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Abstract

Only 4% of professional physicists identify as black or African American, a number far smaller than the 12% of the Americans that do, and this underrepresentation is more dramatic in physics than it is in most scientific disciplines. I have developed a curriculum that uses these and other statistics as a jumping-off point for my high school students to explore issues of race, access, and culture in physics. I will share my experiences from a decade of using the curriculum, including how my students respond, how I address the challenges that have arisen, and how this curriculum has evolved. In doing so, I hope both to model the integration of physics teaching and social justice and to motivate attendees to take steps in their own classes.

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