IMPLEMENTING GENDER-FAIR TEACHING IN A RURAL HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE CLASSROOM

Rural Educator, The, Winter 2003 by Lindstrom, Heidi L, Tracy, Dyanne M

Positive referrals. These forms were sent home to parents when teachers felt compelled to compliment a student's academic work or social behavior. However, for female students, Lindstrom used the Positive Referrals as an opportunity to promote women in science as well as alert the girl's parents to her success in scientific fields, for example, "Erika did an outstanding job on her genetics scrapbook. The field of science needs intelligent and caring young women like you." Lindstrom also acknowledged male students when their science accomplishments included creativity and artistic panache, such as "Anthony, thank you for sharing your modified toy car using the solar cell from your calculator. You are a very creative student." Lindstrom often received feedback from parents showing pride in their child's work. Lindstrom then used the opportunity to communicate her gender-fair expectations.

Curricular Activities

While individual teachers control their own gender-fair "teacher behaviors," gender-fair curricular activities require a heightened level of awareness and commitment due to the fact that there are no district or state science benchmarks specifically addressing gender equity. Thus, Lindstrom made a concerted effort to include an emphasis on gender equity under more general benchmarks such as making logical arguments, understanding the limits of science and scientific knowledge recognizing the emotive, economic, and political dimensions of scientific arguments, and, understanding the historical, political, social, and economic factors influencing the development of science (Michigan Curriculum Frameworks, 2000). Throughout the semester, Lindstrom integrated several science-related gender awareness activities in her classroom derived from discussions, demonstrations, or videos presented in GSS.

Female scientist posters and hallway display. After viewing a women's history video, Lindstrom came to a quick realization that she was inadequately prepared to teach her students the importance of females in history and the contributions of contemporary women. Thus, Lindstrom decided to teach her students about past and present women in science through an assignment called Females in Science.

To prepare her students for the Females in Science assignment and convince them of the worthiness of the project, Lindstrom asked the students to list as many scientists as they could and to note what contributions they had made in society. Students struggled with the task and much brainstorming began to occur among students. Tenthgrade students could only list 5 or 6 scientists as a whole class and only 2 of 30 students wrote down a female scientist's name. That name was Marie Curie. Students connected her fame with radiation, but could give no other details.

Students were then asked to write down a few sentences as to why they could not perform the above task with ease. This motivated them to readily accept the Females in Science assignment. The assignment was to research and create a female scientist poster. Students were told that their posters would be displayed in the hallway during March in honor of "Women's History Month".