Ampliación de la participación minoritaria en las ciencias submarinas a través de relaciones de colaboración comunitaria.
Es importante que el público tenga conocimientos básicos sobre los océanos para tomar decisiones informadas acerca de los esfuerzos de restauración de los océanos y para asumir una mayor responsabilidad individual en esos esfuerzos. Las generaciones más jóvenes son fundamentales para el desarrollo de una sociedad con conocimientos sobre los océanos, pero contar con una educación en ciencias del mar adecuada es un desafío para las escuelas de pocos recursos y sin una financiación suficiente.
A 2009 survey by the Ocean Project revealed that young people care greatly about ocean conservation, are motivated to act and often influence adults’ opinions. Informal educational opportunities run by the Black Girls Dive Foundation (BGDF) — such as our STREAMS (science, technology, robotics, engineering, arts, mathematics and scuba) program and collaborative partnerships with aquariums such as the Georgia Aquarium — fill the knowledge gap and are a resource for environmentally minded students.
One of our goals is to offer the water engagement that’s integral for marine sciences, a college major that typically has low interest in the Black community, especially among women. We believe this lack of interest is embedded in Black cultural history’s multigenerational narrative that Black people do not swim or engage in water activities. Hair texture and management are also salient factors; many Black women make a conscious decision to avoid exploring the water and getting their hair wet. A symptom of past discrimination and segregation, this behavior has led to swimming not being a part of African American recreational culture.
Seventy percent of African Americans do not know how to swim, and research shows that children have more than an 80 percent chance of not learning to swim if their parents don’t swim. This lack of water activity may explain why Black children are five times more likely to drown than white children. Changing this cultural narrative through outreach and opportunity could increase Black girls’ interest in aquatic-based programs in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields and careers in the underwater sciences.
BGDF es una organización sin fines de lucro fundada en 2017 para empoderar a niñas de grupos minoritarios históricamente subrepresentados a fin de explorar sus identidades STEM a través de actividades de conservación marina y actividades acuáticas recreativas como el buceo. Actualmente acompañamos a niñas de pocos recursos en Baltimore, Maryland y los países vecinos, así como también en Trenton, Nueva Jersey. A través de una asociación de colaboración con el Acuario de Georgia, en breve lanzaremos un programa piloto en Atlanta.
The foundation has had an impact on more than 300 youth nationally and internationally and has a program retention rate of more than 90 percent. We have provided more than 200 STEM classes, issued more than 60 traditional and specialty dive certifications and led two international dive expeditions to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and Andros Island, Bahamas. These capstones have provided BGDF scholars an opportunity to apply what they’ve learned by completing an environmental stewardship project. Students explored the ocean using surveying techniques to document biodiversity, for example, and did a comparative analysis on the differences between oceanic and freshwater blue holes and buoyancy differences in the Red Sea versus the Atlantic Ocean.
The STREAMS program addresses the racial, gender and socioeconomic achievement gap that undermines our ideals of freedom, equality and opportunity and how we cultivate the next generation of scientists and planetary stewards. This aquatic-based eco-STEM program integrates science, technology, robotics, engineering, arts and mathematics with scuba diving and marine conservation projects. It is conceptually grounded in STEM identity research that views Black women’s interest in science through a lens of science identity.
Gender, racial and ethnic identities affect people’s science identity, which is the summation of their competence, performance and recognition by meaningful others as a science person. Visual images of scientists historically have been of white men in lab coats, which may hinder Black and Latina girls from imagining themselves as scientists. Studies have shown that a failure to identify with the dominant culture’s images of scientists is linked with lower interest and pursuit of learning in math and science among middle-school girls, which can ultimately affect their career choices. STREAMS provides an opportunity for girls to see people who come from their cultural and racial background and who look like them in marine science and aquatic recreation spaces.
En 2020, el programa STREAMS lanzó el Proyecto CORAL (Collaborative Ocean Restoration and Leadership) (Colaboración para la Restauración de los Océanos y Liderazgo) para abordar el problema crítico de la destrucción de los arrecifes de coral y su impacto global. El proyecto tiene un rol esencial en la educación de las jóvenes para que se involucren mediante un compromiso activo en la restauración de los arrecifes de coral. Las estudiantes utilizan la impresión 3D para diseñar, fabricar y plantar segmentos de coral en los arrecifes. También participan en la limpieza de desechos de arroyos, playas y océanos para mantener las vías marítimas saludables.
This project’s objective is to support critical inquiry and thinking, communication, collaboration and responsible citizenry while meeting national science standards and cultivating the STEM identities of girls historically identified as an underrepresented “minority” group. This work increases girls’ interest in STEM, provides career exploration and knowledge of complementary career fields and their academic pathways, and produces the next generation of youth eco-leaders to tackle environmental issues of climate change and healthy waterways.
In addition to their science work, students receive dive training, complete a scuba certification course and learn about the principles and techniques of scientific diving. They also learn how to capture 360-degree underwater images and video and the process of photo stitching. They utilize remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to monitor and capture additional video footage in areas divers can’t reach.
El programa STREAMS fomenta la educación mediante el uso de un enfoque de aprendizaje basado en el lugar y el proyecto para permitir una formación más profunda, más significativa y auténtica. Las prácticas informadas por la investigación demuestran que la educación basada en el lugar tiene un gran poder, y aprovechar ese poder crea experiencias auténticas y orgánicas que son transformadoras para las jóvenes. El programa es un esfuerzo conjunto con el Acuario de Georgia, Sprout U School of the Arts, Hope-3D, la Asociación de Educación a Distancia de los Estados Unidos (U.S. Distance Learning Association), la fundación Khaled bin Sultan Living Ocean Foundation, la división de Charm City de la Asociación Nacional de Buzos Negros (National Association of Black Scuba Divers), la Universidad Nacional de Samoa (National University of Samoa) y Forfar Field Station.
BGDF tiene una posición única para expandir su alcance y brindar oportunidades para niñas de todo el país para construir relaciones entre pares, desarrollar habilidades de liderazgo y explorar sus identidades STEM a través de la orientación y el aprendizaje basado en el lugar y el proyecto. El componente clave para lograr este objetivo es expandir nuestras alianzas y colaboraciones con diversas organizaciones y empresas tales como tiendas de buceo, centros comunitarios, escuelas, escuelas universitarias y universidades.
Se necesita un pueblo para preparar a nuestras jóvenes para que sean ciudadanas productivas y estas relaciones de colaboración son cruciales para el éxito de nuestro programa y nuestra misión de organización. Con la ayuda de nuestros generosos socios, continuaremos apoyando a las jóvenes niñas negras con conciencia ecológica que están construyendo un futuro lleno de posibilidades.
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Learn more about the Black Girls Dive Foundation in these videos.
© Alert Diver — Q2 2021