Bring STEM to Life with Engaging Digital Enrichment Resources for Grades 3–6! Inspire your students and/or children with STEM history and current events, skill-building activities, and daily science highlights that make learning fun and meaningful.
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Why Focus on Black History in a STEM Setting?
Published about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Why Focus on Black History in a STEM Setting?
Cherie Levent DeVille
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In the past couple of newsletters, we have not discussed STEM or STEAM topics; Instead, we have written about history and archiving, especially as related to Black history. Why is that? Why not focus only on STE(A)M activities for students? Why not write solely about STEAM research that educators and parents can incorporate into their instruction?
Stereotype Threat
Stereotype threat, coined by Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson, is defined as “being at risk of confirming, as self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one's group.”
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(W)henever African American students perform an explicitly scholastic or intellectual task, they face the threat of confirming or being judged by a negative societal stereotype-a suspicion-about their group's intellectual ability and competence. This threat is not borne by people not stereоtyped in this way. And the self-threat it causes-through a variety of mechanisms-may interfere with the intellectual functioning of these students, particularly during standardized tests. This is the principal hypothesis examined in the present research. But as this threat persists over time, it may have the further effect of pressuring these students to protectively disidentify with achievement in school and related intellectual domains. That is, it may pressure the person to define or redefine the self-concept such that school achievement is neither a basis of self-evaluation nor a personal identity. This protects the person against the self-evaluative threat posed by the stereotypes but may have the byproduct of diminishing interest, motivation, and, ultimately, achievement in the domain (Steele, 1992).
One negative outcome of experiencing stereotype threat is that Black students drop out of universities, which means fewer Black STEM professionals. And that can have dire consequences for the well-being of many Black communities. We know that Black patients have better outcomes with Black physicians and that we need better medicines and treatments, which will only come from increased Black participation in clinical research.
Photo by RDNE Stock Project / Pexels
Knowledge of Black History and STEM
Unfortunately, researchers also need to build trust with potential Black participants. Our bodies have been cruelly, callously, and inhumanely used for research (the use of enslaved women for gynecological research by James Marion Sims, the Tuskegee syphilis trials, the unauthorized use of the cells of Henrietta Lacks), and that past isn’t so long ago. We need Black researchers who are empathetic and invested in their community’s well-being. We need more Blacks in STEM, not fewer, and we can’t afford to lose anyone.
Knowledge of our history, especially in the STEM fields and in research, will, we believe, help young students see themselves as intellectually capable and part of a strong legacy. We believe a considerable and diverse skill set, empathy, and knowledge of their history will help them to disregard the stereotypes of intellectual inferiority that they may or may not encounter if they are in predominantly White institutions.
Photo By Norma Mortenson / Pexels
Help, but not completely eradicate these feelings, as dealing with stereotype threat is a multidimensional problem with multiple solutions. We hope to prepare our children for their academic future (and beyond) while we, the adults, continue to fight for a world where they won’t have to experience racism in the ways we still observe and encounter daily.
LB Educational Publishing will continue to offer Black history items related to research and STEM professions. We hope that you continue to support us.
You may have noticed that we did not publish a May calendar set, and we will not publish a June calendar package. After much consideration, we decided to focus our energies on creating and developing products for the new 2025-2026 calendar year. We will release the entire school year no later than the end of August 2025, and the package will include the months from September 2025 through June 2026.
We also want to reassure you that we do not utilize fully AI-generated content. We have found that much of AI-generated content contains inaccurate information. Additionally, we do not use AI to write our newsletters! That is not to say that the use of AI is wrong, but when it comes to providing materials for teachers and parents to use with their students and children, we want to ensure that it is as accurate as possible. However, that takes time, and we are a small staff. We decided to slow down and dedicate our time to developing quality products for the next school year. We hope you understand.
The upcoming 2025-2026 calendar products will be a digital download package of the following items:
Monthly calendar posters of events,
Presentations (in PDF) of the events from our calendars.
STEM-related activities that complement the events on the calendar.
Posters of selected events for each month
Blank month posters so you can fill them in the way that you wish
The products are for students ages 8 to 13.
Enrich your classroom or learning space with STEM posters of Black professionals, important science events, and other fascinating STEM facts. They are fun, colorful, and informative.
We hope you enjoyed our newsletter! We have released one of our first books, The Path to Juneteenth, as a FREE download, perfect for the upcoming Juneteenth! We would love for anyone interested in the book to sign up for the mailing list.
Bring STEM to Life with Engaging Digital Enrichment Resources for Grades 3–6! Inspire your students and/or children with STEM history and current events, skill-building activities, and daily science highlights that make learning fun and meaningful.
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