Equal-Opportunity Science : Programs Chip Away at Biases That Discourage Girls From the Field

A pint-sized women’s revolution is taking place in science classrooms all across Orange County. Girls are dropping “yuck” and “ick” from their science class lingo and are dissecting frogs and dismantling batteries with as much gusto as their male counterparts.

“Girls don’t have to be frilly and nice and clean in their science classes,” said Dorothy Terman, science coordinator for the Irvine Unified School District. “In fact, we want them to get messy. Why should boys have all the fun?”

Why indeed when girls can roll up their sleeves and tear apart stereo equipment and grow bean sprouts in after-school programs like Operation Smart, which stands for Science, Math And Relevant Technology. Sponsored by Girls Inc. in Newport Beach, the program separates the girls from the boys and lets them try all kinds of fun stuff like growing potato eyes.

Educators say changes in classrooms and after-school programs are slowly giving girls and boys equal opportunities in science and math, despite misconceptions that boys do better than girls.

School officials say girls have to be encouraged more than ever to succeed at a time when math and science test scores for all students are falling to all-time lows nationwide. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress Survey--popularly known as the Nation’s Report Card--only 14% of eighth-graders performed at the average or better proficiency level.

Worse, girls often begin losing interest in math and science when they reach junior high school because social stereotypes dictate that they should not show interest in the subjects, Terman said.

“Math and science are seen as being more masculine. Girls are told it’s not cool or feminine to like these subjects,” Terman said. “It’s socially acceptable for a girl to say ‘I’m not good in math.’ ”

Years ago, Terman used to visit a classroom and ask youngsters to draw pictures of what they thought scientists look like. Boys and girls shared the same images: Scientists were almost always balding white-haired men.

As time passed, her children began drawing more and more women scientists. Terman sees the drawings as evidence that girls themselves are finally seeing that they have a chance in careers in science.

At the Irvine Unified School District, 17 elementary science instructors--13 of them women--visit fourth- through sixth-graders twice a week. The 40-minute sessions counter stereotypes that boys are better than girls and teach that science is fun. One day the children are drawing Jupiter and Mars on paper. The next, they are petting bunnies that scamper around the room. The curriculum is carefully tailored to give students a chance to participate in experiments rather than memorize facts, Terman said. The strategy encourages girls to not be demure and not let boys see all the action.

Girls need positive role models and encouragement from their teachers to affirm that it is all right to succeed in science and math, says Phyllis L. Baker, a math-science program coordinator at UC Irvine’s academic development program. Baker, a former teacher at Santa Ana’s Spurgeon Intermediate School, visits Santa Ana and Compton schools to help students and teachers select courses that better prepare them for college.

“As teachers, we are guilty of calling on the boys all the time in math and science,” Baker said. “It’s a mind set. We think that boys have the right answers because it’s math. We call on girls in language arts because that’s where they’re suppose to be good.”

Such judgements are drilled into girls and women in the classrooms so “kids are not allowed to be kids equally,” says Meredith Osterfeld, science coordinator for Capistrano Unified School District.

Osterfeld remembers when she was a student and teachers tried to discourage her from pursuing science and advanced math classes.

“I had teachers who said, ‘Sweetie, don’t you want to take a home economics class instead?’ ” Osterfeld said. “We can’t let that go on in our schools. That’s nonsense.”

The Orange County Department of Education coordinates workshops that encourage teachers to treat boys and girls equally, said Ed Rodevich, coordinator of the department’s math and science instructional programs. One program is called Equals, which originally sprang from a teacher education program at UC Berkeley.

Since the stereotypes continue at home, the department also offers family math seminars that encourage districts to provide after-school programs to assist parents who work with their children in math.

At home, parents are quick to excuse their daughters when they do not do well in fractions or algebra, Baker said.

Operation Smart accepts no such excuses from the girls who attend its after-school program. While boys participate in home economics classes, girls rip open vacuum cleaners, grow squiggly roots on carrots and onions, and ask instructors as many questions as they want.

Girls, who may hold back in a science experiment when boys are around, speedily demolish household appliances with relish or build electronic rockets that take off at first try, said Rose Mary Parrovechio, director of programing for Operation Smart.

A hands-on approach will be applied statewide when California begins implementing new science curricula, said Kathy DiRanna, director of the California Science Implantation Network, a state Department of Education program.

“The idea is to let girls know that science belongs to them as well as the boys,” DiRanna said. “Kids are natural scientists. They are curious about everything. But somewhere along the line, we breed it out of them and stick their noses in books instead.”

Such approaches are practiced already in Irvine and Capistrano schools. At University Park Elementary School in Irvine, fourth-graders madly shake taped-shut shoe boxes to figure out what’s inside. When teacher Gale Kahn asks the class to guess what the boxes hold, a flash of hands wave wildly to draw her attention before she carefully selects an equal number of girls and boys for the answers. Nearby, dwarf frogs wallow in one tank while a lizard with horns lounges in another. Girls and boys alike fondle the lizard and even talk to it. No one says “ick.”

Even the boys and girls say they see no difference between themselves when the lessons begin.

“Girls get just as excited as the boys in science and math,” declared 9-year-old Diana Setterby, a fourth-grader.

And 9-year-old Michael Frank readily admitted that some girls do much better than the boys when it comes to asteroid fields and test tubes.

“Some boys don’t like science. They don’t turn in their homework or pay attention to the teacher,” Michael said. “The girls turn in their homework. And sometimes the boys fool around. But the girls . . . they really work.”