IS SCIENCE ME? Tracing the Roots of Girls' Decisions to Pursue Science

California Institute Of Technology, Pasadena CA

Investigators

Abstract

This 3-year longitudinal project studies how diverse girls' attitudes, perceptions, and experiences in grades 7-12 influence both subtle and explicit choices leading towards or away from a college major in science. Participants come from 4 urban and suburban districts whose students represent a range of economic background and ethnicities. The design would follow two cohorts of students, one from 7th to 10th grade and one from 10th grade into the first year of college. The middle school cohort allows a broad look at student experiences before they formally enter the pipeline, while the high school cohort focuses on those students who are most likely to pursue science and engineering careers. The study includes an annual large-scale survey of the full cohort and an annual in-depth interview with a continuing subset of students. Contextual interviews with selected parents, science teachers, guidance counselors, and others are also included. Both quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques are used. This project seeks to explore the linkage between school and extracurricular experiences of female students to their decision to pursue a science college major. These variables have been found to be related to the gender gap in achievement and attitudes about science, but a formal linkage between them and girls' decision to pursue a science major has not been established. This research has the potential to identify factors that might facilitate the recruitment of females in science majors.