When boys and girls in classrooms were asked to draw a scientist in a study several decades ago, the results revealed a stunning bias: 99.4 percent of the drawings depicted a male scientist. Out of 5,000 drawings collected between 1966 and 1977, only 28 were of female scientists, all of which were drawn by girls.
In 2016, findings reported that more than half of girls drew a woman when asked to draw a scientist.
Source: [https://www.edutopia.org/article/50-years-children-drawing-scientists](50 Years of Children Drawing Scientists)
Thanks to the Draw A Scientist Test (DAST), we've been able not only to measure the image of scientists across time but, also to tailor science education according to it.
So, when we realize that most people imagine a scientist as an old guy, with spiky gray hair, wearing a lab coat and doing some weird chemistry experiments isolated from the rest of the world, we can find that there are problems with the image of scientists and science themselves.
webDAST changes everything! By having the option to test a lot more people around the world, we will be able to gather much more accurate results. We will even be able to pinpoint certain communities, towns, cities, or countries in which the image of scientists is harmful to science, so that science educators can work on improving it :) Not to mention, webDAST provides an unbiased and accessible platform for researchers across the globe, something that is often either underdeveloped or unavailable for science educators and researchers alike.
Users are able to sign in with Google so they can start drawing their scientists! After doing so, a brief form will be taken so we can classify their drawing alongside data that is relevant to why they drew said scientist! (Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Level of Education, etc). Once they're done with their drawing and form, they will be able to submit both! A gallery of previous submissions and more information about the DAST and webDAST will be available for everyone.
Researchers can easily gather the data by selecting filters and afterwards downloading it in a .csv with links to the drawings and the data.
The email and private data won’t be part of the accessible data in the DB, since we wouldn’t want to compromise our users :)
For classrooms, we aim to develop a simpler version for students, in which a premade link would be sent to everyone. Inside this premade link, our website won’t ask them for a google account, instead they will be able to write their names. Afterward, the teacher will fill in the data for its students. Once it gets uploaded to our database, no one else will be able to access the students' name
For now, our prototype website only allows users to log in, so we can store their drawing and data in
React.js, Firebase, html5, css3, js
We tried shifting our project to Next.js after the workshop Neel gave since we liked how easy it was to make our website responsive. But, when doing so, we encountered many problems during the compilation of the code. We expect to We weren’t able to finish our website in time mainly because the canvas didn’t work alongside the rest of the website so we have it on a different file.
**Most of the team learned how to develop in React.js and specifically a Next.js web app. We also learned a lot about the different tools Figma offers. **
We got in touch with Fundación Ciencia Jóven (Youth Science Foundation), an NGO from Chile which, by working to improve scientific education, creates a society with stronger preparedness in STEM. They are interested in this page since they are one of the institutions that do research with the DAST. They use it to measure the impact of their activities. Thanks to Ciencia Jóven, we’ll be able to test webDAST in several schools in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. We hope to soon expand our approach to the rest of the world.
