July 2008
STEM Equity Pipeline News
ARTICLES
A New Frontier for Title IX: Science
(John Tierney, New York Times)
Until recently, the impact of Title IX, the law forbidding sexual discrimination
in education, has been limited mostly to sports. But now, under pressure from Congress,
some federal agencies have quietly picked a new target: science. The National Science
Foundation, NASA and the Department of Energy have set up programs to look for sexual
discrimination at universities receiving federal grants. Investigators have been
taking inventories of lab space and interviewing faculty members and students in
physics and engineering departments at schools like Columbia, the University of
Wisconsin, M.I.T. and the Univ of Maryland.
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Math Is "Hot"
(Valerie Schremp Hahn, St. Louis Post Dispatch)
The middle-schoolers at the Mathematicians in Residence program scribbled numbers
on white, poster-sized paper as they worked through the day's challenge: Which store
had the better bargain on cat food? Students then checked out and commented on each
group's math prowess. A note on one poster delivered the ultimate middle school
compliment: "That's hot." The program, held at Parkway's Southwest Middle School
in Ballwin, aims to help teachers and students think of math as, well, hot.
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"Nerd Girls" TV Program Challenges Stereotypes
(Amanda Davis)
In the midst of reality TV shows featuring dancers, models, and singers trying to
make it in show business, IEEE.tv is now showing a pilot of a reality show about
a team of female engineering students trying to build a solar car. The group from
Tufts University in Medford, Mass., called Nerd Girls, attracted the interest of
producer Kristina Johnson, whose California-based production company filmed the
project last summer.
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For Women in Physics, the Pipeline Is a Labyrinth
(from July 2008 MentorNet News)
Physicist Patricia Rankin asserts that there is no glass ceiling that blocks women's
advances to the top levels of physics. Nor is the problem a career pipeline that
leaks women at every junction until, by the end, there are very few left; actual
career paths are not so straightforward. No, the situation is much more complicated.
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"Nerd Girls" Out to Prove That Beauties Can Be Brainy
(Edutopia Technology in Education Newsletter)
A group seeks to shatter stereotypes and attract girls to technology careers. "There's
a stereotype out there," Danielle Vardaro, an engineer for Boeing, told TODAY's
Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb Friday. And it's not a pretty one. Women are still
rarely thought of as engineers, said Karen Panetta, a belly-dancing professor of
engineering at Tufts University and the founder of Nerd Girls.
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"Math Class Is Tough" No More: Girls' Skills Now Equal Boys'
Sixteen years after Barbie dolls declared, "Math class is tough!" girls are proving
that when it comes to math they are just as tough as boys.
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A Silent Crisis: The Underrepresentation of Latinos in STEM Careers
There is much worry today about America's competitiveness and the future of the
U.S. economy. The real wealth generator in the current global economy is innovation,
and the high-technology jobs that flow from innovation. Indeed, a recent report
from the U.S. Department of Labor suggests that over the next 10 years, the country's
need for people with technical expertise is going to grow by 50 percent.
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Tech gURLs: Closing the Technological Gender Gap
How do educators engage female students in computer science?
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