Evaluation research using astronomy theatre suggests good promise for young Spanish-origin women to choose science majors

Abstract

We report evaluation findings and best practices from a morning of research with senior class students at an all-Spanish-origin, secondary school in the southwest United States. We found a jump in interest toward science for the women who self-identified as humanities students, and over the morning, surprisingly, this affected their remembrance of previous attitudes. Our results for this and other evaluations corroborate that experiential activities involving one-to-one or group activities are useful in attracting high school and college students to the sciences, especially young women. These results also pointed toward best practices.