Science, YES! Constructing a Love for Teaching Science

Abstract

esearch shows that all children, but girls in particular, lose their enthusiasm for science as they continue in school. Low teacher expectations, gender-biased teaching and counseling, and parental discouragement contribute to girls' diminishing interest in science (AAUW 1992). Because the majority of elementary school teachers are women, we can see how the problem perpetuates itself. Women teachers using outmoded curricula and the same strategies that failed to excite them as students can result in a cycle of lack of interest in science. Our nation's continued advancement in science and technology requires that we end this cycle and attract as many talented men and women as we can to those fields. The primary goal of Science, YES!, a Goals 2000 project,' was to reform science education by making it handson, minds on and free of gender bias. The project was developed at Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York. Kingsborough collaborated with five community school districts, three Brooklyn high schools, the New York City Board of Education Offices of Multicultural Education and Early Childhood Education, and business and community partners to provide a tuitionfree, six-credit, summer institute for teachers. The institute provided courses in the principles of science and the methodology of teaching science to fifty-six teachers from prekindergarten through grade twelve. Parents, teachers, and administrators from the participating schools were invited to participate in three parent and staff development conferences during the course of the project. Several things emerged throughout the project: teachers became excited about science curriculum; teachers became more comfortable teaching science and more aware of how