Using Stereotypes to Connect With Our Children and Encourage Them To Achieve in Math and Science

This week I attended a training on Cultural Competency; which is a nutshell is being aware of the diversity of student populations that you serve. This training is mainly given in urban areas because they serve a population of students with a diverse backgrounds. Most individuals in education do it with good intentions because they really want to make a difference in the lives of children, however at times they end up doing more harm than good because they don't understand how to work with children of diverse backgrounds. One of the topics we discussed during this training was stereotypes that are given to various ethnic groups and genders. The trainer stated that at times stereotypes that are simply describe the typical behavior or characteristics of a group, not any of those that are demeaning and degrading, can be used to help you connect with children of that group. Since I am African American and woman, I will use stereotypes with those groups to show how you can use those stereotypes to introduce kids to and help them connect with STEM.

One of the stereotypes for African Americans is that we are fast, good at sports and performing arts. Those stereotypes are true for members of our community because they have been several successful African American athletes and performing artists. However, the reality of the situation is that no matter how good you are in sports or performing arts, a vast minority of the students that have talents in those fields are able to make a decent living or become wealthy from these careers. Therefore we have to allow our students to pursue those interests, but also steer them to pursue other interest towards careers that they can go to college and graduate school to become successful in that career path. In order to help students connect science and math with sports, there are several principles and disciplines of math and science that you can introduce your students to and make a connection between their interests outside of STEM. You can talk about speed, velocity, buoyancy and other principles of physics when describing a variety of sports such as track, football, baseball and basketball. You can also discuss material science and chemistry when discussing how the uniforms, the equipment used and in some cases the field on which in the sports are made. Finally you can discuss biology, nutrition and anatomy and physiology when you discuss how athletes train and prepare their body to excel in sports. While discussing these topics in relation to sports and performing arts, you can not only have great lesson in content but discuss STEM careers that are related to these performing artists and sports such as computer and electrical engineers, material scientists, biologists, sports medicine, physical therapy, etc.

There are so many stereotypes about women, but one of the main ones that sticks in my head is that we are emotional and talk a lot. Although as I woman I hate to admit it, but I can be emotional and chatty at times. However, understanding emotions is part of understanding human behavior and can be great discussion to introducing kids to neuroscience. Neuroscience is so important because it studies, discovers and explains how the brain works and the human brain controls everything about our body and how we operate as humans as a whole and individuals.

One of the things that I love about STEM is that it is the basis for and is connected to everything in our society. Unfortunately, we don't have enough discussions with our children about those connections. Even with my STEM background there are some part of STEM that don't interest me. However, when I can see the connection between STEM and things that I use everyday or that I can relate to, it keeps me reading and interested in STEM. For example, someone very close to me is fighting cancer. Currently nanotechnology is being used in the treatment of cancer and is doing a great job to help people including this person that is close to me have a successful cancer treatment. However, I remember hearing about nanotechnology about 10 years ago, while I was in college. A person in my network got his PhD in chemical engineering and his expertise was in nanotechnology. At the time, he was working for Kodak and everytime he talked about nanotechnology it went over my head and I wasn't interested. There are several programs that are teaching kids about computer science and program through the development of mobile phone applications. I am pretty sure that some of these students are learning about their passion and expertise for computer science through the real world application of such as a mobile phone. When we "unveil potential through exposure" for students to academically achieve in math and science and explore STEM careers, we must make a connection between STEM and their everyday lives.