UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies (STS) offers secondary school teachers inset days, working together to help expand knowledge about our subject while improving school activities.
(This is a report from STS Alchemy, number 3, about our first STS Inset Day held in 2018.) A considerable gender gap exists when looking at STEM subjects at University, despite girls outscoring boys in tests at school level. The field of STS, with its insight into communication and policy, has much to offer when trying to solve this issue, and so the department decided to run its first Inset day to help teachers find new approaches for encouraging young women to take up STEM subjects.The day began with a brief introduction from Dr Emma Tobin, covering the programme for the day, before Dr Emily Dawson held a session on 'The Co-construction of Gender and Science'. Head of Department Professor Joe Cain then gave a talk on using biographies to move beyond the idea of the 'genius male scientist' - a talk based around the book 'Women in Science' by Rachel Ignotofsky.
Free copies of the book were given to attendees to help provide inspiration for future classes. Following a short coffee break, the group then moved to the UCL Art Museum where Dr Chiara Ambrosio discussed using objects and informal science learning spaces to move beyond standard teaching approaches. Using several artworks from the museum, Chiara discussed ways in which historical views of men and women can be countered, allowing for a less gender-biased teaching method. After a brief tour around UCL's 'Disrupters and Innovators' exhibition, the group then broke for lunch, finishing off with a detailed session on using data analytics to make gender inequality more visible, held by PhD students kat cecil and Em O'Sullivan.
Quotes from teachers who attended include:
'The Speakers were all extremely engaging and knowledgable! Thank You!'
'This was a really useful and insightful workshop - thank you so much!'
'Really good discussion, get to think things through properly. Love the background and literature!'
Feedback from the event was overwhelmingly positive, and future inset days are planned. If you're a teacher and would like to take part in a future STS Inset Day, or would like someone from STS to give a talk to your students, contact the department by email at sts@ucl.ac.uk.
For more full articles, visit our Alchemy page.
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