The College at Brown University awards curriculum development grants for courses that examine issues of structural inequity, racial formations and/or disparities, and systems of power.
Professor Gil's Spring 2023 course, Cultivating STEM Identities: Teaching for Equity in Math and Science Classrooms, will explore how educational experiences and beliefs about identity and power influence how we learn and teach mathematics and science.
Students will examine culturally responsive and sustaining teaching practices in secondary mathematics and science classrooms and how these can be utilized to cultivate students' STEM identities. They will also have an opportunity to visit a STEM classroom, develop and teach a lesson, and create a unit plan that could be implemented in a variety of contexts. This course was designed for students who are interested in equity-related issues in mathematics and science education and teaching.
Among other things, the award will support a speaker series featuring STEM education leaders in the local community.
- Victor M. Hunt and Weston de Lomba, the founders of Sprout and STEM, a nonprofit organization that provides low-income secondary students with "transformative and socially responsible education through tutoring, mentorship, professional development, and scholarships," will talk about interdisciplinary, inquiry-based STEM tutoring practices; Professor Gil is the faculty advisor at Sprout and STEM.
- Brianna Balke, a science teacher and Teacher Residency Site Leader at a MAT program partner school, Blackstone Academy, will talk about the underrepresentation of women in science and what can be done to change that.
- David Upegi, a science and Teacher Residency Site Leader at another of the MAT's partner schools, Central Falls High School, will talk about teaching students deep questioning techniques as a form of student empowerment.
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