Exploring Latino parent attitudes toward and involvement in Science

• In Event: Science Education Oral Session 1

Abstract

Diversity within teams and organizations guards against groupthink and overconfidence and improves the ability to problem solve and make predictions. These benefits transfer into the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) career fields as well. Even though there are various efforts in K-12 public schools to increase diversity within the STEM fields, minorities are still largely underrepresented in the workforce. This study focuses on the Hispanic/Latino population to help close this gap in representation within the STEM fields. Most programs focus on directly influencing Hispanic/Latino students to pursue STEM careers, while there are many indirect factors that can influence these students as well. One of these factors is parent perceptions of science and involvement in science. The most common reasons parents are not as involved in their children’s science learning is a negative view of science and a lack of knowledge of resources to support their children. To find out more about parent attitudes toward science and parent involvement in their children’s science learning, we organized a series of Family Science Events in San Marcos, Texas. The activities and experiments performed during the Family Science Events used materials that are found around the home or can be purchased cheaply. Results suggest that parents who attend our Family Science Nights are already interested in science, but still don’t know where to find resources to support their children’s science learning.

Authors

• Izzy De Leon, Texas State University

• Julie F. Westerlund, Texas State University