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Taking anxiety out of the STEM equation

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by Lindsey Ford • Published on
Rocky Mountain PBS

AURORA, Colo. — When Felicia Clark began studying math in college, she described an unwelcoming environment. “I had a male teacher who didn’t want to call on the women,” she added saying she was made feel like she didn’t belong. “I even had a teacher try and counsel me out saying that statistics was too hard for me even though I had the second highest test score in the whole department.” 

Felicia Clark, Ph.D., is also the math curriculum coordinator for the summer math boot camp through CABPES, the Colorado Association of Black Professional Engineers and Scientists.  

This year they’re hosting 40 students from districts across the Denver Metro area including Denver Public Schools, Aurora Public Schools, and Cherry Creek Schools for a five-week program where three hours a day, youth will learn different math skills, test taking, certifications, and more. The idea is to get more Black and Brown students familiar and comfortable with science, technology, engineering, and math, also known as STEM. 

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Starting on a local level and founded in the 1980s, CABPES is a nonprofit that strives to increase diversity in STEM fields.  

Most STEM jobs in the United States have historically lacked the diversity for this country’s racially and culturally diverse melting pot. According to percentage data collected by NSF, racial groups in America that hold job space in STEM fields go as follows, Black or African-American people make up 12%, Hispanic or Latino 18%, Asian 6%, and white 61%. 

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Clark specializes in mathematics anxiety. Through her research, she found that students who have high-test-anxiety, don’t allow themselves to understand math fully. Clark helps students combat their math anxiety by painting visual pictures for them, like building models and showing patterns in mathematics. 

“Most students that don’t perform well in math look at every math problem separately and do a long problem without thinking about what they know”, Clarks said. “So, a lot of stuff you can do in your head, big numbers are just a bunch of small numbers put together.” 

Clark also specializes in math textbook curriculum writing and test making. With a big smile, Clark shared that a student told her they didn’t know one could make a career by writing math textbooks. 

Clark and CABPES founders believe exposure to Black leaders working in STEM fields encourages Black youth to think about wanting to be the next way of scientists, doctors, mathematicians, physicists, and more. 

“It’s heartwarming just to see our students just thriving and getting over their fears and going into professions that maybe they don’t have other people encouraging them to be a scientist, to be an engineer,” said Clark. 

Lindsey Ford is a multimedia journalist with Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach her at lindseyford@rmpbs.org.

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