody ever raises their hand). Then I ask who feels like they can “do science”, and I usually get one or two tentative hands. I explain that in order to “do science”, scientists employ a series of skills known as science process skills which sound very fancy and technical but are really things that most everybody has been doing since preschool. I then write each of the six science process skills on the board, and briefly describe each one. I give students several minutes to brainstorm tasks they do in their everyday life that fit into the science process skills, and then I call for examples and we make a list on the board. By the time the list is done, all of the students agree that they are very well practiced at these six skills, and I emphasize that they are capable of doing these things even if they have not applied them directly to scientific questions before. Finally, I give a few examples (usually things from movies) of these skills being applied in science. I always wrap up by saying “you have the skills to do science, even if you feel like you’ve never done it before.”

The Six Science Process Skills:
Observing - using your senses to describe details
Measuring - using tools to gather quantitative data
Sorting/classifying - assigning categories based on common characteristics
Inferring - making an assumption based on prior knowledge
Predicting - If…, then…
Communicating - showing, writing about, or speaking about any of the above

-What new insight did you get from the resources on science identity?

I felt reinforced to continue engaging underrepresented minorities in science. I belong to one of these minorities (Latino), so I feel the responsibility of acting as a role model for my students. In one of SAGE’s website resources, I found the SACNAS Biography website project, and already asked to share my story with the Latino/Hispanic/Chicano and Native American community. I am glad to know that this type of inspirational information is available. After scanning the SACNAS Biographies, I got inspired to create an assignment for my students, so they will be able to explore these potential mirrors.

-What have you done to build your students' science identity? Do you have another resource to share about this topic from your discipline?

I have been working hard on this topic. First, I tried to transmit the passion and creativity that exists behind the scenes of making science. I often mention to my students that a scientist is a bit of an artist because we, scientists and students, are inspired by research questions and the process of creating/developing something new. Also, in Mexico, I asked my students to work on a one term-long research project, starting with developing their research question, hypothesis, experimental development and ending with communication of main results. At Lane Community College, I have followed the Undergraduate Research Projects format, where the students work on collecting data from different open access agencies (datadrayd.org is an excellent option), and developing their own research questions based on the observed patterns. At the end of the term, the students present their research project in an oral or poster presentation. I found this way to do research projects as an excellent option for students that usually do not have extra class time to be working on running experiments during the term; nevertheless, I would like to offer the option for running their own experiments for those students that could be interested in this.

-What questions do you have based on these resources?

My main question is about how to get funding to perform Undergraduate Research Projects based on hands on experiments/field trips. The NSF sponsors grants to allow scientists to receive students in internships through the Research Experiences for Undergraduate projects; nevertheless, there are only a few community colleges listed as options for students. I would like to know more about these particular community colleges/scientists and know how they were able to obtain these grants.

What new insight did you get from the resources on Science Identity?
I’ve been interested in various science subjects ever since I was a kid, and realize that I’ve been naïve about how many other people perceive science, with a sense of fear? Boredom? How is that in anyway possible I say to myself.

What might you apply, and/or adapt, in your teaching?
Continuing from the answer to the 1st question: This was a wakeup call for me to talk with my students more about
1. Why I went to school for a good number of years to become a geoscientist.
2. Other geoscientists around the world and the type of work that they are doing, to illustrate that people of many different backgrounds, cultures and ethnicities have embraced science as a calling and career.
3. Why the work of these scientists is important to our world, for both humans and the other lifeforms on the planet.

I want to look more closely at the NAGT site Teach the Earth, for activities incorporating current events. Hopefully this would promote a sense of the importance of ALL people (not just people with a higher degree in the sciences) having some knowledge of how our earth works so that they can read about these events and understand their implications.

I’d like to assign the InTeGrate “connects” to students as reading.

What have you done to build your students Science Identity?

Not near enough. After attending the Geological Society annual meeting in Phoenix this last September, I put together a bulletin board display about job opportunities in the Geo and Environmental Sciences in the hallway right outside the door to our EES disciplines two main classrooms. But how many students have actually looked at it while waiting to enter the rooms? I need to be more proactive.
Mary Baxter, LaneCC, Eugene, OR

Like many, I'm sure, I found exploring this topic fascinating.