after the bell

A conversation with Michael Summers described in the NYT tells about an undergraduate program at the University of Maryland – Baltimore County that recruits and nurtures minority scientists.  In addition to the main point of the article, which is that it is possible to activity promote minority participation in science at the undergraduate level, two points were also clear: 

1.  One of the barriers that minority students face at the undergraduate level comes about when courses are framed as “weed-out” or gatekeeper experiences, either for professional programs or the discipline itself.  While those that survive these courses might actually like the notion that they were somehow recognized as worthy of the continuing in whatever program they are progressing into, other students may take the posturing and rhetoric of exclusivity to mean that they do not belong.

2.  Prof. Summer’s efforts were inspired in part by K-12 school teachers.  One of these teachers was an African American who set high standards and communicated his enthusiasm for science. 

I believe that this article also suggests a vision for how K-12 teachers might encourage underrepresented groups of students to consider their options in science.  What can we as teachers do to reduce the exclusivity and increase the excitement around high school science?  What attitudes about students’ roles in science will you convey and how?

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