TeachingElementaryScience

Arne Duncan at NSTA

I got the great privlege to meet and talk with Arne Duncan, our current Secretary of Education.  He spoke at this year’s NSTA Conference in New Orleans and offered a lot of hope and encouragement to science educators of the United States.  He spoke about many topics in science education including our task of preparing our students to become globally competitive in STEM careers. He also challenged the educators to reach out to all students and engage them in science.

Bill Nye, Judy McDonald and Arne Duncan

I wanted to make a difference so I created a program to include girls in STEM careers.  The paper in my hand describes a program I created, Girls Leading Girls in Science.  This program was held on Monday, March 30 on the campus of Belmont Abbey College.  This program was created to match female science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors from Belmont Abbey College (BAC) with 5^th grade girls from a local elementary school, North Belmont Elementary School, to encourage them to consider entering college as STEM majors. The 5th grade girls attended a college STEM class, toured the campus, and attended a luncheon with women from the community who are in STEM careers.  A mentoring partnership will be developed between the women college students from BAC and the 21 girls at North Belmont Elementary School.

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Conversation with Arne Duncan about Girls Leading Girls

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I am so glad that the new administration has finally placed science as a priority.  Even at the state level science education has taken a front page in the news.  I teach elementary science education to pre-service teachers and they are even getting more science teaching time in the classroom.

As we rediscover science in the elementary classroom have we left some students behind? I think we have.  I believe that girls and those students who come from a low socioeconomic home have been left behind in science education.  I have created a program to encourage girls from low socioeconomic homes to participate and perhaps even major in science.  I am targeting fifth grade girls for my program called Girls Leading Girls in Science.

It is a collaboration between our college, Belmont Abbey College, and a local elementary school.  We are so excited to host a day where the elementary students come to our campus paired with a college female STEM major and experience a college day.  We hope to encourage the fifth grade girls to attend college through our mentoring.

Science is for all students but sometimes we need to encourage groups who have and are still underrepresented.  Please contact me if you are interested in starting a Girls Leading Girls in Science at your college or local science

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