"What do you want to be when you grow up?" Most children hope to be a firefighter, teacher, doctor or lawyer. I wanted to decipher the dolphin language, and then to become the communication link between human beings and the other creatures of the world. A lofty goal? I didn't think so. I was excited about my future career as a marine biologist.
Somewhere in school, I changed my mind. It wasn't until college that I re-examined that decision and asked myself, what kept me from pursuing my goal? The answer was simple. Science, as defined for me as a child, was playing together, exploring together, asking questions together, and experiencing together. Science, as defined for me in middle school and beyond, was sitting, watching, and memorizing, alone.
My fifth-grade class was asked to build a bridge using only paper straws and cardboard. All work was done individually. Once the bridges were finished, a competition was held to see whose bridge would hold the most weight without collapsing. One student out of twenty received the honor of creating the strongest bridge. The rest of us felt as if we didn't quite compare. I learned my design was not good enough; then we moved on to another lesson.
More recently, I have looked into why many students lose interest in science in school. Unfortunately, I discovered that most of them are girls. Why do seemingly bright and inquisitive young girls, like me, become adolescents who are passive and apathetic towards science? Why do boys consistently perform better on the scientific portions of standardized tests? And most importantly, how can traditional science education be altered to prevent female students from losing interest in science, from being afraid of it, and from performing poorly in it?
Even before embarking on their first science lesson in school, most girls are already at a disadvantage. Boys--after years of playing with toys that involve critical thinking, spatial relations, construction, and destruction--tend to grow up asking more hows and whys. Girls grow up with other expectations. Society strongly and romantically asks that girls be cooperative and nurturing, but school settings are often autonomous and competitive. As a result, some young girls learn to doubt their own self-image, and then to be wary of their own opinions. Such girls often find resolution as "secretaries," letting their male partners do all the work, never learning how to do the work themselves. To add to these difficulties, our culture has painted a picture of scientists as highly analytical, white males working in isolation--girls literally have difficulty making the jump.
How to remedy this situation? First, girls need to know that scientists (and even their teachers!) make mistakes and that their own ideas--and questions--are credible and valid starting places. Most importantly, they need to realize that important scientific breakthroughs have often been accomplished through cooperation; and students' cooperative abilities need to be rewarded and nurtured.
In the Skeletons issue of the Dragonfly Teacher's Companion, I have created an inquiry inspired both by the cooperative writing of Sue LeBeau's class (see Skeletons from Scratch) and by my own wish to re-envision the bridge-building lesson I was given as a fifth-grader. By inviting each student to play a needed role as they work together, I hope each student will gain self-confidence and learn that their abilities to obtain and convey information are trusted. By validating the process of the inquiry over the product, all groups can be successful, rather than just those whose ideas "worked."
This is the philosophy I will carry with me when I become a teacher.
Sources:
Orenstein, Peggy. (1994) Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self-Esteem and the
Confidence Gap. New York: Doubleday.
Pipher, Mary Bray. (1994) Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. New York: Putnam.
Christie Schneider is a recent graduate of Miami University (Ohio) where she double-majored in Interdisciplinary Studies and Teacher Education. She is beginning her career as an elementary and middle-school teacher.
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