STEP UP: Engaging Students in Discussion of the Underrepresentation of Women in Physics

Efforts to increase the representation of women in physics need to include a focus on high school students and thus need to engage high school physics teachers. High school is often the first and last time that a student takes a physics class. Fortunately, nearly half of high school physics students are young women. STEP UP is a national community with the goal of inspiring young women to pursue physics in college. We have created two lessons for high school teachers to implement: Women in Physics and Careers in Physics. This talk focuses on the Women in Physics lesson which explores the underrepresentation of women in physics and the role of implicit bias and cultural stereotypes. Students complete an assignment prior to the class discussion in which they reflect on the experience of women in physics. Classroom discussion is built around an interactive presentation on the underrepresentation of women in physics today and its causes. The presentation is designed to elicit students' personal experiences. Following the class discussion, students write an essay about how they perceive society's influence on women's career decisions and on their own individual career choices. We analyzed student work to examine the impact of the lesson on students’ views.