Exploring Science and Race with K-12 Students
BioBus is a community-based nonprofit organization that makes science come alive for young students through their interactive programming and mobile laboratories housed in buses and trailers. The “BioBus” usually visits K-12 schools in the New York City area, about two-thirds of which are located in low-income districts. With more than 80% of their staff coming from groups and communities underrepresented in STEM fields, the organization works to make science fun, accessible, and inspiring for children of all backgrounds.
In the midst of COVID-19 restrictions, BioBus has been continuing this mission virtually, including holding a Student Town Hall series on racism and society. These discussions were sponsored, in part, by a CSS Public Outreach Grant provided through their partnership with the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. The most recent event in the series, held October 8, featured Dana Crawford (clinical psychologist and Scholar-in-Residence at the Zuckerman Institute) and Robert Fullilove (Professor of Sociomedical Sciences and Associate Dean for Minority Affairs at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health) as they discussed how racism impacts science.
Series Background
Co-organizers Paula Croxson (Associate Director for Public Programs at Zuckerman Institute) and Latasha Wright (Chief Scientific Officer at BioBus), were able to answer a few questions regarding how the town hall series originated and its aim in educating young students about important issues at the intersection of race, science, health and society"
Paula Croxson: The Zuckerman Institute and BioBus formed a partnership in 2016 to allow BioBus to reach schools in Harlem, Washington Heights, and the Bronx, and allow the Zuckerman Institute to open our doors and bring science to more of our community. BioBus shares our physical Education Lab space located in the Jerome L. Greene Building at 129th Street and Broadway, and the building also houses one of the customized BioBuses. Since the pandemic, we have both been continuing to provide science experiences for our community virtually, and this series is an opportunity for us to come together and address important issues like racism in science and society.
Latasha Wright: This virtual Town Hall series is completely different from anything we have done before. The shift to virtual learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic caused us to design this series as a way of staying connected with our students. On June 10, 2020, BioBus participated in Shutdown in STEM day, a day when many academics and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) professionals took a day to make plans for work to eliminate racism. We came up with the idea for a Town Hall series on racism with the help of three brilliant interns: Frankie Ackerman, Makaleh Smith, and Candida Barreto. We quickly realized it needed to be a whole series because there is so much to cover.
Latasha Wright: We want the students to know that we’re not turning a blind eye to what’s happening in the world. We want to help them make connections between science and the world we live in, and give them the seeds of knowledge to start conversations about topics like racism. Part of this is giving students the vocabulary. For example, we can make a big difference by saying "the criminal legal system" rather than "the criminal justice system," or talking about "community science” instead of "citizen science," or "untapped potential" instead of "underserved populations." And part of this is showing students that this is just the starting point, and to encourage them to carry on these conversations with the people in their lives.
Event Summary: How Racism Impacts Science (October 8, 2020)
Even though events in the series are meant for K-12 students, neither Dr. Crawford nor Dr. Fullilove underestimated their audience. Instead, they examined the complex topic of racism in science in a clear and approachable way to the audience while never minimizing its severity. In this one-hour discussion, students learned the fundamentals of how race and identity can intersect with academia through research, education, and individuals’ actions to either perpetuate racism or work against it.
According to Dr. Crawford, there are three main types of racism: individual (how one perceives others); interpersonal (how one interacts with others); and institutional. All of these intersect to impact science. Dr. Fullilove shared historical examples of racism impacting science, ranging from the study of eugenics to disease prevention. He noted that early 20th-century science was "bent on proving the superiority of the white race." The power of science and its perceived truth allowed biased and prejudicial findings to be seen as fact, creating justifications for further discrimination throughout society. Drawing on his father’s own experience in medical school, Dr. Fullilove shared how doctors were guided by this suspect research and many Black patients seeking healthcare received the wrong treatment as a result. Crawford also described the concept of “otherizing” in which white maleness is seen as the norm, with diversity being labeled as any other identity. She addressed instructors in the audience by saying “it’s really crucial to teach your students ways that they can identify and pull the lens off of their bias” in order to decentralize whiteness. Furthermore, she invited future generations to “be very active against racism,” or anti-racist.
To do this, Crawford identified three main calls to action which can be implemented from the individual to institutional level. “First is awareness of our bias and how we got infected with the socially transmitted disease that is racism. The second is an investigation, how do we actively explore what it looks like and what activates racism. And the third is how do we actively reduce the impact on the individual, interpersonal, and organizational racism.”
The BioBus Student Town Hall Series on racism and society can help students and other viewers take the first steps in tackling these calls to action by creating a safe and accessible space to ask their questions to experts and professionals. You can view the past event recordings via the BioBus website and the series will continue with:
- Thursday, November 5, 2020 at 4 PM ET - How Racism Affects Public Health
- Thursday, December 3, 2020 at 4 PM ET - Racism and Disease