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Articles from
August 2007
Girls and Science: What Are the Myths?
Since 1993, The National Science Foundation (NSF) has been working to broaden the participation of girls and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). According to their Research on Gender in Science and Engineering program, there are five myths about girls and science.
- Myth: From the time they start school, most girls are less interested in science than boys are.
Reality: In elementary school there are about the same number of girls (66%) as boys (68%) who report liking science. But, by second grade, most students portray a scientist as a white male in a lab coat. Children often draw women scientists as severe and not very happy. There is a stereotype of the relationship between gender and careers in science. By eighth grade, boys are twice as interested in STEM careers as girls.
- Myth: Classroom interventions that work to increase girls' interest in STEM run the risk of turning off the boys.
Reality: Interventions that work to increase girl’s interest in STEM, such as showing images of women scientists, also increase such interest among the boys.
- Myth: Science and math teachers are no longer biased toward their male students.
Reality: Teachers, without realizing it, often treat boys differently than they do girls, explaining more to boys when asked for assistance, while just simplifying experiments for the girls.
Girls Creating Games was created as an afterschool and summer program designed to support the interest of middle school girls in computers and information technology. Its goal is to increase the number of females in the IT workforce.
- Myth: When girls just aren't interested in science, parents can't do much to motivate them.
Reality: Parental support has been shown to be crucial to a girl's interest in science, technology, engineering, and math. Parents can make girls aware of the range of science and engineering careers available, the relevance of these jobs in society, and the types of courses and grades necessary to put students on a path to a STEM career. A guide for parents can be found at Sally Ride Science.
- Myth: At the college level, changing the STEM curriculum runs the risk of watering down important "sink or swim" coursework.
Reality: Women often perceive "Bs" as inadequate grades and drop out, while men with "Cs" will persist with the class. Effective mentoring and "bridge programs" that prepare students for challenging coursework can counteract this. To help retain both women and men in engineering schools, programs should:
- have students work in pairs on programming in entry-level computer science and engineering courses, and
- provide coursework in spatial visualization.
One of the most effective interventions is mentoring. MentorNet, a virtual e-mentoring network and community offers award-winning, research-based, technology-leveraged mentoring programs that pair young people with professionals working in STEM careers in industry, government, and higher education.
Additional, helpful resources funded by the National Science Foundation are available online.
Many women have made significant contributions to the advancement of science. Go to Women in Science to hear some of their stories.
Are We Failing Our Geniuses?
The August 16 issue of TIME Magazine features an article titled Are We Failing Our Geniuses? In the article, John Cloud criticizes the American school system, saying that it “has little idea how to cultivate its most promising students” and that it spends a disproportionate amount of money on students with learning disabilities, often ignoring the need for money to meet the needs of gifted students.
He cites that “many school systems are wary of grade skipping even though research shows that it usually works well both academically and socially for gifted students—and that holding them back can lead to isolation and underachievement.”
While I agree with much of what Cloud says in this article, I do question some of his conclusions. He states that, while the most recent data indicate that U.S. universities are awarding more doctorates than ever before, the rate of annual increase has fallen dramatically. In 1979 it hit nearly 15% for the year, but for more than a decade now, the number has grown less than 3.5% a year. His assumption is that we are now coasting and the implication is that this is because we are not adequately attending to the education of the gifted. While it may be true that there was a dramatic increase in the number of doctoral candidates following the post-Sputnik era, I question whether the number of students seeking advanced degrees should be expected to increase by high percentages every year. Are there that many people who would benefit from a doctorate? Is a doctorate important to all high-level professions? Is this really a valid measure of opportunities available for gifted students?
Cloud also states that the year after President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2002, Illinois and Michigan cut large amounts of funding from gifted education. Yet, he offers no documentation explaining the link between the cuts and NCLB. Although there may be a link, he did not provide evidence. He just came to that conclusion on his own.
The premises of Cloud's article revolve around The Davidson Academy, a public school for profoundly gifted students that has received a lot of press. But, this is not perfect either. The school’s admission policy relies on test scores. One consequence of this is that its population does not mirror the population of our country. Both girls and African Americans are represented in disproportionately small numbers.
One discusses the question of who should be adapting to differences in ability, geniuses or average people? “Special schools for genius children? If the genius child is not adequately exposed to the rest of society, how then will she/he cope later in life?
What about educating all of us 'average people' more effectively, so that we can learn how to live with and work with real genius, giving them adequate emotional support at least, even if we cannot quite match them intellectually? This route is barely explored anywhere in any society or school.”
The other questions some commonly used terms or phrases. “The continued assertions that a) there is some monolith called the ‘education industry’ and b) a bias against exceptionally bright students remain, as far as I can see, undefined and unsupported, especially the former.”
New Book Explores Giftedness at Stuyvesant High School
In the spring of 2006, author and Washington Post reporter Alec Klein—a Stuyvesant alum—spent a semester with the teachers, students, and parents of the school to find out what makes it so special. (The New York City public school is so selective, that it admits only 3 percent of the kids who take its intense entrance exam.) The school is well-known academically and its alumni include several Nobel laureates, Academy Award winners, and luminaries in the arts, business, and public service.
The book is filled with personal stories of students and educators, whose stories are hilarious, sad, and powerfully moving. The book also tackles the question of elitism in public education.
Some of the high schoolers at Stuyvesant are off the charts with their abilities. One student profiled in the book is incredibly gifted, but unable to cope with her devastating addiction to heroin.
What can other schools learn from the success of Stuyvesant? The author touches on the importance of parental involvement, regardless of family wealth. (Many are immigrants who run delis or drive taxis.) The level of trust within the school creates a home away from home for students.
Autism and the Nature of Intelligence
The debate about the nature of intelligence and giftedness continues.
Led by psychologist Laurent Mottron of the University of Montreal, a team gave both autistic kids and normal kids two of the most popular IQ tests used in schools: the WISC, which relies heavily on language; and the Raven’s Progressive Matrices, which measures the ability to infer rules, to set and manage goals, and to do high-level abstractions. The Raven’s presents arrays of complicated patterns with one missing, and test takers are required to choose the one that would logically complete the series. The test demands a good memory, focused attention and other “executive skills,” but—unlike the WISC—it doesn’t require much language.
The difference between the scores of the autistic and normal children on the WISC and the Raven’s test was striking. Not a single autistic child scored in the “high intelligence” range of the WISC. In fact, a third of the children with autism had WISC scores in the mentally retarded range. Yet fully a third scored in the “high intelligence range” on the Raven’s.
The scientists ran the same experiment with autistic and normal adults, with the same result.
While it is probably true that people with autism possess extraordinary perceptual skills, and that they use unique cognitive pathways for problem solving, their intelligence clearly goes far beyond rote memory and perception to include complex reasoning ability.
I would like to know…
What implications does this research have for the education of autistic children?
Neuroscience for Gifted Kids
Saturday, August 04, 2007 - by CFertig - 686 Views - 0 Comments - Category: Parents and Educators, Science, Free Activities and Lessons, Fun and Interesting Stuff, Gifted and Talented Children, Gifted Education, Parenting Gifted Children, Teaching Gifted Children, Homeschooling
There is a great Web site available for students (elementary through high school) and teachers titled Neuroscience for Kids. The site, maintained by Eric H. Chudler at University of Washington, provides a wealth of information on the brain in fun, clear, easy-to-understand terms and illustrations. Not only is there great information, but there also are experiments, activities, questions and answers, other links and resources, and a place to sign up for a free newsletter.
The table of contents includes (click on "Explore" to find this)
- The World of Neuroscience
- Brain Basics
- “Higher” Functions
- The Spinal Cord
- The Peripheral Nervous System
- The Neuron
- Sensory Systems
- Neuroscience Methods and Techniques
- The Effects of Drugs on the Nervous System
- Neurological and Mental Disorders
I have had so much fun exploring this Web site and finding interesting, complicated information presented in an understandable manner. It would be a great site for students to use for an independent study or as an extension of a school science topic.
Portions of the site are in Portuguese, Slovene, Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Korean, Japanese, and Turkish.
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