Alien Earths

Rationale

There are multiple reasons why this unit is so meaningful for me to write, and share with other educators. The major reason is that the gender, racial, and income disparities in our school system inevitably set students like my 5^th graders in Philadelphia to fail in school, especially in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines. These disparities need to be addressed as a global urgency in order to advocate free and equal education for all children. According to the 2019 National Science Board’s data, men continue to dominate the STEM fields with 73% representation, even though women made up nearly 50% of the U.S. workforce; women had made slow progress from 8% in 1979 to 34% in 2019 of the STEM workforce.⁴ Similarly, the racial disparity is undeniably disconcerting: Whites represent 65%, Hispanics 14%, Asians 9%, and Blacks 9% of the STEM workforce.⁵ Blacks and non-white Hispanics with a bachelor’s degree or higher in STEM are disproportionately underrepresented, relative to their overall U.S. population.⁶ For low-income students, they are more likely to attend low-income schools with limited access to STEM resources, classes, and opportunities.⁷ For other marginalized groups like the LGBTQ+ STEM community, 32.9% experienced harassment at work compared to 22.7% of their non-LGBTQ peers.⁸ So what are the “root causes” for these unjust disparities? Besides the obvious discriminatory environments, many reports mentioned deficient K-12th Math and Science education as a contributing factor to the stagnant graduation rates in STEM for those who are female, a member of a racial minority, from a low-income family, and/or a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

I want to use this unit to inspire ALL students to think of themselves as future space travelers and global citizens, especially those who feel they are marginalized and underrepresented in the fields of science. Students should learn about the great accomplishments and international collaboration of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in the International Space Station (ISS). Students should also be introduced to the many pioneers like Ed Dwight, Jr. (1933, age 88) who is now described as “the almost first black astronaut,” Ruth Bates Harris (1919-2004) who was fired for her whistleblowing on NASA’s discriminatory hiring practices, and the controversy surrounding NASA’s refusal to rename the James Webb Space Telescope. Below are examples of videos and articles that can serve as catalysts to discuss the gender and racial disparities in STEM: 1) The Color of Space: a NASA Documentary Showcasing the Stories of Black Astronauts, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6vYHdH0AeE; 2) I Was Poised to be the First Black Astronaut, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj1sJQW98nE; 3) Ruth Bates Harris, a Whistle Blower for Equality, https://historicsites.dcpreservation.org/items/show/1007; 4) Who Is James Webb? https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/was-james-webb-scientists-want-rename-james-webb-space-telescope-rcna37838; 5) and NASA Astronauts Celebrate Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month, www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuDPzaiD6qQ.

The second important reason is that I want to address the gender stereotypes and biases that “boys are better than girls in math and science.” Most boys (unfortunately not as many girls as I would like) had once dreamt of becoming an astronaut flying into space. Students (especially girls) learn at a young age that if you are not good at math, then you are not good at science. Equally-biased is the fact that when a student struggles with reading and writing, they are immediately labelled “dumb” or “stupid.” According to the World Space Flight’s website, as of August 2022, there are 628 people (citizens from 42 countries) who have been to space based on the United States Air Force’s (USAF) definition; and 615 people.⁹ On a NASA’s webpage celebrating Women’s History Month, it reads: “As of March 2022, 75 women have flown in space, including cosmonauts, astronauts, payload specialists, and space station participants.”¹⁰ During the Space Race, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968) became the first man in space on April 12, 1961, and just a month later, on May 5^th, Alan B. Shepard (1923-1998) became the 1^st American astronaut in space.¹¹ It took twenty-two (22) years later in 1983 for Sally Ride (1951-2012) to become the 1^st American woman astronaut to fly in space, and the 3^rd woman after Valentina Tereshkova (1937, age 85) in 1963, and Svetlana Savitskaya (1948, age 73) in 1982.¹² Ride was once quoted in a 2004 interview: “…that if we want scientists and engineers in the future, we should be cultivating girls as much as the boys, and that we needed to be able to give girls in middle school, high school and college the same opportunities that we give to boys.”¹³ It was only after her death that Ride was acknowledged as the 1^st gay astronaut in her obituary written by her lifelong partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy.¹⁴ Today there are only 75 female astronauts (compared to 628 astronauts overall) in the world, and a simple calculation reveals how women still have a long way to go with only 12% female astronaut representation when 49.58% of our World Population are women.¹⁵ Also, space tourism is now available to the wealthy few who are willing to pay more than $50 million per seat.¹⁶

The third reason has to do with how science is taught (or not taught at all), especially in the elementary grades. Science instruction is often put on the back burners due to the heavy emphasis on Math and ELA standards; most K to 8^th students receive less than 45 minutes daily science instruction. Furthermore, teachers are not properly trained in science content and inquiry pedagogy to teach the subject effectively. Many teachers have to advocate for new science resources on their own, or teach from outdated textbooks. About 6 years ago, I participated in a teachers’ training program about the Sun and Earth; it was not mandated by my district, but a volunteer pilot program to test out the Full Open Science System (FOSS) and other research-based science curricula for district-wide implementation. So far, there has been no new updates about this initiative. While a new scientific discipline like astrobiology (also known as exobiology and bio-astronomy) is gathering astronomers, biologists, physicists, geologists, and other scientists to take on a multidisciplinary approach to study life in space, traditional public schools continue to take on a departmentalized approach to marginalize science learning into silos that are separated from students’ lives. On paper, the departmentalized-silo approach seems to make sense to maximize instructional time and lessen teacher workload, but in reality, 45 minutes of daily science instruction is ineffective and short-sighted. Until science is treated as an integral and vital part of daily learning with connections to Math and ELA, students will not be able to gain a more holistic understanding of our world, a greater awareness of different perspectives, and a better application of science to real-life problems. The ultimate goal of this unit is to help all students to have a better view of themselves as capable math thinkers, creative writers, and young scientists who possess ideas, contributions, and solutions to new inquiries like how gravity impacts life in our shared Universe. Schools need to enhance the scope and depth of science learning with more engaging, and less irrelevant content. I believe my curriculum unit can empower other educators to teach a thought-provoking scientific inquiry about gravity.