**4. What stereotypes mean: review of literature on children's perceptions of scientists**

Starting at about second grade, one of the ways researchers have documented is that students possess stereotypical images of scientists by using paper and pencil/ crayons methods [12, 15, 16]. This stereotype has been consistently portrayed by students for well 50 years [11–16]. This suggests that, as teachers and parents, there is a very short window of time in which to address this stereotype as it is forming. While paper and pencil may not be developmentally appropriate, another way may be through informally interviewing or talking to children regarding their ideas about who can be scientists and engineers.

Understanding this limited view individuals have of scientists is important because these ideas relate to children's science-associated educational and career aspirations. In other words, if children did not identify with such depictions, then they tend to not "see themselves" in these kinds of careers. A meta-analysis spanning five decades of Draw-A-Scientist studies studied that US children's genderscience stereotypes are more closely matched with males versus females. This is interesting considering women's representation in science has risen substantially in the United States, and mass media increasingly depict female scientists. Therefore, despite many efforts to attract females to science and make science a more diverse career field, children still associate science with mostly males.

Engineering is becoming increasingly popular in early childhood classrooms worldwide. Allowing students the opportunities to think and act like scientists goes hand and hand with the opportunities to play and build like engineers. For example, the *Next Generation Science Standards* (*NGSS*) has incorporated engineering throughout its K-12 standards. For example, one of the way to best describe how these two disciplines work together is to discuss one of the practices in the *NGSS,* Constructing Explanations (science) and Designing Solutions (engineering) [20]. Science is the way we make sense of the world or construct explanations, and engineering is the way we design solutions and/or solve problems and make the world better.

Therefore, research conducted on students' perceptions of engineers [21–23] has used similar drawing methods, like the Draw-A-Scientist Test, of the past decades. The activity is called the Draw-An-Engineer Test (DAET) or Draw-An-Engineer-At-Work (DAEWT), and the purpose is to have students describe their knowledge about engineers and engineering through drawing and sometimes written responses. These illustrations are then analyzed for stereotypical features described in the previous studies much like the illustrations of scientists of Draw-A-Scientist Tests.

Much in the same way, students have commonly associated beakers, chemicals, and lab coats with the tools scientists need to perform their duties. Students associate engineering with fixing, building, and working on things, and when asked to draw engineers, students portrayed engineers as physical laborers or working on cars [24–25]. Students often associated engineers with blueprints, computers, and safety gear and believed that engineers needed these items in order to perform their work. For these reasons, the parallel between scientists and engineers is a closely linked one.

#### **5. Visiting scientists**

It is not an uncommon idea for teachers to find ways for students to see scientists and engineers as individuals in a variety of settings and roles. Therefore, the most natural suggestion for broadening students' ideas or perceptions about scientist

**103**

students.

*Developing Young Scientists: The Importance of Addressing Stereotypes in Early Childhood…*

might be to get them to meet a scientist or an engineer by bringing one into their classroom. While this sounds like a relatively easy task, there are several things to consider so that the teacher does not unknowingly reinforce the stereotype by recruiting a stereotypical scientist. The teacher should also be cautioned that there is tremendous value in meeting many scientists to appreciate the scope of many differences of scientists rather than limiting a scientist visit to one person. Classroom teachers are limited by time. Not only do they struggle to meet day-to-day responsibilities of instruction, but also local, state, and national requirements, as well as other expectations, placed upon them. As a result, teachers need guidance in selecting appropriate scientists and engineers (visitors) for their students. However, it is not clear that matching mentors to students based on race or gender is necessary or more beneficial for early childhood classrooms. However, the number of studies that used visiting scientists with early childhood students has been small for a variety of reasons. These sorts of visits take time to set up, and the relationship between the scientist and even several scientists takes time to develop and establish. A well-educated scientist does not always make an appropriate person to discuss science topics in a developmentally appropriate way to early childhood

Visiting scientist programs are built on the assumption that a visiting scientist will benefit children's perceptions of who scientists are and the work they do. For students at this age, the best bet for the classroom teacher would be to ask for parent participation and engage parents in science and engineering careers in their classrooms. However, this can have drawbacks too, as the classroom changes year after year. Even if scientists and the engineer are carefully screened and properly trained for the classroom (and they would need to be for early childhood classrooms), there are simply not enough scientists to fill the need nationwide. Even when the resource pool is expanded to include such professionals as radio/TV meteorologists, county extension agents, and wildlife management professionals, the availability of scientists is still limited by their own work schedule and restrictions of geography. An oceanographer, for example, would be ready in one part of the country but not

Be sure to prepare your class with questions before the visiting scientists or engineer comes and after he/she leaves. This will get the students thinking about the kind of work the scientist does. Be sure to cue the students into things like how the scientist dresses, etc., to start addressing the stereotypes. Did he/she wear a lab coat? Did they work in a lab? Did they work from home? Once the visiting scientist/ engineer leaves, be sure to process the visit with the students aloud and discuss their expectations versus what really happened, what surprised them, and how did they

Make no mistake; authentic experiences with successful scientists and engineers who can relate to early childhood students can be powerful. If there are opportunities to do so, teachers need to restructure their learning environment so that students' beliefs about science, scientists, and themselves lead to positive attitudes and to less-sex-role stereotypic views concerning the nature of science and the physical attributes of scientists. However, the time, opportunity, or desire is not available; the remainder of the chapter will discuss two other ways to combat stereotypes if no

Because young children do not have the paper and pencil option available to them before second or third grade, a nonfiction historical trade book or television

visiting scientists are available: trade books and televisions shows.

**6. Combat the stereotypes: stereotypes in books**

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84735*

another. This would be something to consider.

see this scientist/engineer as a "real" person?

#### *Developing Young Scientists: The Importance of Addressing Stereotypes in Early Childhood… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84735*

might be to get them to meet a scientist or an engineer by bringing one into their classroom. While this sounds like a relatively easy task, there are several things to consider so that the teacher does not unknowingly reinforce the stereotype by recruiting a stereotypical scientist. The teacher should also be cautioned that there is tremendous value in meeting many scientists to appreciate the scope of many differences of scientists rather than limiting a scientist visit to one person.

Classroom teachers are limited by time. Not only do they struggle to meet day-to-day responsibilities of instruction, but also local, state, and national requirements, as well as other expectations, placed upon them. As a result, teachers need guidance in selecting appropriate scientists and engineers (visitors) for their students. However, it is not clear that matching mentors to students based on race or gender is necessary or more beneficial for early childhood classrooms. However, the number of studies that used visiting scientists with early childhood students has been small for a variety of reasons. These sorts of visits take time to set up, and the relationship between the scientist and even several scientists takes time to develop and establish. A well-educated scientist does not always make an appropriate person to discuss science topics in a developmentally appropriate way to early childhood students.

Visiting scientist programs are built on the assumption that a visiting scientist will benefit children's perceptions of who scientists are and the work they do. For students at this age, the best bet for the classroom teacher would be to ask for parent participation and engage parents in science and engineering careers in their classrooms. However, this can have drawbacks too, as the classroom changes year after year. Even if scientists and the engineer are carefully screened and properly trained for the classroom (and they would need to be for early childhood classrooms), there are simply not enough scientists to fill the need nationwide. Even when the resource pool is expanded to include such professionals as radio/TV meteorologists, county extension agents, and wildlife management professionals, the availability of scientists is still limited by their own work schedule and restrictions of geography. An oceanographer, for example, would be ready in one part of the country but not another. This would be something to consider.

Be sure to prepare your class with questions before the visiting scientists or engineer comes and after he/she leaves. This will get the students thinking about the kind of work the scientist does. Be sure to cue the students into things like how the scientist dresses, etc., to start addressing the stereotypes. Did he/she wear a lab coat? Did they work in a lab? Did they work from home? Once the visiting scientist/ engineer leaves, be sure to process the visit with the students aloud and discuss their expectations versus what really happened, what surprised them, and how did they see this scientist/engineer as a "real" person?

Make no mistake; authentic experiences with successful scientists and engineers who can relate to early childhood students can be powerful. If there are opportunities to do so, teachers need to restructure their learning environment so that students' beliefs about science, scientists, and themselves lead to positive attitudes and to less-sex-role stereotypic views concerning the nature of science and the physical attributes of scientists. However, the time, opportunity, or desire is not available; the remainder of the chapter will discuss two other ways to combat stereotypes if no visiting scientists are available: trade books and televisions shows.

#### **6. Combat the stereotypes: stereotypes in books**

Because young children do not have the paper and pencil option available to them before second or third grade, a nonfiction historical trade book or television

*Early Childhood Education*

**of scientists**

about who can be scientists and engineers.

**4. What stereotypes mean: review of literature on children's perceptions** 

Starting at about second grade, one of the ways researchers have documented is that students possess stereotypical images of scientists by using paper and pencil/ crayons methods [12, 15, 16]. This stereotype has been consistently portrayed by students for well 50 years [11–16]. This suggests that, as teachers and parents, there is a very short window of time in which to address this stereotype as it is forming. While paper and pencil may not be developmentally appropriate, another way may be through informally interviewing or talking to children regarding their ideas

Understanding this limited view individuals have of scientists is important because these ideas relate to children's science-associated educational and career aspirations. In other words, if children did not identify with such depictions, then they tend to not "see themselves" in these kinds of careers. A meta-analysis spanning five decades of Draw-A-Scientist studies studied that US children's genderscience stereotypes are more closely matched with males versus females. This is interesting considering women's representation in science has risen substantially in the United States, and mass media increasingly depict female scientists. Therefore, despite many efforts to attract females to science and make science a more diverse

Engineering is becoming increasingly popular in early childhood classrooms worldwide. Allowing students the opportunities to think and act like scientists goes hand and hand with the opportunities to play and build like engineers. For example, the *Next Generation Science Standards* (*NGSS*) has incorporated engineering throughout its K-12 standards. For example, one of the way to best describe how these two disciplines work together is to discuss one of the practices in the *NGSS,* Constructing Explanations (science) and Designing Solutions (engineering) [20]. Science is the way we make sense of the world or construct explanations, and engineering is the way we design solutions and/or solve problems and make the

Therefore, research conducted on students' perceptions of engineers [21–23] has used similar drawing methods, like the Draw-A-Scientist Test, of the past decades. The activity is called the Draw-An-Engineer Test (DAET) or Draw-An-Engineer-At-Work (DAEWT), and the purpose is to have students describe their knowledge about engineers and engineering through drawing and sometimes written responses. These illustrations are then analyzed for stereotypical features described in the previous

Much in the same way, students have commonly associated beakers, chemicals, and lab coats with the tools scientists need to perform their duties. Students associate engineering with fixing, building, and working on things, and when asked to draw engineers, students portrayed engineers as physical laborers or working on cars [24–25]. Students often associated engineers with blueprints, computers, and safety gear and believed that engineers needed these items in order to perform their work. For these reasons, the parallel between scientists and engineers is a closely

It is not an uncommon idea for teachers to find ways for students to see scientists and engineers as individuals in a variety of settings and roles. Therefore, the most natural suggestion for broadening students' ideas or perceptions about scientist

studies much like the illustrations of scientists of Draw-A-Scientist Tests.

career field, children still associate science with mostly males.

**102**

linked one.

**5. Visiting scientists**

world better.

show may be used to prompt explicit discussion. In this section, how to use trade books with early childhood students will be discussed.

#### **6.1 Implementing nonfiction historical trade books**

Linking nonfiction historical trade books and science content uniquely enables the teacher to model scientific thinking to stories of scientists and engineers in science lessons. This idea is that biographies of scientists can allow the teacher to highlight the human dimension of scientists and engineers while you encourage science learning. These stories will help broaden students' perceptions of scientists and engineers as real people and will add explicit and implicit opportunities for your students to consider science and engineering careers.

A book series that guides teachers in addressing non-stereotypical scientists [26, 27] has lessons linking the biographies of scientists and science content. This is one example of using nonfiction historical trade books in science teaching as a way to invite scientists and engineers into the classroom without the hassle of finding and scheduling guest speakers. Each chapter of this book presents three lessons based on children's literature biography of a scientist. Each lesson is organized according to *NGSS* [20] alignment, the character trait or disposition of the scientist, recommended science teaching strategies, and the learning cycle. However, if you decide to select the biographies for yourself, the following selection has guidelines for selecting biography-themed trade books for a science classroom.

#### **6.2 Guidelines for selecting biography-themed trade books**

The *Science Trade Book Evaluation Rubric* [28] can help teachers evaluate science trade books for use in their classroom. This rubric assesses the science- and literature-related appropriateness for trade books. It includes two main sections: literacy and science content. With respect to literacy, the rubric looks at plot development, imagination, and continuity if the story is fictional or whether the book contains sufficient information that is clearly organized in appropriate text structures if the story is nonfiction. The rubric further looks at the writing style, the suitability of the book's illustrations and graphics for the text it relates to, and the presentation of positive ethical and cultural values, including gender and racial representation. With respect to science content criteria, the rubric's key elements address the following: whether the science content is substantial, accurate, and current, whether the content has a "human face" (is personalized), and whether the content is intellectually and developmentally appropriate for the target audience. However, one aspect of science trade books not clearly addressed in the *Science Trade Book Evaluation Rubric* is the representation of scientists, particularly within the context of "science as a human endeavor."

Some places to begin looking for quality books include the National Science Teachers Association (Yearly Trade Book Awardees) and the Caldecott, Newbery, and Orbis Pictus Award lists.

#### **6.3 Suggestions for selecting science trade books**

When selecting science trade books with a focus on science as a human endeavor for their classroom science instruction, teachers may want to consider the following ideas below (in no particular order). The trade book should focus mostly on one particular scientist. The gender and/or ethnicity of the person(s) included within its pages may or may not be related. Meaning, the book is selected because of the work of the scientist, not necessarily the ethnicity or gender; however, there is nothing

**105**

*Developing Young Scientists: The Importance of Addressing Stereotypes in Early Childhood…*

wrong with selecting a book to explicitly teach that someone besides a white male can do science. Trade books, by their very nature, evoke a storytelling aspect of the book that undoubtedly reflects the human endeavor of science versus a presentation

1.The trade book must contain accurate information. There are two things to consider: (1) the accuracy of the scientific information and (2) the attributes

2.The trade book must include a nonstereotypical representation of a scientist. The trade book should include images of both men and women while remain-

3.The story presented in the trade book should illustrate the roles of people

4.The illustrations in the trade book should be artwork that is esthetically

5.The trade book must be age appropriate, and the practice of science must include students' practice and learning. The content of the trade book must be both age and developmentally appropriate for its intended audience so that

Assess their science content for accuracy and developmental appropriateness, so the books clearly suit your students' reading ability ranges, interests, and abilities. Students should be able to grasp the scientific concepts that are being presented.

1.Assess the books' literacy qualities, including the narrative, style of writing,

2.Determine how well the books show the personal side of science for the main characters (i.e., determine how well the books describe science as being a

3.Consider the quality of the illustrations that help tell the story. For the age and developmental levels of your students, consider the brightness of the colors and whether the photographs or other types of illustrations are understandable

Young children do not have the paper and pencil option available to them before second or third grade, a nonfiction historical trade book or television show may be used to prompt explicit discussion. In this section, how to use a television show with

readers can cognitively connect with what is being presented.

Gather the science trade books, and then consider the following:

pleasing in a way that encourages children to want to enjoy the book over and over again. Books with high-quality illustrations will help achieve this goal. These trade books stand out because they are so different from the typical information texts currently found in the science sections of the bookstore. Informational texts are read for information, and we encourage students to

of the process(es) of science as delineated by the *NGSS* [20].

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84735*

ing historically accurate.

engaging in the scientific enterprise.

read trade books for enjoyment.

and cultural appropriateness.

**7. Combat the stereotypes: stereotypes in TV**

early childhood students will be discussed.

human endeavor).

and appropriate.

of sets of facts.

#### *Developing Young Scientists: The Importance of Addressing Stereotypes in Early Childhood… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84735*

wrong with selecting a book to explicitly teach that someone besides a white male can do science. Trade books, by their very nature, evoke a storytelling aspect of the book that undoubtedly reflects the human endeavor of science versus a presentation of sets of facts.


Gather the science trade books, and then consider the following: Assess their science content for accuracy and developmental appropriateness, so the books clearly suit your students' reading ability ranges, interests, and abilities. Students should be able to grasp the scientific concepts that are being presented.

