Dr. Erica Colón is a National Board Certified Teacher with over twelve years of teaching experience in 6th to 12th grade secondary science, including Physical Science, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, and Marine Science. Erica holds a Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus in science and technology, and in 2012, she founded Nitty Gritty Science, where she continues to design and publish science curriculum which can be found in thousands of classrooms around the globe.

Erica also organizes and hosts the Champions For Science Virtual Conference Series for science educators, where extraordinary leaders, creators, and innovators in science education come together to focus on the most important matter – the students.

We were lucky enough to chat with Erica recently, discussing all-things science curriculum with her and getting first-hand insights into the gender gap in this area.

Arduino Education: Hi Erica, thank you so much for talking to us today. Let’s start with a fun one - what’s one thing about you that not many people know?

Erica Colón: Well, I almost went to culinary school rather than becoming a teacher! I think cooking is just like one big chemistry lab. I love seeing how everything comes together from a recipe and I just love to cook in my kitchen - or even mixing cocktails! I think it's because I love science so much, it’s like you have your recipe and the kitchen is your lab.

AE: That’s such a transferable skill! So, in your words, what is science?

EC: Science is just studying the natural world around you. Everything is connected. And one of the things that I think we need to get past in science education is the way that everything is taught so linearly. There’s no interconnection between subjects, when in reality, they all connect all the time. For example, you have to understand biology to understand physics, you have to understand chemistry and how it works at the molecular level, to go to the cellular level, so it's all connected.

AE: A great definition. Let’s talk about your website and YouTube channel Nitty Gritty Science. What does nitty gritty mean in terms of the basics of learning science?

EC: For me, the nitty gritty stuff is the basics - I’ve seen so many students who haven’t quite got the basics and it's through no fault of their own - it’s usually just from misconceptions. For example, because of some animal kingdom poster in a classroom, one student I’ve taught previously thought that lions were males and tigers were females - just because of this poster! So, when it comes to situations like that, I say let’s get back to the nitty gritty.

AE: That’s very interesting, and because of these misconceptions, you’re sort of teaching double time. So why is it so important to get kids more interested in learning science?

EC: Well, science is just building on everything. So STEM, for example, is just science and technology, engineering, mathematics. And again, it's because everything is connected.

You can't do science without math, you can't do math and engineering without pieces of science. And so this is where a lot of fields are growing and are being innovative. There are so many jobs out there that are STEM in action. And so the students have to understand, again, what's going on with the natural world, and climate change and all elements that are connected. That is why it is so important to have science fields and STEM fields taken care of.

AE: And was this what made you start Nitty Gritty Science?

EC: Well, it's funny, because I did not intend to start Nitty Gritty Science, I wanted to go back and teach science teachers! It came about shortly after the birth of my daughter. I had planned to go back to work and had a job lined up, but she got sick and had to stay in the hospital for a long time, so I couldn't go back into teaching, I had to do something from home.

Then my mom sent me this article about a teacher who made money writing curriculum. And I said, “Well, I can do that, I can write a curriculum.” But I couldn’t really make any money doing that, so I decided to create more of an interactive science notebook. I started building that idea out and that was where Nitty Gritty was born.

AE: Amazing! So let's discuss the gender gap in education. Men outnumber women majoring in most STEM fields in college. In your opinion, why is this? Where do we lose the girls?

EC: I think the number one reason is that there aren’t that many role models for females. If you were to ask children to draw a scientist, a lot of them would draw men. Another issue is the lack of diversity within science roles. Then, when women do finally break into a field, girls have to start trying to be all these stereotypes. And there are still a lot of barriers that need to be broken about how female scientists are treated in the workplace. That being said, I think this is one of these powerful things of social media, where we're starting to see a lot more female scientists come out and share what they're doing.

While there are female engineers out there, when you picture an engineer you’ll probably picture that poster from school of a white male with a yellow hardhat and rolled up blueprint standing in front of a construction scene! Unfortunately, there are a lot of males in the pictures in school textbooks, especially chemistry textbooks, and that sort of thing.

Then there’s the issue that these types of roles aren’t really shared with you. A lot of students just have to find this information themselves. And that's hard to do! So you have to be a self advocate. If you don't know where to start, or you don't know where to go, then you’re more likely to just choose a career path that is easy, that everyone understands - and by doing that, you’re just fitting into that stereotype.

As a teacher, all you can do is put that information out there and make your students aware that they can do anything. Especially for girls, it’s about telling them, “you would be so good at this” and encouraging them. So that is where we're at right now, we have to keep encouraging and showing different roles that they can do.

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