Kathryne Sparks Woodle, American Physical Society

For a number of years, the American Physical Society (APS) has been searching for a way to increase the fraction of women who participate in physics at the undergraduate (and above) level. From the time they start their undergraduate studies all the way up through becoming assistant professors, women make up about 20% of the people pursing a physics major/career in the United States. High school physics, on the other hand is comprised of nearly 50% women, so we realized that if we wanted to change things for the country, we need to look earlier and enlist the help of high school physics teachers.

Consequently, we designed, and were recently funded by the National Science Foundation to mount, a national effort to work with high school physics teachers to reduce barriers and inspire young women to major in physics in college, now known as STEP UP 4 Women. Led by Prof. Zahra Hazari, a team of physics education researchers at Florida International University and Texas A&M Commerce worked alongside a group of experienced high school physics teachers and representatives from APS and the American Association of Physics Teachers to begin a project to Support Teachers to Encourage the Pursuit of Undergraduate Physics for (STEP UP 4) women.¹

To create inclusive classrooms and encourage young women to pursue a degree in physics, STEP UP 4 Women has designed two classroom lessons and a guide with general strategies to provide high school physics teachers with resources to take achievable and concrete steps on the longer journey to enact cultural change. If half of the high school physics teachers in the U.S. encourage just one more female student to pursue physics as a major each year, a historic shift will be initiated–female students will make up 50% of incoming physics majors.

Preliminary results from the pilot study show that the two lessons, "Careers in Physics" and "Women in Physics," improve students’ future physics intentions (e.g., majoring in physics in college, intending physics-related careers) in classes across the U.S. (N=823).² Both female and non-female students have positive gains from the lesson. A controlled experimental study in 30+ classrooms is currently underway to provide additional insight into the impact of the materials, including the general strategies guide, called Everyday Actions.

The Everyday Actions guide focuses on explicitly recruiting, reducing the marginalization of, and promoting the recognition of students throughout the year. Teachers are encouraged to use these actions to increase the inclusivity of their classroom environment. Everyday Actions is broken into recommended strategies, each supported by research and accompanied by anecdotes from students and teachers reflecting the effectiveness of these actions and examples of how to inspire, particularly female, students to continue in physics. Here's a snapshot of some of the recommendations:

When you… Talk to Students Individually

• Recognize students: Discuss with students why they would be a good fit for physics. Remind students of these messages regularly – students might not internalize the message the first time.

When you… Facilitate Group Work/Labs

• Choose group members: Ensure women are taking active roles.

When you… Address the Whole Class

• Distribute attention: Distribute attention during class discussions. Make sure all students can participate and that male students don’t dominate the discussion.

When you… Plan and Assess

• Plan lessons with context: Incorporate real world physics examples related to helping people (e.g. medical/health, alternative energy, climate science).

When you're… Outside the Classroom

• Parents and family: Provide parents with information about job opportunities in physics.

These general strategies are not limited to high school! We encourage you to join the project and share the Everyday Actions guide with your colleagues and students. As a sneak peek at stepup4women.org, we've made a self-reflection instrument with all the strategies listed available for you to use to rate your own use of inclusive practices right now. We also have a poster available that presents guidelines for conduct during discussions from the "Women in Physics" lesson. These are great to set the tone in any classroom. There's a limited supply, but if you'd like one, please email stepup4women@aps.org.

STEP UP 4 Women was created to increase the number of women pursuing the study of physics, regardless of their race/ethnicity. However, our preliminary research shows that when broken down by demographics, the lessons are beneficial to students from traditionally underrepresented races/ethnicities in physics as well. We also include statistical data on the underrepresentation of specific races/ethnicities in physics in the appendix of the "Women in Physics" lesson to complement discussion of the topic should it arise. In our pursuit to increase the number of women in physics, we hope to enact cultural change that will make physics more welcoming for all marginalized groups, including those with non-binary genders as well as others in the LGBT+ community.

After just one year, STEP UP 4 Women already has over 400 members. We welcome all those interested in changing the culture of physics to reduce barriers and inspire more women to participate–not just high school physics teachers but university faculty and students too. If you work with pre-service teachers, you have a unique opportunity to help! Not only can you help inspire them to become inclusive teachers, they may encourage their future colleagues to join the STEP UP 4 Women effort as well. Join the movement at stepup4women.org!

Kathryne Sparks Woodle is the APS Program Manager for STEP UP 4 Women. She enjoys working in the APS Education and Diversity department on initiatives that support cultural change to enable those from groups underrepresented in physics to join the physics community.

¹ Stepup4women.org
² H. Cheng, G. Potvin, R. Khatri, L. Kramer, R. Lock, Z. Hazari, Examining physics identity development through two high school interventions, 2018 PERC Proceedings [Washington DC, August 1-2, 2018], accepted.

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Disclaimer – The articles and opinion pieces found in this issue of the APS Forum on Education Newsletter are not peer refereed and represent solely the views of the authors and not necessarily the views of the APS.