5844 Views (as of 05/2023)
  1. Zahra Hazari
  2. https://case.fiu.edu/about/directory/profiles/hazari-zahra.html
  3. Professor
  4. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  5. Florida International University, American Physical Society, American Association of Physics Teachers
  1. Bree Barnett Dreyfuss
  2. Teacher, Ambassador Program Coordinator
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. STEP UP
  1. Anne Kornahrens
  2. STEP UP Project Manager
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. American Physical Society, STEP UP
  1. Pooneh Sabouri
  2. https://case.fiu.edu/about/directory/profiles/sabouri-pooneh.html
  3. Post doctoral Associate
  4. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  5. Florida International University
Public
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Mobilizing Teachers to Increase Capacity and Broaden Women's Participation in...

NSF Awards: 1721021

2021 (see original presentation & discussion)

Grades 9-12

Physics, as a field, has been developed and is maintained by a human community, and reflects the historic and modern cultural norms set by that community, both consciously and unconsciously.  This includes how physics is defined, what it means to do physics, and what it means to be a physicist.  In order to disrupt hegemonic cultural meanings and move towards inclusivity and equity, we need to explicitly reflect on the norms and collectively work to disrupt those norms that serve to marginalize groups and limit agency.  One approach is to pose counternarratives that disrupt narrow stereotypic viewpoints.  The STEP UP project engages students with counternarratives by mobilizing thousands of physics educators to engage in these discussions within the classroom and inspire young women in physics.  The counternarratives are presented to students in lessons/materials about who does physics and what physics does.  These lessons/materials highlight a broad range of careers pursued by diverse individuals with a physics degree, explicitly discuss the role of bias in the field, and recognize those who have traditionally been invisible in physics. 

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Discussion from the 2021 STEM For All Video Showcase (36 posts)
  • Icon for: Zahra Hazari

    Zahra Hazari

    Lead Presenter
    Professor
    May 10, 2021 | 10:30 a.m.

    Welcome to our info/promo video page! Currently, the STEP UP project is in our national rollout phase. The video gives a brief overview of the evidence-based resources we developed for high school physics teachers: two lessons and an everyday actions guide (link). In the last 2 years, we have directly engaged with over 1,000 physics educators and worked closely with over 100 teacher leaders (informal and formal) across the United States, to help mobilize a community of physics educators towards equity and inclusion, particularly for women. We plan to continue this effort and support physics educators in creating inclusive learning environments that nurture the physics identity development of women and minoritized groups in ways that will shift the culture of physics.

     
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    Jane Jackson
    Kirsten Wood
    Bahare Naimipour
  • Icon for: Pooneh Sabouri

    Pooneh Sabouri

    Co-Presenter
    Post doctoral Associate
    May 10, 2021 | 10:31 a.m.

    Thank you for visiting and watching our video. We are interested in learning your thoughts on the following questions:

    1. How can we support educators’ reflective practice, so that it is asset-minded rather than deficit-minded?
    2. How can we support reflective practice that is culturally responsive in ways that shift narrow cultural notions of physics?
    3. In order to reflect the demographics of high school physics teachers, how can we mobilize teachers who identify as white men towards promoting equity and inclusion of diverse populations in physics?
    4. How can we expand and meaningfully support a community of physics educators who are focused on equity and inclusivity in physics?
     
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    Jane Jackson
  • Icon for: Stephen Alkins

    Stephen Alkins

    Facilitator
    Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer
    May 11, 2021 | 12:54 p.m.

    Great program!  As this is a program developed for educators, it was great to hear the anecdotal evidence that students' impressions and vision of what the physics world resembled changed.  Was that something you directly measured (pre and post), and in comparison to other schools that utilized more traditional physics curricula?

    To answer a few of your questions, (1) The stories of women in physics and the navigation of such gendered spaces in STEM have been well-documented (work from Mia Ong, Nuria Jaumot-Pascual, Ebony McGee, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, etc.).  Continue to use their work and stories to help inform the practice.  Also, as physics is theoretical and project-based, students benefit from identifying physics problems from their own contexts.  Encourage students to identify potential physics' issues that play a role in their everyday lives.

    (2) Certainly use culturally responsive pedagogy and abolitionist teaching methodology (e.g. Gholdy Muhammad, Bettina Love, etc.) to train administrators and offer professional development for teachers (also include literature and documentaries around indigenous practices in STEM education and STEM fields - there are a few that are palatable for students and teachers).  Also, with administrators, STEP UP can provide guidance on how administrators can build in systems of accountability for their teachers.

    (3) Engage the professional societies around how they are encouraging cross-talk among teachers and industry professionals or professors in higher academia.  Societies like NSBE, SACNAS, Women in Physics & African American Women in Physics, etc. can inform you about how they are engaging in equity and inclusion processes across various professional and learning environments.

  • Icon for: Nuria Jaumot-Pascual

    Nuria Jaumot-Pascual

    Facilitator
    Research Scientist
    May 11, 2021 | 04:32 p.m.

    I think that to be culturally responsive, a project needs to start with problems that come from the community that it is targeting. Working with authentic problems that are meaningful to the community projects are working is the very first step. Design based research is a good starting point for culturally responsive work. 

  • Icon for: Pooneh Sabouri

    Pooneh Sabouri

    Co-Presenter
    Post doctoral Associate
    May 11, 2021 | 07:52 p.m.

    Thanks, Nuria, for visiting and posting your suggestions for us. I agree with you that unless the community does not recognize the problem as their problem, the change does not occur. As a junior scholar in this field, what I struggle with is what to do when the problem is so embedded in the community that people see it as part of their life. In other words, it is not a "problem" in their eyes. 

  • Icon for: Nuria Jaumot-Pascual

    Nuria Jaumot-Pascual

    Facilitator
    Research Scientist
    May 13, 2021 | 11:01 p.m.

    I'm thinking that maybe the project can find ways to make it their problem somehow? 

  • Icon for: Pooneh Sabouri

    Pooneh Sabouri

    Co-Presenter
    Post doctoral Associate
    May 14, 2021 | 08:06 a.m.

    Yes, for that matter, both lessons start with problematizing, showing students data about the status of the physics degree holders in around the world and talk about who we consider physicists and what they do. In that way, students began to wonder and, we observed, they owned the conversation. 

  • Icon for: Mary Nyaema

    Mary Nyaema

    Researcher
    May 11, 2021 | 10:27 a.m.

    It is important to change the' figured worlds' narrative and include more visual representations of women in textbooks and other presentations used in the classroom.

     
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    Christie Prout
  • Icon for: Pooneh Sabouri

    Pooneh Sabouri

    Co-Presenter
    Post doctoral Associate
    May 11, 2021 | 07:45 p.m.

    Thanks Mary, Totally agree that it is important to expand the figured worlds with visual representations of women. But we have found that it is crucial to go beyond that, where the students recognize that their values, goals, and what they want to do also can fit in the figured-world of physics. So that is what we aim to nurture with Career in Physics lesson. We also want to highlight that many structural and cultural barriers should be recognized, acknowledged and challenged by the students, which is the main goal of the Women in Physics lesson. 

    And now the two challenges that we have faced are (1) two lessons are good quick remedy but the classroom culture needs to change and (2) reaching out to more physics teachers. 

  • Icon for: Bree Barnett Dreyfuss

    Bree Barnett Dreyfuss

    Co-Presenter
    Teacher, Ambassador Program Coordinator
    May 14, 2021 | 10:51 p.m.

    One of the ways we strive to disrupt the "Figured Worlds" narratives is with the Everyday Actions Guide. Some of the suggestions for teachers include directing students with question to female students and using group roles so that all students gets hands-on with lab materials. Like Mary mentioned, we do find some teachers' first steps in making change starts with consciously choosing the language in their class materials to be more inclusive and include non-male genders.

  • Icon for: Nuria Jaumot-Pascual

    Nuria Jaumot-Pascual

    Facilitator
    Research Scientist
    May 11, 2021 | 04:30 p.m.

    I really enjoyed your video. I particularly liked the idea of "figured worlds." It sounds like you have engaged a lot of educators and leaders. Could you tell us more about the impacts of the work you've been doing? I'm very interested in learning more about what kinds of things you've been measuring and observing and what you have found out so far. 

     

     

     
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    Anne Kornahrens
  • Icon for: Pooneh Sabouri

    Pooneh Sabouri

    Co-Presenter
    Post doctoral Associate
    May 12, 2021 | 07:27 p.m.

    Thanks Nuria for your questions and interest in the project. We have done surveys measuring students' physics identity during the pilot study and the experimental study and both showed that students' physics identity had significantly increased as they participated in the lessons. We also have done video recording of the classes during the lesson implementations in a pilot study examining how students' discourse changed and what that indicates about their figured worlds. Last fall we implemented a national survey to examine the impact and reach of STEP UP lessons across the state. We hope to publish the results in the upcoming fall. 

     
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    Nuria Jaumot-Pascual
  • Icon for: Pooneh Sabouri

    Pooneh Sabouri

    Co-Presenter
    Post doctoral Associate
    May 11, 2021 | 09:15 p.m.

    @Stephen_Alkins (sorry for some reason I can't see the option of replying to your post hence I am trying to tag you here:)


    The research team conducted a pilot with 10 master teachers and 832 students and an experimental study that used a cluster-randomized trial (16 randomly selected teachers and 1841 students. A survey was conducted multiple times during the school year that showed significant gains in future physics intentions for students from minoritized racial/ethnic groups in physics. 


    We have two manuscripts in preparation but here is a paper that you can read more about the research


    Cheng, Hemeng, Potvin, Geoff, Khatri, Raina, Kramer, Laird H., Lock, Robynne M., & Hazari, Zahra.. Examining physics identity development through two high school interventionsPhysics Education Research Conference 2018, (). Retrieved from https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10088490. https://doi.org/10.1119/perc.2018.pr.Cheng

     
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    Bahare Naimipour
  • Icon for: Overtoun Jenda

    Overtoun Jenda

    Facilitator
    Assistant Provost and Professor of Mathematics
    May 11, 2021 | 10:12 p.m.

    This is really interesting. Are these regular physics classes or AP classes? Can  this approach be replicated for mathematics or chemistry?

  • Icon for: Pooneh Sabouri

    Pooneh Sabouri

    Co-Presenter
    Post doctoral Associate
    May 14, 2021 | 01:16 p.m.

    Teachers implemented them in both regular and AP classes. We are submitting a paper in The Physics Teacher explaining some of the theoretical ideas behind the design to allow others adapt/adopt the lessons and materials for other contexts. 

  • Icon for: Bree Barnett Dreyfuss

    Bree Barnett Dreyfuss

    Co-Presenter
    Teacher, Ambassador Program Coordinator
    May 14, 2021 | 10:56 p.m.

    Great question Overtoun, we have seen the lessons done in all levels of physics. I've done them in a 9th grade Conceptual Physics (physics first) class and AP Physics C. I found that the Student Personal Profile activity had to be scaffolded a bit differently for the different levels but they each got something out of it. 

    We have had interest in expanding the approach to other courses but haven't done anything official. Our online community at STEPUPphysics.org is filled with adaptations and extensions. If you ask there someone may be able to share what they have tried in their classrooms. 

     
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    Pooneh Sabouri
  • Jim Smith

    Informal Educator
    May 12, 2021 | 06:47 p.m.

    My rural upbringing 50 years ago had two important benefits: (1) The overwhelming majority of the authority figures in the organizations that affected me were women, and (2) during my first 10 years of school, the best students in class were, without exception, the girls.
     
    I also grew up reading of Marie Curie and other women scientists. Thus, when I first started hearing in high school that "women aren't as good in math and science as men are", my response was, "What planet are YOU talking about?!!" Then, when I majored in engineering in college, the girls took the same hard courses as we guys did, and certainly did as well as we did. The guys who looked down on them were dismissed as jerks.
     
    Perhaps those experiences are why the video's allegations about societal narratives regarding who may participate in physics strike me as quite exaggerated. Moreover, I heard nothing in the video about majoring in physics in order to benefit humankind in general. Instead, I heard about "clearing the path for women to claim their power". All very "woke", but quite "chip on the shoulder", and contrary to the mindset that's needed in order to apply science with benefit to issues that are socially as well as technically complex.

     
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    Jane Jackson
  • Icon for: Bree Barnett Dreyfuss

    Bree Barnett Dreyfuss

    Co-Presenter
    Teacher, Ambassador Program Coordinator
    May 14, 2021 | 11:08 p.m.

    Unfortunately our video is too short to include all the details about the full curriculum. If you take a look at the Careers in Physics lesson materials here, you'll see that the Career Survey Match questions include choices about benefiting humankind. My students that are interested in careers related to health and medicine have really enjoyed learning about the different career options related to physics. Students that are more interested in environmental science also find there is a lot of physics in green technology. It is definitely an inflection point in the class when students realize that not only are there more women in physics than they may have expected there are also a lot more careers that involve physics they are interested in. 

     
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    Pooneh Sabouri
    Jane Jackson
  • Icon for: Jane Jackson

    Jane Jackson

    Co-Director, ASU Modeling Instruction Pgrm
    May 18, 2021 | 01:55 p.m.

    Since the global climate crisis looms before us as disastrous for civilization, make a strong connection to it. Physicists are central to addressing the climate crisis; get more women involved by increasing the awareness of the crucial role of physicists and the helpfulness to humanity.

     
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    Pooneh Sabouri
  • Icon for: Lindsay Palmer

    Lindsay Palmer

    Graduate Student
    May 12, 2021 | 07:11 p.m.

    I love your approach to tackling the "prototypical scientist" with counternarratives. Great work!

  • Icon for: Anne Kornahrens

    Anne Kornahrens

    Co-Presenter
    STEP UP Project Manager
    May 17, 2021 | 09:39 a.m.

    We appreciate your support - thanks!

  • Icon for: Kauser Jahan

    Kauser Jahan

    Researcher
    May 15, 2021 | 10:13 p.m.

    This is an excellent project. Engaging and much needed, Very creative

  • Icon for: Anne Kornahrens

    Anne Kornahrens

    Co-Presenter
    STEP UP Project Manager
    May 17, 2021 | 09:39 a.m.

    Thank you for watching and commenting!

  • Icon for: Martin Storksdieck

    Martin Storksdieck

    Researcher
    May 17, 2021 | 05:57 p.m.

    I like the idea of changing the figured worlds. Have you seen Phil Sadler and team's retrospective on engagement pathways in STEM from middle school to college?  I am wondering what all the factors are that lead to the results of your figure around 20 sec into the video. Something is different between physics and chemistry/biology that seem multi-faceted and multi-dimensional. Relevance to real-world issues and somewhat better representation seem to drive continued engagement in chem and life sciences. But why do the men don't care about that so much?  And does it suggest that aside from better pathways into physics, we also need different physics itself?  In other words: what's wrong with physics that it seem less relevant to young women?  And what's wrong with HS physics (compared to HS chem and bio), when provided with endless other options in post-secondary we lose half the women?  I know, it is the Big Question about whether we need to change science itself in order to make it inclusive.

     
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    Jane Jackson
  • Icon for: Martin Storksdieck

    Martin Storksdieck

    Researcher
    May 17, 2021 | 06:09 p.m.

    I should probably be more specific, and in my next question reveal my ignorance of the research on this: What do we learn from interviews with young women and men after their terminal HS physics course about their future plans and the role physics (or continued physics education) may plays in it (or not), and what their differential experience in physics (versus other courses) might contribute to their thinking?

  • Icon for: Pooneh Sabouri

    Pooneh Sabouri

    Co-Presenter
    Post doctoral Associate
    May 17, 2021 | 09:06 p.m.

    Great questions and Wonderings! I think cultural and societal factors are some of the most critical forces that push women (and minoritized racial and ethnic groups) out of physics. So instead of asking why girls are not interested in these things (a deficit view), we may want to ask what structural and cultural factors created this disinterest or underrepresentation.
    Or How their figured world of physics is created that they do not see themselves in it?
    with STEP UP lessons and materials, we strive to disrupt and expand students' figured worlds, and we do that through counternarratives (which Dr Hazari talked a little bit about in the video)

    If you are interested, we recently submitted a paper to The Physics Teacher journal that we further explained the design of the STEP UP materials and lessons. please look forward to that. 

     

     
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    Jane Jackson
  • Icon for: Zahra Hazari

    Zahra Hazari

    Lead Presenter
    Professor
    May 18, 2021 | 07:56 p.m.

    Thanks Martin.  Your thought "we need to change science itself" hits the nail on the head for me.  Yet, hundreds of years of the construction of what it means to do physics and be a physicist is difficult to change.  The fingerprints of historic inequity are in the standards, content, process, values, etc., which are propagated forward in a constantly reproduced and reinforced system.  So we create disruptions so that more voices might question that system and provide new perspectives. 

  • Icon for: Bahare Naimipour

    Bahare Naimipour

    Graduate Student
    May 17, 2021 | 07:49 p.m.

     Hi STEPUP Physics team, great work, appreciate the links and literature references. Look forward to following your work. 

  • Icon for: Pooneh Sabouri

    Pooneh Sabouri

    Co-Presenter
    Post doctoral Associate
    May 17, 2021 | 08:23 p.m.

    Thanks Bahare for watching our video, appreciate your encouraging words

  • Icon for: Zahra Hazari

    Zahra Hazari

    Lead Presenter
    Professor
    May 18, 2021 | 07:57 p.m.

    Thanks Bahare - we lock arms in solidarity together!

  • Icon for: Candice Woods

    Candice Woods

    Manager, Development and Partnerships
    May 18, 2021 | 09:59 a.m.

    Brava STEPUP Physics team! Thank you for all of your work to help students expand their figured worlds. 

  • Icon for: Pooneh Sabouri

    Pooneh Sabouri

    Co-Presenter
    Post doctoral Associate
    May 18, 2021 | 02:12 p.m.

    Thanks Candice for visiting and your positive words:) 

  • Icon for: Jane Jackson

    Jane Jackson

    Co-Director, ASU Modeling Instruction Pgrm
    May 18, 2021 | 01:50 p.m.

    You ask: "How can we expand and meaningfully support a community of physics educators who are focused on equity and inclusivity in physics?"

    Support these two groups who are focused on equity and inclusivity in physics: (1) The American Modeling Teachers Assn: https://www.modelinginstruction.org , and (2) American Physical Society IDEA initiative, which has a presence in many university physics departments.    Link with them; contribute to them.

     
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    Pooneh Sabouri
  • Icon for: Pooneh Sabouri

    Pooneh Sabouri

    Co-Presenter
    Post doctoral Associate
    May 18, 2021 | 02:11 p.m.

    Thanks Jane for your recommendations. Glad to say that we do have close collaboration with both groups and hope to continue and expand our connections. 

  • Icon for: Jane Jackson

    Jane Jackson

    Co-Director, ASU Modeling Instruction Pgrm
    May 18, 2021 | 02:10 p.m.

    Looking at the larger picture (with a smile): Physics is the process of understanding physical reality -- which is everywhere! Physics often involves manipulating physical phenomena (e.g, in the classroom, playing, investigating, developing our curiosity -- fun!) Physics involves building and deploying scientific models of physical phenomena, using multiple representations (verbal, diagrammatic/pictorial, graphical, and mathematical), since the foundation of our THINKING is mental models. Physics empowers us in daily life to keep our home and our physical bodies in good working order. Physics connects us to nature and can increase our awe of it.

  • Icon for: Jane Jackson

    Jane Jackson

    Co-Director, ASU Modeling Instruction Pgrm
    May 18, 2021 | 05:19 p.m.

    To address your questions 1, 2, and 3, physics teacher PD at local level would help. Say, a 5-day intensive summer PD course, where teachers get stipends. But financial obstacles are huge!

    -- To hold a 1-day PD workshop for 20 teachers, I needed $1000. It was hard. I got a Meggars grant from the AAPT; but later when I applied for another grant, they had decided to dis-allow PD. -- It took great effort to get a $1000 donation from my bank last year. Most companies don't give much, if at all, I find. -- Our State Dept. of Education won't fund anything as "narrow" as a physics project, nor even physics & chemistry. I've tried!    More generally, the 2020 SCIENCE TRENDS REPORT, 2012-2018 by Sean Smith of Horizon Research (Feb. 2020) shows that K-12 teacher PD has decreased; it's alarming! to me, it's obvious that a major reason PD has decreased is loss of the two major Federal programs that support LOCAL PD of teachers: 1) the Math & Science Partnerships program (U.S. Dept. of Ed formula grants to each state.) AZ got $3,000,000 each year; all of it went to competitions among school districts, which were supposed to partner with Arizona's universities. Huge grants, few of them. Hard to get! 2) the 2.5% set-aside for Higher Ed institutions in the Federal Title II-A state grants. Arizona got $1,000,000 each year for the 3 universities to have yearly competitive grants.   -- We at the ASU Dept. of Physics had yearly $200,000 grants from 2006 until 2010 (No Child Left Behind); teachers got free ASU tuition for Modeling Workshops.      -- A 2.5% set-aside in the Title II-A Eisenhower Math & Science program, which preceded No Child Left Behind (2006 to 2015) was even better, because grants were a maximum of $50,000/year, meaning that they were do-able with volunteer faculty organizers, rather than requiring the hassle of hiring and training administrative staff; so the money went to the TEACHERS instead -- a better use of funds.   We need to restore the 2.5% set-aside of the U.S. Dept. of Education (in Title II-A). That seems easier than asking businesses for support. And more feasible than anything else I can think of. A few lines of legislation ...
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