UNL educator aims to draw more girls into STEM fields with video series
LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – A University of Nebraska-Lincoln educator is hoping to get more young girls involved in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Jocelyn Bosley, a STEM educator and UNL’s research impact coordinator, is doing that with a new video series aimed at middle school students.
She said she wants to inspire more young girls to go into STEM fields, as it’s not as common for them to pursue those careers.
“This is a really important message for everybody to hear and it will enrich everyone’s understanding of how science works and their interest in science if they appreciate how big and diverse and how creative it is,” Bosley said. “But maybe especially important for girls to hear at this critical stage in their educations.”
“Verbing Science” is inspired by an installment of Bill Watterson’s “Calvin and Hobbes” comic strip, in which Calvin explains how to use nouns and adjectives as verbs.
The idea for the series stemmed from Bosley’s love of math and science, as well as a podcast where she talked about the scientific method.
She said even though girls often do just as well as boys in STEM subjects, girls sometimes lose confidence in those fields because they perceive themselves as better at language arts.
Bosley said while it’s good for girls to follow STEM paths for high-paying jobs, having more diversity in science ultimately leads to more accurate results.
She said one of the most important messages of the series is that science is creative and dynamic in ways that aren’t so different from the arts.
“To me, the root of this is just the fact that we draw that distinction in the first place,” she said. “That we say here’s math and science and here’s creative activities and art and English and humanities work over here.”
Curt Bright, who helps animate the series, said the program is similar to ones used in places like Disney World, where a performer will use live-action capture to create animations in attractions.
“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “I had never done this before and so I had to teach myself and I figured it out in about a day.”
Bright shared a similar sentiment to Bosley, saying that it’s crucial for more girls to go into science.
He hopes the animations will make scientific topics more approachable and interesting to children in hopes to inspire them to become scientists themselves.
“My hope is that young girls all over the state will see these videos and say to themselves ‘hey if she can do that, maybe I could too,'” Bright said.
