Senior Lecturer and Director of Chemical Sciences Programmes
The stereotype of white male Western-educated individuals as the only contributors to scientific discoveries is pervasive in the education system. We hope to address this issue through highlighting the contributions of individuals and communities that have been “minoritised” in their contributions to the sciences, especially in Chemistry.
The stereotype of white male Western-educated individuals as the only contributors to scientific discoveries is pervasive in the education system in this country and surprisingly even in HEIs where there is more freedom on what is taught and how it is delivered.
A poignant example is that everyone in conditioned to know that Thomas Edison discovered the light bulb but no credit is given to Lewis Howard Latimer, the son of slave parents in America, who discovered the carbon filament that made the light bulb a useful device. The work aimed to address this issue through highlighting the contributions of individuals and communities that have been “minoritised” in their contributions to the sciences, especially in chemistry. Involving students in highlighting the contribution of “minoritised” (BAME) scientists to chemistry was identified as the best means to enrich student’s knowledge on this topic is by using a self-discovery, flipped learning, approach.
This initiative coincided with a request from the QMSU EDI committee that each module page within the virtual learning environment (QMPlus) contain a tab to highlight the diversity of contributions to the topics taught and that this could act as an inspiration and provide role models for students, especially for those from the “minoritised” (BAME) community. In the School it was decided to initially choose one module per year on each programme to contribute towards the fulfilment of this aim.
Aims: (a) To highlighting the contribution of “minoritised” (BAME) scientists to chemistry (b) To provide experience of intra-advisorial group work and to give experience of oral and written communication. Implementation: Groups of ~3 students within a tutorial group will research the contribution of one “minoritised” (BAME) individual to chemistry and produce a powerpoint presentation that is presented to ~12 students (combining 2 tutorial groups) and their Advisors in Week B9, with each student speaking for 1-2 min. This is a summative piece of work with staff providing group and individual marks for the quality of the slides and the oral presentation. The presentations will be recorded and will be uploaded to QMPlus, or alternatively each group will be asked to produce a single image and a 50-word summary of their topic to go onto QMPlus.
Aims: (a) To highlighting the contribution of “minoritised” (BAME) scientists to chemistry (b) To provide experience of intra-advisorial group work and to give experience of making and presenting a poster. Implementation: This topic is introduced in Week A3 and students within an advisorial group produce a poster to highlight the contribution of one “minoritised” BAME or other minority individual to chemistry; the deadline for the poster is Week A11. Posters are presented at a special poster session/social in the JP foyer in Week A12. Prizes are awarded to the best poster(s) by peer assessment. The RSC Inclusion & Diversity fund have provided a grant to cover the expenses of the poster session/social, prizes and for the printing of the posters. Posters will be uploaded to QMPlus.