Science Autobiographies: What non-science majors tell us about science education.

Abstract

Scientific literacy is essential in an age where science impacts life on a daily basis. Consequently, science education (K-16) is critical to provide all with the background they need to be educated in an increasingly technological world. Student perceptions and experiences in their early science education shape their attitudes about science. Science autobiographies are one method to anecdotally assess a student's attitude as a reflection of their science education experiences. Students' comments from science autobiographies are presented and provide some clues as to why many students' attitudes and perceptions about science change throughout their academic careers.

"Everybody starts out as a scientist. Every child has a scientists' sense of wonder and awe."

-- Carl Sagan 

Carl Sagan's quote is an important one for science educators. It appropriately points instructors/teachers/educators to our charge, which is not solely to provide new information to students, but to maintain our students' pre-existing interest in the world. This quote also illustrates that our students' relationship with science is a deeply personal one, one which impacts theft cognitive and emotional responses to the world. Paying attention to these types of personal responses, then, can be an important indicator of their relationship with science. Below we provide an analysis of our students' personal experiences with science based on a written Science Autobiography.

As part of the Towson University General Education Requirements for graduation, non-science majors are required to take a course that falls into the category of Science, Technology and Society. We team-teach a course in this category called Women in Science. For a detailed discussion of our course, see Galupo & Gasparich (2000). As one of their required assignments in our Women in Science course, we ask our students to complete a Science Autobiography. Students are asked to trace their science history from their first science experience onward, relating specific memories and pinpointing specific influences in their scientific development.

The Science Autobiography provides a point of reflection for individual students, helping them to understand the development of their current relationship with science. Initially, many students are reluctant to begin their autobiographies, often expressing a belief that they have no relationship with science worth documenting. Through this exercise, however, they are surprised to find that they have more to say about the topic than they had first thought. Many begin to recognize that their autobiographies do not reflect a random sampling of isolated experiences in science. Rather, their autobiographies are their stories of scientific development and these stories have a direct relation to their current attitudes. Through this Science Autobiography assignment, many students also remember how much they initially enjoyed science and how many of their earliest science memories were positive. This serves as motivation to understand the cultural and educational influences that led them to their current attitude. In discussing their autobiographies in class, students express relief to hear common experiences among other classmates. All these revelations are important to our students and serve as a personal reference point when approaching course topics throughout the semester.

Our discussion of student responses to the Science Autobiography is organized topically. In general, student comments follow a chronological order beginning with earliest science memories, which were often located prior to the onset of formal education. Beginning with elementary school and continuing through college, science experiences were recalled largely in the context of the classroom. As educators, this is an important and humbling point. Our student narratives indicate that, for them, the world of science is limited to the academic. When taken together, their individual stories of scientific development ultimately provide us with a collective story of science education as it is experienced by the student.

First Science Experiences

Students' first experiences with the sciences were usually linked to exploration of the natural world in some way. Most often, these first science memories occurred before formal education, prior to adult feedback or commentary. Early science experiences were very active, hands-on and seen as part of normal play activity. Often our students related the wonder and curiosity associated with discovery.

(I remember) the older kids in my neighborhood were making dirt volcanoes erupt with baking soda and vinegar. I thought they were the coolest people in the world.

My first experience in the field of science that I recall is collecting lightning bugs ... until this course I had never looked at the fact that I enjoyed collecting these bugs as enjoying science.

My earliest childhood memory dealing with science would have to be when I discovered a bird's nest in one of my trees.

Looking out my window of my bedroom at the age of six I watched one snowflake after another fall from the sky. I became increasingly more interested as I observed the different shapes and sizes of the snowflakes.

I grew up in the Midwest, spending much of my time outdoors. Climbing trees, collecting worms, digging the dirt are all ways of discovering about the makeup of the earth. The things I thought were simply fun to do were actually preparing me for a deeper understanding of science.

My interest in Science started very early in my life. When I was around two or three years old I used to drive my parents crazy asking them how things worked.

I remember clearly that afternoon back in I would say 1983 when I was playing in our backyard and came upon a small strange stone that looked like perfect cylinder but definitely not made by man but rather formed by nature.

Elementary and Middle School

As early as elementary school, student comments indicate a movement away from the discovery aspects of science and more towards a parade of facts that become boring. Science is often seen as an extracurricular activity like art and music that gets incorporated if time allows after the lessons in reading, writing and mathematics. Only in the last 5 years has science actually been mandated at the elementary level in the state of Maryland. Although there is no enforcement, the mandate calls for 2 periods a week of science. In talking with several elementary school pre-service teachers it is clear that their reluctance to teach science stems from their own insecurities about the subject (basically this compounds the problem). However, new standardized assessment (MSPAP) exams in the state of Maryland (given to children in grades 3, 5 and 8) require an understanding of the process of science and data analysis which in mm will require teachers and schools to be more accountable to the mandate for science education in the future. Some comments concerning early science education at this level included:

My first memories of science probably started in elementary school. Nothing exciting really, just some footnotes in a book. Literally! My teacher would read something out of her book, and all of the important words that we needed to know were written on the board.

Science was never really emphasized that much when I was growing up. It was always one of those subjects that if we got to it, we got to it ... the main subjects were Reading, English and Math. No teacher was ever really upset if we did not get around to doing science.

Dinosaurs. I loved them ... I would pride myself on naming all of them. It was probably the first time I was told that some things were meant for boys and other things were meant for girls.

Science experiences during middle school were characterized as passive and tedious. As science became increasingly isolated to the classroom, our students no longer saw science as a potential point of connection with the natural world. Middle School represents an important mining point in science education, a time when most students, particularly girls, lose interest in science. Social pressures on young girls between the ages of 10 and 12 to be pretty, "dumb," nice and conforming are powerful (Smith and Erb, 1986). Our students' narratives reflected that students had an awareness that science was experienced differently across gender and this same observation has been repeatedly supported in the literature (AAUW, 1991; Shepardson and Pizzini, 1994; Simpson and Oliver, 1990). Students were able to articulate that their relationship with science was at least partially shaped by societal expectations and gender roles. Science education either reinforced these gender stereotypes, or at least failed to address societal pressures as they relate to science. In talking to several science educators the general consensus opinion seems to be that many teachers "teach as they were taught" and are not aware of any conscious bias. One common problem that needs to be addressed is that often times teachers respond to the context of the girl's questions and the content of the boy's questions and this does not allow the girls to develop confidence when challenged and questioned.

The first memory I have of science as a class, can be traced back to my middle school years. I believe the tedious work that went into three years of science fairs has scarred me for life.

My teachers were all pretty passive, and boring. We really did not do experiments, and the classes were all lectures. We were talked at ... not talked to.

In middle school, the classes with hands on were the ones that kept my interest.... we got to slice open worms and crickets. But that was the year that I was told that girls are not supposed to do things like that according to the seventh grade cool girl policy ... Science became a social faux pas.

My career aspirations had changed since elementary school, now I wanted to be either a fashion designer or a veterinarian or some combination of the two. My career choices at that time reflect the awkwardness of which I felt at that age. Girls were encouraged by their peers and the media to put more emphasis on their appearance and "girly stuff" instead of science.

High School and College

By the time many students reach high school they have already committed themselves to either pursue science or not. Students' discussion of their relationship with science at this level, reflects a complex mix of influences. Students continued to point out pedagogical concerns but their responses also indicated that, for them, science did not occur in a social vacuum. Science experiences were understood in the context of broader society -- an individual's relationship with science was also a reflection of how they were defined in and by the larger community in general.

By the end of my sophomore year I had become a strict vegetarian and that was the year of Biology/dissection ... science was no longer an interest. Twelfth grade Chemistry with Mrs. Henry. She was a white woman who favored the boys in the class ... It was my first encounter with gender discrimination.

We did so many microscope labs that I was beginning to think that biology meant microscope in a different language.

I had to make the choice between continuing my love for sciences and being called and alienated as a nerd by my family and peers or just jump in the main stream.

By the time many students reach college they have already decided that science is something to be avoided at all cost. Student responses tended to reflect a dissociation with science in general.

When I got here to college, I just wanted to get science over with.

My first year of college I avoided science like the plague. I remembered the difficulty I had in high school, so I could not imagine what college could do to complicate it.

I came to TU in the fall of 1996 and declared myself as Biology major. I thought that it was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life and my parents and family seemed pretty impressed with my decision. I think they really like the idea of having a "scientist" in the family.

Mentors and Role Models

Across all levels of science education a key issue reinforced by our students in their science autobiography was the presence of role models or mentors (AWLS, 1993; Bird, 1994).

Throughout my life there were not really any mentors that encouraged my interest in science.

The classic stereotype was rigidly enforced. Girls who were dominating their schedules with science and math were either unattractive introverts or attractive introverts. In other words geeks or prudes which no one including my friends, family, faculty, nor myself was willing to attempt or encourage.

Besides all this ambition for knowledge that was sparked by my admiration for the topic itself and the teachers, I definitely admit that movies and TV made a huge impact on my love for science. At that period I was watching all the old dinosaurs and alien movies. I was also reading some science fiction books. It was the era of the space shuttle Challenger and the popularity of space.

My family has never discouraged science blatantly; they have only encouraged other things more heavily. Most of my male friends are much more comfortable with math and science than me.

All told, our students offer a collective chronology of science experiences. Their stories speak to their individual development of scientific thought, but they also speak to science educators at all levels. Through their eyes, we are allowed to view the flip side perspective of our teaching. It is our belief that student perceptions are one of the most important indicators of our teaching effectiveness. When asked to provide advice for science teachers, this is what our students had to say: 1) provide alternatives to dissection (which is now becoming more common); 2) make science experiences more hands-on so that students can understand the process and not just the protocol; 3) relate science to real life experiences and apply concepts to real world issues; 4) make sure that girls and boys are equally encouraged and engaged in the process; and, 5) integrate mini-lecture format with active learning activities (understanding how science is done may be more important in the future than a set amount of content coverage).

It is our hope that in characterizing student perceptions of science experiences, science educators will reflect upon pedagogies that better address the issues raised by students. There are several excellent books available that specifically discuss strategies to make science more inclusive and to maintain students in the pipeline for future careers in the sciences (Peason and Fechter, 1994; Rosser, 1995; Rosser, 1997; Sonnert, 1995; Tobias, 1990)

Even though all students will not go on to pursue careers in the sciences, it is especially important that they are scientifically literate and knowledgeable enough to critically analyze the information presented to them by the lay media. As science educators, one of our main goals is to keep students knowledgeable about the scientific process and help them maintain that "sense of wonder and awe."

References

American Association of University Women. 1991. Shortchanging girls, shortchanging America: a nationwide poll to assess self esteem, educational experiences, interest in math and science, and career aspirations of girls and boys ages 9-15. Washington, DC: American Association of University Women.

Association for Women in Science. 1993. Mentoring means future scientists. Washington, DC: Association for Women in Science.

Bird, S.J. 1994. Overlooked aspects in the education of science professionals: mentoring, ethics, and professional responsibility. J. Science Education and Technology 3:49-55.

Galupo, M. P. and G. E. Gasparich. 2000. Integrating Gender Issues with Undergraduate Science Curricula. Journal of College Science Teaching. 29:279-282.

Pearson Jr., W. and A. Fechter. 1994. Who Will Do Science? Educating the Next Generation. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Baltimore, MD.

Rosser, S. V. 1995. Teaching the Majority: Breaking the Gender Barrier in Science, Mathematics and Engineering. Teachers College Press. New York, NY.

Rosser, S.V. 1997. Re-Engineering Female Friendly Science. Teachers College Press. New York, NY.

Shepardson, D. P., and E. L. Pizzini. 1994. Gender, achievement, and perception toward science activities. School Science and Mathematics 94:188-193.

Simpson, R. D. and J. S. Oliver. 1990. A summary of major influences on attitude toward and achievement in science among adolescent students. Science Education 74:1-18.

Smith, W., and T. O. Erb. 1986. Effect of women science career role models on early adolescents' attitudes toward scientists and women in science. J. Research in Science Teaching. 23: 664-676.

Sonnert, G. 1995. Who Succeeds in Science? The Gender Dimension. Rutgers University Press. New Brunswick, NJ.

Tobias, S. 1990. They're Not Dumb, They're Different: Stalking the Second Tier. Research Corporation. Tucson, AZ.

Gail E. Gasparich, Towson University, MD M. Paz Galupo, Towson University, MD

Dr. Gasparich is a microbiologist actively involved in undergraduate research and the recruitment and retention of women and minorities into the sciences. Dr. Galupo is a biopsychologist with both a professional and personal interest in women/minorities in science.