Hi, STEM for All attendees! As you'll hear in our video, Rostros Físicos is a multimedia project showcasing Latinx role models in Physics for high school and college students to see themselves better represented.

We'd love to hear your questions and perspectives about the project in the Discussion below.

 

We have already started publishing our videos on our channel and the next ways in which we want to grow are:

1. Create discussion rubrics for each video so that educators can use the videos + rubrics with their students in order to engage in discussions about what it means to become and be a scientist, the hurdles of pursuing such a career as a minority, identity, etc.

2. Host live online discussion events based on the content of our videos with high school and/or college students.

If you're an educator, organizer, student, etc. and would like to provide feedback about these ideas and/or to collaborate on such initiatives, we'd love to hear from you in the comments or directly.

 

Hola, participantes de STEM for All! Como han escuchado en el video, Rostros Físicos es un proyecto multimedia que muestra modelos a seguir Latinos en el campo de la física, para que estudiantes de secundaria y universidad se vean más representadas y representados.

Nos encantaría ver sus preguntas y perspectivas en esta Discusión.

 

Ya hemos empezado a publicar nuestros videos en nuestro canal y los siguientes pasos que queremos tomar son:

1. Crear hojas de ejercicio con preguntas de discusión para cada video, para que educadores puedan usarlas con sus estudiantes para tener conversaciones sobre qué significa ser científica, las barreras que existen para seguir estas carreras siendo minoría, identidad, etc.

2. Organizar eventos online en vivo con estudiantes de secundaria y/o universidad para ver y discutir nuestros videos.

Si eres educadora/educador, estudiante, etc. y quieres darnos consejo sobre estas ideas o quieres colaborar, nos encantaría escuchar de tí en los comentarios o directamente.

 

I love this project! What do you see as some of the school and family contexts in which the videos and discussion might occur? I am curious about what your outreach plan to Latinx students might look like.

As a physics teacher in Arizona I can't explain nearly enough to people the desperate need for more physics teachers. At last count AZ had 170 certified physics teachers left in the entire state. Maybe less than 3% of those folks were people of color. I think what your working on is critical to physics education. My question is what kind of numbers are you seeing in your program and what do you think is the secret to engaging more people of historically underrepresented populations into physics?

Daniel, this is a nicely done video and I thoroughly support that ways in which you want to grow. Of the students you have interacted with you (or your team) and who have watched your videos, what has that interaction been like? How would you describe their thoughts on physics after being a part of your program?

This is such a great project!  Thanks for sharing it with us.  How did you select the scientists to feature in your videos?  Were they from your existing network?

Daniel,

What a great project! I have a few questions:

• Do you envision these videos as more directed toward undecided undergraduates or high school students?
• I'm assuming, based on your affiliations, that you are familiar with STEP UP. https://engage.aps.org/stepup/home It would be lovely to see a collaboration between STEP UP (which has a teacher network) and your work, if there is overlap. In particular, STEP UP tries to really clarify for high school teachers and students what "physicist" actually means (i.e., beyond exclusively those who work in a lab or university). What is the range of careers you were able to identify?

Lastly, I am curious about your thoughts on the cultural transferrability of your videos and your project. I manage the Inter-American Teacher Education Network, which collaborates with teacher education institutions across 25 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. We even have a collaboration between AAPT-Mexico and the Dominican Republic that makes use of STEP UP materials to encourage more students to consider physics careers. Are these people you feature from around the region, and are they all currently anchored in the U.S., or other geographic places? I wonder how relatable the stories are for people from other contexts.

Thanks!

Great project! The video made me smile.

Saludos:

Que proyecto tan maravilloso! Iniciativas como la suya son geniales porque además de motivar a las jóvenes a tener carreras en las disciplinas STEM, proveen un espacio para que las científicas compartan con colegas y ser reconocidas por sus logros. Muchas Felicidades por un trabajo extraordinario!

En nuestro proyecto tenemos una iniciativa similar, pero realizando un simposio anual donde las científicas cuentan sus historias de cómo se convirtieron en las científicas que son y comparten con niñas y jóvenes sus consejos . Además generamos  un libro titulado Mujeres latinas en  las ciencias.

 

Seria grandioso si en el futuro pudiéramos establecer una colaboracion!  

Hi Daniel,

I see you're a neighbor of mine- I'm at Towson University in Maryland.  I love this idea.  I actually just started a video project as well (although much smaller scale than yours!). But I, too, am interested in showing students a window into the STEM field that highlights and focuses on identity and how we need students to bring their whole self to the fields, even though past experiences may have them believe that they can't, or that they shouldn't.  It was useful for me to read about how you are tracking your impact, as it can be quite challenging when you make these videos and put them out in in the world, but then try to figure out how to go beyond just 'number of views' to understand their impact.  

It's exciting to me that you're focusing on Physics specifically, because that is definitely a field that heavily dominated by White males.  

Mary

 Hi, Mary. I'd be happy to share insight into the video production + dissemination and also ideas/strategies for impact assessment if you're interested. Feel free to reach out (dsvolpe@umd.edu). Would also love to check out your videos if they're available somewhere.

Hola, Daniel. Estoy feliz a encontrar de ver este video. I am so excited for this project, as a Boricua and former aquatic ecologist. If you are ever looking for a collaborator, please consider reaching out to me. I work for TERC researching race and gender equity in STEM. I am also interested in disability, as I am a co-founder of the National Coalition of Latinxs with Disabilities.

Daniel - I really enjoyed your video, and your project is very interesting. You mentioned impact. How are you planning to measure impact?

 Thanks for checking out our project, Abigail!

Since our primary activities are to develop videos that get posted online, measuring impact is challenging beyond getting view statistics. Our hope is that our channel will grow sufficiently to engage viewers that will post comments on the videos, allowing us to see a more qualitative perspective of impact.

But beyond that, we think that in order to have and measure more meaningful impact, our project will have to evolve to have more interactive aspects (like the ideas we have about hosting live discussion events and creating discussion rubrics for informal educators to use with groups of students). If we manage to implement these, then measuring impact becomes more straightforward by collecting feedback from the event attendees and from the students and educators participating in discussions, and possibly even being able to ask these participants months/years later if these materials impacted them in some way.