STEM Education and Science Identity Formation

As the world struggles with the COVID pandemic, one question that keeps coming up in conversations among educators is how to teach students amid the uncertainty. Specifically, the difficulty is with teaching subjects that require hands-on learning in order to master the concepts and make them one’s own. Today, however, I would like to pose a different, more global question: How can we help students identify with science in a deeper, more meaningful way? How can we help students develop what is known as science identity? For students, developing a sense of science identity means studying the content, internalizing concepts and making the knowledge their own. It means mastering skills. Additionally, and equally importantly, it means viewing oneself as pursuing a career in science, a career in which they can see someone like them succeed (Sage 2YC, nd).