Think of a well-known astronomer. Chances are you picture someone like Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton, or Johannes Kepler. In other words, a white man from hundreds of years ago.<\/p>\n
Sparrow Roch would like to change that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are many other people who have contributed to astronomy as a whole, and especially to the study of life in the universe,\u201d Roch said. \u201cWe wanted to highlight that there are many people doing important work, but we might not discuss their contributions in our regular classrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the guidance of 51ÁÔÆæ Planetarium Director Dr. Jean Creighton, Roch, who uses they\/them pronouns, developed a set of classroom resources highlighting the research of scientists \u2013 astrobiologists in particular \u2013 from diverse ethnicities and backgrounds. They presented their work at the Undergraduate Research Symposium.<\/p>\n
Roch is a physics and computer science major who has been interested in astronomy since they were a child. \u201cThere\u2019s this kind of excitement to being on the edge of knowledge that I think the study of space really brings,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
Roch originally graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in human development, but they kept feeling the pull toward science. So, they enrolled in college again, this time at 51ÁÔÆæ with the hope of studying under Jean Creighton, a personal role model of Roch\u2019s. But, when Roch looked around, they noticed that astronomy, and physics in general, is something of a \u201cboys\u2019 club.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think it\u2019s very discouraging to not see people in your classes that you\u2019re learning about who you can relate to or who look like you,\u201d Roch noted. \u201c(Dr. Creighton) is very, very active in trying to increase diversity and have a more equitable environment for students on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, when Creighton approached Roch and asked for help compiling resources on diversity in STEM fields, and particularly in astronomy, Roch jumped at the chance.<\/p>\n
The numbers are sobering. According to Roch\u2019s research,<\/p>\n
\u2022 From 1994-2019, for any given academic year, the number of Hispanic people achieving their PhD in physics has only recently surpassed 40 people. For African Americans, no more than 20 have achieved a physics PhD in a year.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Of nearly 60,000 physics PhDs awarded from 1972 through 2017, only 90 were awarded to African American women.<\/p>\n
\u2022 From 2002 through 2012, despite making up nearly a third of the U.S. population, those from underrepresented minority groups made up only 3% of astronomy doctoral students.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Black, Hispanic, and Native Americans comprise 27% of the US population but are less than 4% of the astronomy workforce.<\/p>\n
Roch and Creighton hope that by increasing the visibility of Black, Hispanic, and other underrepresented minorities, they might help encourage those groups to pursue physics and astronomy.<\/p>\n
To that end, Roch began compiling lists of astronomers \u2013 they narrowed her scope to astrobiologists in particular \u2013 in order to highlight their research.<\/p>\n
There were challenges; Roch is not a biologist and had to enlist help to understand some of the research that was beyond their expertise. And, they added, because astrobiology is a relatively new field of research, there are fewer scientific papers published on the subject.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not to mention the legwork.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe looked at places like bioRxiv (a repository for biological sciences research) and arXiv (for astronomy research) for the astrobiology and related papers that were being posted there, and tried to search information about the authors,\u201d Roch recalled. \u201cI used some social media. Twitter has a pretty active astronomy scene. \u2026 Of course, we also had recommendations or word-of-mouth where we just asked people, who are the best astrobiologists we have to know about?\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only did Roch have to find these scientists, but they also had to summarize the researchers\u2019 papers into twopage abstracts so that students using the materials they developed could understand and access the scientific papers.<\/p>\n
The result is a compilation of resources that teachers and professors can use to create assignments for their students to learn about a diverse cohort of scientists.<\/p>\n
\u201c(We created) projects for some of these classes where the premise of the project was, we want to learn about present-day scientists and the contributions to their fields. Because many astronomers we learned about are people from long ago, there are still a lot of overlooked astronomers and physicists and engineers making advances,\u201d Roch said. They and Creighton provided a suggestion list of scientists to report on.<\/p>\n
For example, they included Moogega Cooper, a planetary protection engineer at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory who has also appeared on many television shows promoting space science. Or there\u2019s Abel M\u00e9ndez, an associate professor at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo and the director of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory.<\/p>\n
Then, Roch and Creighton developed a list of questions for student to answer: What is the scientist\u2019s background? What problems are they working to solve?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe specifically asked, how do you connect with this person, and what do you have in common? We wanted to make these people more tangible,\u201d Roch said. \u201c(Then) I can see that wow, there\u2019s lots of relatable things about many of the scientists, which for me, as someone who would like to be a scientist, is very encouraging. We are hoping for that same sort of outcome with these students.\u201d<\/p>\n