4. Why Don’t More Girls Choose Physics?


Thomas and Robin try to find A New Hope in Episode 4 by addressing the perennial problem of the small proportion of girls choosing A Level Physics. 

In this Episode:

  • World Dark Matter Day, 31st October: How did you celebrate it?
  • The Perimeter Institute and their Free Resources.
  • Where are all the girls? Jessica Rowson, former IoP Gender Balance Guru explains why girls don’t choose physics (lack of good teachers of Physics, parental influence and societal pressures), and suggests three easy things to do to make Physics a more attractive option (teach in context, link physics to careers and provide displays that promote the idea of physics in a non-biased way).  
  • Unconscious Bias Tests: Harvard provides them as IAT (Implicit Association Test) in Project Implicit. Robin and Thomas took the Gender-Science one.

Thank you again to Jessica for her time and wisdom, and we would love you to join in too.  Please share ideas or successes on our Facebook Page – https://fb.me/physicstp .  You can also message us via our website https://the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, Twitter @physicstp, email using  the address given in the podcast (if we remember) or by leaving a voice memo using WhatsApp or Telegram to the phone number in our Twitter profile (+44 7898 814716). (Don’t call the number, nobody will answer, just hold down the microphone icon and speak your message). Don’t forget to tell us your name because we may use your audio in a future episode.

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We have really enjoyed making this podcast for you and want to make you a part of it in future so please don’t be afraid of getting in touch: teachers of physics are our very favourite people in the World!

Join in!

Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions – on our Facebook Page: https://fb.me/physicstp .  You can also message us via our website contact form at the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, Twitter @physicstp, email using  the address given in the podcast (if we remember), you could even email us an autio file if you are feeling really keen.

Music

The music is used under the Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License