Anti-Racist Science Education

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Until Henrietta Lacks' cells came along, whenever human cells were put in a lab dish, they would die immediately or reproduce only a few times. HeLa cells, by contrast, grew indefinitely. National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research via AP hide caption

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National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research via AP

Until Henrietta Lacks' cells came along, whenever human cells were put in a lab dish, they would die immediately or reproduce only a few times. HeLa cells, by contrast, grew indefinitely.

National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research via AP

Short Wave listener and antibody engineer Esther Odekunle wrote in with a question: "Does genius absolve racism?" We don't think it does. Some of the most prestigious scientists in history advanced racist and eugenicist views. But why is that rarely mentioned in textbooks? Can racial justice and science history be incorporated into a science class?

For the educators we speak with, the answer is yes. They are building an anti-racist perspective into their curriculum and seeking to make the science classroom more inclusive. (Encore episode)

We speak with:

• Letimicia Fears, a postdoctoral fellow in the Collaborative for STEM Education and Outreach at Vanderbilt University and an adjunct in the Department of Biological Science at Tennessee State University

• Gretchen Kraig-Turner, a science teacher at Burlington-Edison High School and a contributing author to Rethinking School

• Viji Sathy, a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an administrator in the Office of Undergraduate Education

Additional Resources:

• Inclusivity Checklist for the Science Classroom by Letimicia Fears

• Beyond Just A Cells Unit: What My Students Learned From the Story of Henrietta Lacks by Gretchen Kraig-Turner

• Resources for Teaching Inclusively During COVID by Viji Sathy

• Dismantling Systemic Racism in Science by Esther Odekunle

This episode was produced by Rebecca Ramirez. It was edited by Viet Le and fact-checked by Ariela Zebede. Special thanks to Yowei Shaw.