Research Article

On the first day of class, we were told to close our eyes and imagine a scientist. We were then provided with colored pencils and construction paper and instructed to draw what we imagined. I began to draw a woman with glasses in a field working with plants. Once everyone was done drawing we all walked around the room and observed what our peers drew. We were told to see what was similar, different and interesting between all of the drawings. I noticed that a lot of students drew men with glasses in a laboratory holding beakers. All of the pictures had scientists with glasses and typically wacky hair. I only saw about three other drawings of a woman and none in a different environment other than a laboratory, out of the 25 students in my class. This is was really telling of what we assume about a scientist. This showed that there is a general stereotype about a scientist and overall a common misconception. To further learn about this, I read the article " Breaking Science Stereotypes" by Alec Bozdin and Mike Gehringer. This article was about a national study about students' perceptions of scientist, this was very similar to the assignment I just described. 69 students participated in this investigation, one fourth-grade class and two fifth-grade classes drew pictures of "a scientist doing science". This assignment happened four weeks before an actual scientist visited the class and then repeated after the students met a scientist. The students were graded by the " Draw- A- Scientist- Test- Checklist ( DAST-C). This is a way for researchers to evaluate the students' drawings by using a rubric that checks for specific characteristics in drawings. The results were very similar to my experience in my class. Most students drew their scientist as a white male working in a laboratory. Their research stated that 77% of students drew a white male as their scientist. The results were disappointing but not unexpected so the researchers really wanted to change this misconception. The researchers had a female chemical engineer and a male physicist visit the classroom. The scientist explained to the students their jobs and then completed a science experiment with the students. The scientists were not the "typical" scientist the students envisioned. Although the male scientist was white, he was not wearing a lab coat, instead, he wore a suit and tie. This was probably shocking to the students because 86% of the students drew the scientist in a lab coat. This is important that the students understand this because a scientist can work in so many different fields and can have a range of clothing requirements. The female scientist was great for the students to see since only about 20% drew women. So many are in the field of science and it is important that it is known! Young girls need to know there are women in the science field and they can one day be one as well! I thought this was a great opportunity for the class. After the scientist completed the experiments with the students, the scientist left and was not discussed. Four weeks later the students were instructed to draw a scientist again. This time the number of students that drew a white male in a lab coat decreased by 20%. I think these results are a great outcome! I believe this was beneficial to the class because they learned that scientist can be in any field, and race and any gender. The students were able to see real-life scientist which is so eye-opening for many young children. These children need physical experiences so they can more likely remember important information. It is crucial that teachers catch these misconceptions and guide students in the right direction. I thought this article was so interesting because it connected to the same assignment my class did, and the results were very similar. It was in general just an intriguing article because we often look over these common misconceptions. I really enjoyed this article and I suggest others also read it!

Article:
Bodzin, A., & Gehringer, M. (2001, January). Breaking Science Stereotypes. Retrieved December 5, 2018.