Assessing and Improving Girls' and Women's Math Identity (2022-2023)

The gender gap in STEM has many causes, including differences in cultural expectations for women and young girls and differences in spatial reasoning between women and men that result in a disparity in spatial reasoning performance. Outside research demonstrates that women can both improve spatial reasoning through training and overcome the negative impacts caused by harmful stereotypes.

For five years, this team has been exploring ways to strengthen spatial reasoning skills in middle school girls and improve their beliefs in their ability to do math, including through Girls Exploring Math (GEM), a program that combines math and gender studies into two-hour workshops for middle school girls. In 2022-2023, team members worked together to improve the GEM curriculum, which consists of hands-on, problem-based math material designed to help participants visualize, explore and discover concepts, along with age-appropriate social science discussions and activities on gender and STEM topics such as stereotypes, self-assessment and mindset.

In the fall, team members collaborated with the Innovation Co-Lab to develop curricula and prepare mock workshops. In the spring, team members hosted 10 workshops for middle school girls and gender-expansive youth. The team also also continued to assess the program by pooling and analyzing survey data and developing a new survey instrument.

Timing

Fall 2022 – Summer 2023

Team Outputs

Girls Exploring Math (2023 Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Virtual Showcase)

Assessing and Improving Girls’ and Women’s Math Identity (poster by Paige Knudsen, presented at Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase, Duke University, April 19, 2023)

Team website

Workshop curriculum

This Team in the News

How Trinity Faculty and Students Are Sharing Resources in Support of Durham Public Schools

See related teams, Assessing and Improving Girls’ and Women’s Math Identity (2023-2024) and Assessing and Improving Girls’ and Women’s Math Identity (2021-2022).

 

Image: Courtesy of 2018-19 project team

Working on math.

Team Leaders

  • Victoria Akin, Arts & Sciences-Mathematics
  • Sophia Santillan, Pratt School of Engineering-Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science

/undergraduate Team Members

  • Morgan Bedingfield, Biomedical Engineering (BSE)
  • Laura Boyle, Mathematics (BS)
  • Katy Burns, Psychology (BS)
  • Amelia Cangialosi, Statistical Science (BS)
  • Clara Henne, Mathematics (BS)
  • Paige Knudsen, Computer Science (BS)
  • Margaret Moore, Economics (BS)
  • Amber Skinner, Environmental Sci/Policy (AB)
  • McKenna Vernon, Environmental Engineering(BSE)

/yfaculty/staff Team Members

  • Suzanne Crifo, Academic Resource Center
  • Lauren Valentino, The Ohio State University
  • Christina L. Williams, Arts & Sciences-Psychology and Neuroscience

/zcommunity Team Members

  • Durham Public Schools