Enhancing Urban, African American Girls' Conceptual Engagement in Science and Mathematics

Gayle Buck, Associate Professor of Science Education
Dionne Cross, Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education
The Faculty of Frankie Woods-McCullough Academy for Girls

The purpose of this two-year initiative involving Indiana University-Bloomington (IUB) and the Gary Community School Corporation (GCSC) is to understand how to increase African American girls' level of cognitive engagement with science and math. This proposal is the outcome of the planning conference in which we met with the principal and teachers from Frankie Woods-McCullough Academy for Girls to review and synthesize multiple small-scale science education efforts currently underway in the Academy and to develop a long-range plan for expanding these efforts into a more unified, sustainable initiative which incorporates mathematics. The findings from this work will be used to support a larger NSF grant proposal on improving science and mathematics education for urban, African American girls. This project seeks to increase the use of inquiry teaching and learning and develop a systemic effort at the Academy.