Instructions: Please spend five minutes drawing a scientist. Add as much detail as you can. There is no correct answer; just use your creativity and draw what comes to mind.
As you may suspect, the 'draw-a-scientist' test is not merely about art. It is, in fact, a well known experiment that has been given to tens of thousands of children over the last fifty years, and it can reveal trends in children's beliefs and stereotypes about scientists.
Look at your scientist and decide whether you drew a male figure, a female figure or a gender-neutral figure.
If you drew a male scientist, you're in line with the majority of children across the US. Over time, anywhere between 94.4% and 72% of the figures drawn are male.
But our middle school students are different. Our students drew almost equal numbers of male and female scientists... and the largest group drawn were gender-neutral figures (labeled, in some cases, with gender-neutral pronouns).
It seems that we have a group of children for whom gender is not the primary attribute that they consider when imagining a scientist. Why is this important? Children's drawings reveal the stereotypes that they hold, and these stereotypes inform not only their beliefs about themselves, but their beliefs about others. We were excited to see that this very basic measure indicates that our students are ahead of the curve on open-minded attitudes towards science! For more background on children's drawings have changed over time, and why this matters, see this article.