A dismal 7 percent of adult Americans are science literate, but James Trefil has a secret weapon that could send that number cartwheeling into the double digits: cheerleaders. Specifically, the members of the Philadelphia 76ers squad.
Working with Darlene Cavalier, a former Sixers cheerleader-turned-science-journalist, Mr. Trefil, a physics professor at George Mason University, hopes to improve science education with a Web page called Brain Makeover.
Here’s how it works: First watch a series of video clips of Sixers cheerleaders stating key scientific concepts and shaking their pompoms. Then test what you’ve learned by taking a short quiz.
Somewhere in the middle of it all Mr. Trefil provides brief science lessons. (Hint: Look below each of the clips.) We got distracted by the swirling quarks and leptons, and failed the quiz. Dismally.
–Don Troop
Follow Tweed through your favorite RSS reader:
17 Responses to Blonded by Science
cekiw22 - August 4, 2009 at 8:55 am
Completely sexist pedagogy. Why is the Chronicle publishig something like this?
laro1470 - August 4, 2009 at 8:59 am
And it sits opposite a Most Popular Articles link on your web page where the most viewed link is about Sexual Harassment. You guys really don’t get it, do you?
22287744 - August 4, 2009 at 9:12 am
The Chronicle should be embarrassed by this posting.
hoodlib - August 4, 2009 at 10:22 am
I never knew that quarks were so important!
Move over Bill Nye, the Science Guy! I am replacing my poster of you!
This may be what evolutionist needs to win the day over ID!
hoodlib - August 4, 2009 at 10:24 am
I never knew that quarks were so important! Move over Bill Nye, the Science Guy! I am replacing my poster of you! This may be what evolutionists need to win the day over ID!
llevine - August 4, 2009 at 11:04 am
Thank you, Mr. Trefil, for setting gender relations back a good half century.
sher2824 - August 4, 2009 at 11:57 am
This website presupposes there are no female science students. Or at least heterosexual female science students. This is one way to start the ‘leaky pipeline’ earlier of tenured women professors from sciences in the academy. Must check faculty listings at George Mason University, hhmmmm….
humgrad - August 4, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Clear case of student-centered pedagogy and infotainment gone wild. How does this make female science students feel? This is belittling not only to the women in the video and the women who are forced to watch the video as part of a course, but also to the young male students who have to watch this thing. It is a caricature of young male students’ interests and reduces them to a low, base common denominator. It is unfair and demeaning to all involved.
mrmars - August 4, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Cool! Maybe now we can have co-eds give in-class reports in bikinis! (Oooooh sexist pig remark!!). Get over yourself people; this was meant to be humorous! But then again shame on me for forgetting that hard-core feminism and humor are seldom on speaking terms. If such a slant on things gets kids – who otherwise would not – to give some thought to the importance of science literacy, then it might be worth ruffling a few feathers (pompoms?) in the process. Good show!
sciencecheerleader - August 4, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Thanks mrmars! To the doubters, I ask, with a 7% population of adult science literates, should we really be afraid of trying something fun and fresh? Women seem to love it, based on comments I’m receiving. Feel free to use it as a free resource in your classrooms.
I welcome other ideas!
Darlene
jess9358 - August 4, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Unfortunately I am not so privileged to be deprived of the human condition. Not only do I want to learn to improve my offspring’s chance of survival, but I can’t disagree with a fertile vessel’s art of persuasion.
I will learn your science and sire offspring with an advantage in both the art of reproduction and the keen understanding of the value of beauty and brains.
sciencepopulist - August 5, 2009 at 11:11 am
Lighten up, all!
Science Cheerleader has launched a creative, attention-getting effort to promote science literacy and promote research-based policy.
The Chronicle of Higher Education is no place to lambaste the free expression of ideas, even if (especially if) one finds fault with the presentation.
on_liberty - August 5, 2009 at 11:47 am
Instead of complaining about this creative effort to arrest male attention on science, why not simply develop a similar learning program for the female student? Buff, sweaty firefighters teaching physics perhaps. Where is it written that we have to learn science from unattractive, asexual, socially backward boffins?
Regarding the some of the other commenters: No wonder feminists are spurned and ignored if this is an example of their contribution to discourse. Stop tearing other people’s work down and build something yourself. If it resonates with your audience and it does useful work, they’ll use it. Stop the hating … it’s “unattractive.”
fcshofstra - August 5, 2009 at 12:27 pm
It may not be cheerleading, but alternate approaches can be successful, (success, being in the eye of the beholder).
I remember humming along with high school classmates during a standardized test as we spelled out “encyclopedia”. We all learned to spell the word in a song on the Mickey Mouse Club show.
Long ago, I asked a former student to tutor two students in an elementary chemistry class. Their grades shot way up because the tutor put the concepts in terms the students could apply. For example, the students had no problems remembering the order of reactivity because “halogens have the hots for the alkalis,” but treat the alkaline earth elements as “really close friends”.
for those students chemistry course seemed to be unrelated trivia and factoids. Set as gossip about the elements somehow made it more understandable.
crunchynumbers - August 5, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Somewhere Richard Feynman is smiling.
anonphysprof - August 5, 2009 at 5:37 pm
I don’t understand the rush to be offended on the behalf of others. The assumption that a female college or high school student seeing professional cheerleaders discuss science would be offensive or drive them away from sthe subject is, as far as i know, unfounded. Hopefully this project will address this concern by tracking not only the impact on scientific knowledge, but also on attitudes towards science of the students who view the lessons.
WIth the less-than-stellar track record of our current model in creating scientifically informed citizens, I welcome new approaches. Instead of criticizing, we should be thanking and encouraging non-scientists who are willing to help create an increased scientific literacy.
msfleisher - August 10, 2009 at 9:29 am
“completely sexist pedagogy” if expressions like those are used in lectures no wonder students are baffled by science and head toward the door and windows to make a quick escape. The job of a teacher is, believe it or not, teaching. If cheerleaders, or penguins marching in line to a Beattles tune, teaches science-illiterate students fundamentals so be it. Professor snobbery over teaching methods are what’s wrong with instruction. MIT students don’t need cheerleaders, but have you ever taught at class at “eastern west-central state college” where votech like dental hygiene courses outnumber those in literature and science? Teach the people who sit in your classes not those people whom you wish sat in your classes.