4-1 One Astrophysics Research Project at a Time

Pre-Reading

Promoting Inclusion in STEM, One Astrophysics Research Project at a Time

Scientists pride themselves on their objectivity. It’s a fundamental tenet of scientific logic, that whatever we study, it must be carried out in a matter of fact way, immune to our own human flaws. This has lead to the myth of the “meritocracy”: that the best scientists are simply the folks who design the best experiments, who accomplish the most, and those are openly celebrated by the scientific community for their ingenuity.

But most scientists are white. Most are men. This isn’t by chance. It is one piece of evidence pointing to a fundamental flaw in the process of science that systematically excludes people of color and women, even in the 21st century. Now, there has been some improvement: the proportion of white women scientists is creeping up decade by decade, but the contrast with more minoritized groups is striking. Representation from Black Americans, Latinx Americans and Native Americans is almost non-existent in the upper echelons of academic research, and it hasn’t grown in the past twenty years. It isn’t a coincidence that these are some of the most traditionally marginalized groups in the history of our society. In fact, physics and astronomy have some of the highest proportions of white representation compared to other STEM fields, and time has proven unhelpful in the battle for equal representation for people of color in the lab.

With support from the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Astronomy and McDonald Observatory, we’ve created a program designed specifically to address the retention of undergraduate students of color in STEM. The Texas Astronomy Undergraduate Research Experience for Under-represented Students (TAURUS) is a 9-week summer research experience for highly-motivated, excelling students from traditionally marginalized groups from all over the country. TAURUS Scholars come to UT to work one-on-one with a professional astronomer on a research project—from discovering new planets around other stars to investigating galaxies at the edge of the Universe.

The highlight of the entire TAURUS summer experience is a group trip to McDonald Observatory in west Texas. For most TAURUS Scholars, it will be their first trip to a professional observatory and their first trip to one of the darkest night sky sites in the world. Between taking turns steering the 2.7m Harlan J. Smith Telescope to scientific targets related to their summer research, the scholars sneak out to the observatory catwalk and let their eyes adjust to the dark skies. The ambient light from the Milky Way galaxy pops against the darkness, bright enough to cast a shadow. For TAURUS Scholars, this is, without a doubt, a key moment that fuels their motivation for becoming astrophysicists.

References

Promoting Inclusion in STEM, One Astrophysics Research Project at a Time
Caitlin Casey - https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/promoting-inclusion-in-stem-one-astrophysics-research-project-at-a-time

• Introduction
  • General Statement
  • Thesis Statement
    • Point 1, Point 2, and Point 3
• Summary
  • Point 1, Point 2, and Point 3

Reading