Increasing Diversity in STEM - Sponsored by Ocean Discovery Institute

Challenge: Ocean Discovery is working towards one solution: providing young students from diverse backgrounds with continuous science opportunities, paired with mentoring and the tools to overcome challenges. This is not the only solution: what else do you think we can do?

Explore

The Problem

Today, many young people in our country live in poverty and lack opportunities to succeed. One of the opportunities that is absent is access to rigorous science education. Because of this, kids who grow up in underserved communities don’t believe science is something they can do or that a scientist is someone they can be, which contributes to the lack of diversity in the field. This means that we are missing the chance for great discoveries by not including all people.

Possible Solutions

Ocean Discovery is working towards a solution, but it is just one option. We are providing students with continuous science opportunities, mentoring, and the tools to succeed. This opens the door for more students of color to gain the interest and skill necessary to pursue STEM careers and increase the diversity in the field. However, this is not the only solution. We need to address the problem in multiple ways to achieve lasting success. How can you help? What do you think needs to be done to increase representation in STEM?

Investigate

What else can you learn about why increasing diversity is important? What can you learn about organizations that are attempting to make change, and what new ideas can you come up with yourself? How can change be made on a local, state, national, and/or global level?

Here are few local resources to get you started:

Additional reading & statistics:

Plan

What do you need?

• A computer, internet access, and an email address

• Your brain!

Time & Place

This can be done anywhere at any time, as long as you have access to a computer!

Action Steps

• Step 1: Do your research

• Step 2: Come up with a solution

• Step 3: Learn about and practice with ArcGIS StoryMaps

• Step 4: Create your presentation & share!

Do

Action Step 1: Research

Take some time to read about the problem. In addition to the resources above, find at least one other source that details the problem of lack of diversity in STEM, why it matters, and/or what people are doing about it. Your source can be a video, newspaper article, journal article, or other form of media, but it must come from a credible source.

Suggestions include:

• TED Talks

• Google Scholar searches for open-access articles

• Newspapers or other online news sources

Action Step 2: Your Solution

How do you think we can address this problem? What are your ideas?

After reading about what is being done currently, come up with one idea for how diversity in STEM can be successfully increased. This could be a completely original idea, or an extension/modification of something you learned is being done.

Action Step 3: Learning ArcGIS StoryMaps

You will communicate your research and ideas using a tool called ArcGIS StoryMaps. This is a diverse, useful tool to communicate information to your audience in a meaningful way. It utilizes ArcGIS mapping software, which is an important tool used in science and beyond. At the end of this document, you will find a how-to guide for getting started with and using this software. Following those steps, take a little time to familiarize with the software and look at some examples for what can be done (our favorite examples listed at the end).

Action Step 4: Creating in ArcGIS StoryMaps

-- Click Here for ArcGIS StoryMaps Guide --

Using the guide, create a Story that includes the following:

• Text and links to sources that describes the problem and solutions

• Images that help the audience understand and stay engaged

• At least one map that displays data points. These could be places could show locations of organizations working to solve the problem, examples of places around the world where the gap is highest/lowest, or anything else you can represent on a map. Be creative, but you can keep it simple. The goal is to begin learning what you can do on this new software, so no one is expecting you to be an expert.

Share

Step 1:

To submit your entry, Please share your creation here. (click hyperlink to submit)

*NOTE: there are steps in the how-to guide below that will help you publish it publicly. The URL link can then be shared here so others can see it.

Step 2:

In addition to submitting above, share your link with us by emailing it to Ocean Discovery’s program manager, Joel Barkan, at jbarkan@oceandi.org no later than August 21st. Your Stories will be judged by a diverse panel of scientists who are working towards addressing inequities in STEM as well. The winner and runner-up will be announced on August 28th, and they will each receive Amazon gift cards!

Please share your learning with SDUSD here we will post your pictures and videos here for all to see.