Websites for Students

http://chemgametutor.com/

This website contains games that help students reinforce skills.  Some of the skills that are practiced through this website are determining molarity, balancing equations, and naming compounds.  Chemgametutor will capture young adolescents attention because of its appearance as a videogame.  It is an excellent learning tool, I couldn’t get enough!

I would use this as an incentive, students who complete their work early could have the privilege to play the game.  Also, I would use this website to obtain the attention of students who seem to have no interest in chemistry.

http://www.chemmybear.com/

This website is a great site! It contains labs that students can do at home.  Also, the website has tutorials that explains complicated chemistry concepts.  There are animated molecular structures, to give students an idea of how the structures look. To implement this website in my classroom I may use the diagrams of the shapes of molecules in order for the students see the shapes in 3-demensional, not just drawn on the board.  This site may help students who do not really have good spatial skills.  

Why are female students underrepresented in STEM

Both boys and girls are as interested in math and science in elementary, however once in higher levels of education girls begin to lose interest. Women are making strides in STEM, but there are still not many females in the STEM field.  For example, in physics, engineering, and computer science only 20% of women are awarded a bachelor's degree in those fields. There has been research conducted to conclude why females are underrepresented in STEM.

Studies show that one reason for the underrepresentation of females in STEM is the mindset of females.  According to Dr. Drweck there are two mindsets growth and fixed.  Those with fixed believe one is born with intelligence and that intelligence cannot be improved.  The problem with this thinking is that when young women encounter a problem or cannot understand a concept they may give up.  They feel like they are not smart enough, or else they would have gotten the concept the first time.  I can personally relate to this type of thinking, because I feel like I myself have had this mindset at times.  Girls with a growth mindset believe intelligence can improve with work, tend to have a higher confidence level. If they encounter a difficult task, they keep at it until they complete the task.  Their confidence grows because they have increased their knowledge or ability.

Another reason for the lack of girls in STEM is because of the stereotypes.  An example is the stereotype that boys are smarter than girls in math.  When girls are aware of stereotypes it may cause a negative effect on their performance.  Research showed that when a group of girls were expose to the stereotype mentioned above they did far worst than a group of girls who were not exposed to the stereotype.

http://www.aauw.org/act/issue_advocacy/actionpages/upload/WSFbriefing050410_transcript.pdf

http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3748784

http://www.stanford.edu/group/gender/cgi-bin/wordpressblog/2011/02/negative-math-stereotypes-too-few-women/

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/girls-learn-technology/prweb8369604.htm

Additional Websites for Chemistry Students

http://www.chemistryhelp.net/

This website has games that may be popular among students such as Jeopardy, Who wants to be a Chemist, and a matching game.  The games also allow students to review elements on the periodic table, chemical compounds, and basic chemistry. The students could use this site as a review tool in order to get ready for upcoming quizzes and tests. I could also use this site in class on review days and have the students split up into teams and play Jeopardy against each other.  This may boost the students' excitement about chemistry.


http://www.khanacademy.org/#browse

The Khan academy is a site that has mini lectures for almost every content.  This website has a mini lecture for almost every unit of chemistry.  Students could use this website to reteach a earlier unit of chemistry if they just so happen to have forgotten the unit.  Also, if a student didn't understand what was taught in class, they could go to the Khan Academy website to see if they could better understand the material given by a different instructor.  The students could also use this website as a means of getting ahead so that material presented in the next days lecture wont be so hard to comprehend.  In my mentor's class, we used this site so that the students could have more examples and practice with electron configuration

STEM Literacy Iquiry Group Focus Area

Ashley DiCriscio- Teacher's roles in STEM literacy
Michelle Gray- Girls and STEM literacy
Jason Goetz- Why STEM literacy is important?

INQUIRY QUESTION #1

Why is STEM and girls such a hot topic?

The push for young girls to become interested in STEM has been a major topic recently. A reason for the push for girls to be interested in STEM is because studies show that more males go into STEM careers than females.  Young girls may be interested in STEM at first, however they do not major or pursue careers in STEM.   This may be due to a lack of role models for girls within STEM fields or due to no real life connection within the classroom. 

This is a concern because today majority of careers require skills and knowledge that is gained through STEM.  For instance, a beautician has to know the right ph scale for mixing hair dye.  Also, the world is relying on technology everyday now, so soon it will be essential for everyone to have technological skills.  Due to the deficiency of women in STEM fields, there are many STEM programs developing everywhere geared towards young girls to get them interested.  An example is Western High’s Biomedical program.  This program gives the girls an opportunity to take courses and try to encourage them in pursuing careers in the biomedical field

http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/09/08/engaging-girls-in-stem.aspx