Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2013
Volume 58, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 18–22, 2013; Baltimore, Maryland
Session G9: Invited Session: Broadening Participation in Physics and Other STEM Fields |
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Sponsoring Units: FEd Chair: Paul Cottle, Florida State University Room: 308 |
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 11:15AM - 11:51AM |
G9.00001: Broadening participation in Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Maryland Baltimore County Invited Speaker: Philip Rous Over the past two decades, UMBC has undertaken a series of efforts to broaden participation in the natural sciences and mathematics, beginning with the establishment of the Meyerhoff program. Using as examples the multiple initiatives that followed, and with a focus on the challenge of increasing access and success of all students who enter as both freshmen and transfer students, I will describe a model of culture change that we have employed repeatedly to understand and guide our efforts in broadening participation. Particular attention will be paid to the concept of cultural capital, the role of innovators and the challenge of scaling small-scale innovations towards institutional change. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 11:51AM - 12:27PM |
G9.00002: APS Initiatives for Broadening Participation Invited Speaker: Theodore Hodapp Women currently earn only about 20{\%} of physics degrees, while African Americans and Hispanic Americans combined -- representing 34{\%} of the US population in their 20's -- earn only 9{\%} and 5-6{\%} of the Bachelor and Doctoral degrees respectively. To address these disparities, and improve conditions for everyone who studies physics, the APS devotes significant resources to addressing these concerns and to enabling individuals and groups to work with the APS to advance these goals. In this presentation, I will outline several of our most significant programs, give data that informs decisions to adopt programs, and describe current plans. Included in this is the new APS Bridge Program (www.APSBridgeProgram.org) for increasing underrepresented minority participation at the PhD level, the APS Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics (go.aps.org/cuwip), and the APS Minority Scholars Program (www.MinoritiesInPhysics.org). Please bring your ideas and concerns for how we might improve participation for all. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 12:27PM - 1:03PM |
G9.00003: Drawing minority students into the physics community Invited Speaker: Paul Gueye In the past few years, the number of African-American undergraduate physics students in the US had a steady decrease with dramatic consequences at many physics departments within Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). A similar trend seems to also appear at the graduate level. HBCUs have been known to graduate more than 50{\%} of undergraduate physics majors within this community for many years, a role that is now evaporating. The US African-American community cannot lose the historical and sometimes unnoticed impact of HBCUs in the physics community. The ability for these institutions to recruit, maintain and graduate students with the highest degree has turned a corner and is endangered with the recent closings of many programs. We not only must reverse this trend but also implement a sustainable growth for the future. This is an enormous task for the education community. While there are many outstanding and successful programs that have been developed over the years to target particular areas ranging from early K-12 exposure to producing MS and PhD students, each community/culture is different: one cannot transport someone else's experience and/or program and infuse it into another community. Moreover, the focus must now be comprehensive and not anymore single-centered. This talk will outline some ongoing efforts within the National Society of Black Physicists aimed at infusing a global approach to this problem that targets school districts (K-12) and after school programs, undergraduate and graduate programs within HBCUs, and the larger physic and scientific community. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 1:03PM - 1:39PM |
G9.00004: Drawing Women In: Engaging in Science and Engineering Disciplines Invited Speaker: Senta Greene Recent data on the participation of women in the scientific, technological, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) disciplines shows a landscape that is somewhat different from our expectations in the past. For example, women who earn bachelors' degrees in physics go on to earn PhDs, be hired to faculty positions, and achieve promotions at the same rate as their male counterparts. However, such gains do not foretell equal participation of women in physics since, although girls make up about half of high school physics classes, the fraction of bachelor's degrees earned by women has been flat at around 20{\%} for about a decade. This remains true even with significantly increased awareness of the need to attract more women to STEM fields and despite various interventions to attract and retain talented women. This talk will present an overview of data on women's participation in STEM disciplines, provide possible explanations for the continued failure to attract women to some STEM fields, and give a brief description of some current interventions. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 1:39PM - 2:15PM |
G9.00005: How Undergraduate Women Choose STEM Careers Invited Speaker: Roxanne Hughes In 2010 women represented half of the US population and over half of current graduates from college (57{\%}) but less than a third of undergraduate degrees in science and engineering (STEM). This underrepresentation is worse in certain fields such as physics (21{\%}), and engineering (22{\%}) compared to 52{\%} in chemistry. This underrepresentation is not only a social and cultural issue, but it is also cause for alarm in regard to the United States' ability to maintain its technological and economic dominance in the global economy. STEM fields provide valuable contributions to the nation's economic and environmental security (Augustine, 2005; Chang, 2009; Riegle-Crumb and King, 2010; Robelen, 2010; Tessler, 2008), paying practitioners well and bringing in revenue for successful businesses and governments (National Science Board [NSB], 2008; Riegle-Crumb and King). Consequently, addressing the underrepresentation of women and increasing their persistence in STEM fields will increase the number of scientists and engineers contributing to these fields, which could, in turn, improve the nation's economy, safety, and technological revenues. Research indicates that there are internal and external factors that affect the ability of women to see future success in STEM and to identify with the STEM and consequently persist. This presentation will summarize the current literature on issues affecting undergraduate women's retention in STEM as well as present strategies to improve this retention. Part of this presentation will draw from my own research studies in this area. The findings from my study and others reveal that only women who participate in redefinition strategies related to their marginalized status are able to persist; those who cannot redefine their marginality in relation to the dominant discourse of STEM begin to lose interest or doubt their competence in the field, resulting in their departure from STEM. [Preview Abstract] |
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