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Overview

PHYSICS AND STEM HEROES

Physics typically faces low enrollment in undergraduate degree programs. It is no surprise then that the number of minorities in physics is also low. However, when you break down the number of students and look at them from a percentage standpoint, the number of women and minorities in physics is incredibly low. Though Physics typically has the lowest percentages, all of the STEM fields can use some help to increase the number of women and minorities who wish to pursue degrees in these fields.

A goal to help address this issue that Dr. Rosengrant came up with is to target learning opportunities for students in middle and high school classrooms. Dr. Rosengrant believes that part of the reason there aren't more women and minorities going into Physics and STEM is that people don鈥檛 do enough to highlight the work that these individuals have done in K-12 classrooms. When Dr. Rosengrant was a high school teacher he knew the importance of this but lacked time to incorporate this into his curriculum. It is not that he didn鈥檛 have the desire, it was time. Now, as a professor in Physics and STEM education Dr. Rosengrant is incorporating this endeavor into his classes so that time is not an issue.

The goal of this project is to provide a hero for every topic a teacher addresses in the classroom. Teachers will use whatever lessons (occasionally Dr. Rosengrant will have samples loaded) from the curriculum they use but Dr. Rosengrant's Virtual STEM Laboratory has done the research to create a one page biography that teachers can print out and use. Thus in the far left column you have the overall discipline with the second column showing more specific content areas. The final column on the right shows the name of the person (with credit to the student who created it and in some cases and special explanation) whose name is hyperlinked to a Microsoft word file.

For example, John Dabiri is listed under Physics. Understanding the research behind Dabiri鈥檚 work on windfarms requires a great deal of understanding of physics and engineering which the basics is taught in middle and secondary schools (Bernoulli鈥檚 Principle, Electromagnetic Induction and Engineering by Design). If you are teaching any of these topics you can then talk about his work with vertical axis windmills. Instead of teaching concepts without applications, Dr. Rosengrant's Virtual STEM Laboratory uses the research to drive the teaching of the concepts and then couple that research with someone in STEM who can serve as a role model to minorities and women.

Please use and share these to help get more individuals interested STEM. Just keep in mind that most of these were from former students so if there are issues please let Dr. Rosengrant's Virtual STEM Laboratory know.