December 2008
STEM Equity Pipeline News
ARTICLES
Need Help With Class? Youtube Videos Await
(Rasha Madkour, Associated Press)
When University of Central Florida junior Nicole Nissim got stumped in trigonometry,
she checked out what was showing on YouTube. Nissim typically scours the video-sharing
Web site for clips of bands and comedy skits. But this time she wasn't there to
procrastinate on her homework. It turned out YouTube was also full of math videos.
After watching a couple, the psychology major says, she finally understood trig
equations and how to make graphs.
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Expanding Women's Participation in US Science
(Sue V. Rosser and Mark Zachary Taylor, Global Education)
As US competitiveness is increasingly challenged on all sides, the forced attrition
of women from the STEM workforce represents an annual cost of billions of dollars.
This loss comes at a time when the United States is facing an absolute decline in
entry-level engineers and growing rivalry from foreign innovators. Most discussions
hold that gender equality is the primary benefit of, and reason for, getting more
women into science. But this is not the primary benefit. Instead, the failure to
expand women's participation in science is not simply an issue of "feminism" or
civil rights but increasingly a problem for US economic security.
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Information
Digital Domain: What Has Driven Women Out of Computer Science?
(Randall Stross, New York Times)
Many computer science departments report that women now make up less than 10 percent
of the newest undergraduates.
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Math Teachers in Many High-Poverty Schools a Mere "Chapter Ahead" of Their Students
(Libby Quaid, The Seattle Times)
A study by the Education Trust has found that NCLB requirements notwithstanding,
in high-poverty schools, two in five math classes are taught by a teacher without
a college major or certification in math. In schools with a high proportion of African-American
and Latino children, nearly one in three math classes is taught by such a teacher,
according to the Associated Press.
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Online, Teacher-Written Chapters Aim to Modernize Science Textbooks
Most Virginia high-school physics textbooks ignore most of the past century of advances
in string theory, nanotechnology and particle physics. Rather than waiting for more
modern standards and books, the state's secretaries of education and technology
are asking top educators to write their own chapters and put them online as free
supplements.
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Who's Better at Science? Heritage High Clubs Also Teach Responsibility and Leadership
(Cathy Grimes, dailypress.com)
It's a battle of the sexes as two Heritage High School clubs in Newport News compete
with their own and NASA challenge experiments.
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RESOURCES
SAVE THE DATE
"Partners on the Path to Equity"
March 29-April 1, 2009 - Arlington, VA
"What Science Educators Make"
January 8-10, 2009 - Hartford, CT
"Center Stage: Effective Strategies for Recruitment and Talent Development"
June 17-19, 2009 - Austin, TX