diff --git a/_index.db b/_index.db index 6d82c891e..ca2831b4d 100644 Binary files a/_index.db and b/_index.db differ diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_Now_Institute-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_Now_Institute-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..790d6232f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_Now_Institute-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: "AI Now Institute" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_Now_Institute" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:12.908070+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The AI Now Institute (AI Now) is an American research institute studying the social implications of artificial intelligence and policy research that addresses the concentration of power in the tech industry. AI Now has partnered with organizations such as the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR), Data & Society, Ada Lovelace Institute, New York University Tandon School of Engineering, New York University Center for Data Science, Partnership on AI, and the ACLU. AI Now has produced annual reports that examine the social implications of artificial intelligence. In 2021–22, AI Now's leadership served as a Senior Advisors on AI to Chair Lina Khan at the Federal Trade Commission. Its executive director is Amba Kak. + + +== Founding and mission == +AI Now grew out of a 2016 symposium organized by Obama's White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The event was led by Meredith Whittaker, the founder of Google's Open Research Group, and Kate Crawford, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research. The event focused on near-term implications of AI in social domains: Inequality, Labor, Ethics, and Healthcare. +In November 2017, AI Now held a second symposium on AI and social issues, and publicly launched the AI Now Institute in partnership with New York University. It is claimed to be the first university research institute focused on the social implications of AI, and the first AI institute founded and led by women. It is now a fully independent institute. +In an interview with NPR, Crawford stated that the motivation for founding AI Now was that the application of AI into social domains - such as health care, education, and criminal justice - was being treated as a purely technical problem. The goal of AI Now's research is to treat these as social problems first, and bring in domain experts in areas like sociology, law, and history to study the implications of AI. + + +== Research == +AI Now publishes an annual report on the state of AI and its integration into society. Its 2017 report stated that "current framings of AI ethics are failing" and provided ten strategic recommendations for the field - including pre-release trials of AI systems, and increased research into bias and diversity in the field. The report was noted for calling for an end to "black box" systems in core social domains, such as those responsible for criminal justice, healthcare, welfare, and education. +In April 2018, AI Now released a framework for algorithmic impact assessments, as a way for governments to assess the use of AI in public agencies. According to AI Now, an AIA would be similar to environmental impact assessment, in that it would require public disclosure and access for external experts to evaluate the effects of an AI system, and any unintended consequences. This would allow systems to be vetted for issues like biased outcomes or skewed training data, which researchers have already identified in algorithmic systems deployed across the country. +Its 2023 Report argued that meaningful reform of the tech sector must focus on addressing concentrated power in the tech industry. + + +== See also == +Banjo (application) +Clearview AI + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic_Justice_League-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic_Justice_League-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..40ffe49a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic_Justice_League-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Algorithmic Justice League" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic_Justice_League" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:14.048812+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Algorithmic Justice League (AJL) is a digital advocacy non-profit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 2016 by computer scientist Joy Buolamwini, the AJL combats the harms and biases of AI by amplifying the voices of communities most affected by AI systems and mobilizing advocates, researchers, and industry leaders to build more equitable and accountable algorithms. The AJL has engaged in a variety of open online seminars, media appearances, and tech advocacy initiatives to communicate information about bias in AI systems and promote industry and government action to mitigate against the creation and deployment of biased AI systems. Most notably, AJL has highlighted racial and gender biases in facial recognition technologies and has advocated for greater transparency and accountability in the datasets used to train these systems. In 2021, Fast Company named AJL as one of the 10 most innovative AI companies in the world. + +== History == +Buolamwini founded the Algorithmic Justice League in 2016 as a graduate student in the MIT Media Lab. While experimenting with facial detection software in her research, she found that the software could not detect her "highly melanated" face until she donned a white mask. After this incident, Buolamwini became inspired to found AJL to draw public attention to the existence of bias in artificial intelligence and the threat it can poses to civil rights. Early AJL campaigns focused primarily on bias in face recognition software; recent campaigns have dealt more broadly with questions of equitability and accountability in AI, including algorithmic bias, algorithmic decision-making, algorithmic governance, and algorithmic auditing. +Additionally there is a community of other organizations working towards similar goals, including Data and Society, Data for Black Lives, the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR), and Fight for the Future. + +== Notable work == + +=== Facial recognition === +AJL founder Buolamwini collaborated with AI ethicist Timnit Gebru to release a 2018 study on racial and gender bias in facial recognition algorithms used by commercial systems from Microsoft, IBM, and Face++. Their research, entitled "Gender Shades", determined that machine learning models released by IBM and Microsoft were less accurate when analyzing dark-skinned and feminine faces compared to performance on light-skinned and masculine faces. The "Gender Shades" paper was accompanied by the launch of the Safe Face Pledge, an initiative designed with the Georgetown Center on Privacy & Technology that urged technology organizations and governments to prohibit lethal use of facial recognition technologies. The Gender Shades project and subsequent advocacy undertaken by AJL and similar groups led multiple tech companies, including Amazon and IBM, to address biases in the development of their algorithms and even temporarily ban the use of their products by police in 2020. +Buolamwini and AJL were featured in the 2020 Netflix documentary Coded Bias, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. This documentary focused on the AJL's research and advocacy efforts to spread awareness of algorithmic bias in facial recognition systems. +A research collaboration involving AJL released a white paper in May 2020 calling for the creation of a new United States federal government office to regulate the development and deployment of facial recognition technologies. The white paper proposed that creating a new federal government office for this area would help reduce the risks of mass surveillance and bias posed by facial recognition technologies towards vulnerable populations. + +=== Bias in speech recognition === +The AJL has run initiatives to increase public awareness of algorithmic bias and inequities in the performance of AI systems for speech and language modeling across gender and racial populations. The AJL's work in this space centers on highlighting gender and racial disparities in the performance of commercial speech recognition and natural language processing systems, which have been shown to underperform on racial minorities and reinforced gender stereotypes. +In March 2020, AJL released a spoken word artistic piece, titled Voicing Erasure, that increased public awareness of racial bias in automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems. The piece was performed by numerous female and non-binary researchers in the field, including Ruha Benjamin, Sasha Costanza-Chock, Safiya Noble, and Kimberlé Crenshaw. AJL based their development of "Voicing Erasure" on a 2020 PNAS paper, titled, "Racial disparities in automated speech recognition" that identified racial disparities in performance of five commercial ASR systems. + +=== Algorithmic governance === +In 2019, Buolamwini represented AJL at a congressional hearing of the US House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, to discuss the applications of facial recognition technologies commercially and in the government. Buolamwini served as a witness at the hearing and spoke on underperformance of facial recognition technologies in identifying people with darker skin and feminine features and supported her position with research from the AJL project "Gender Shades". +In January 2022, the AJL collaborated with Fight for the Future and the Electronic Privacy Information Center to release an online petition called DumpID.me, calling for the IRS to halt their use of ID.me, a facial recognition technology they were using on users when they log in. The AJL and other organizations sent letters to legislators and requested them to encourage the IRS to stop the program. In February 2022, the IRS agreed to halt the program and stop using facial recognition technology. AJL has now shifted efforts to convince other government agencies to stop using facial recognition technology; as of March 2022, the DumpID.me petition has pivoted to stop the use of ID.me in all government agencies. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic_Justice_League-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic_Justice_League-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..94d0e9bf2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic_Justice_League-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Algorithmic Justice League" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic_Justice_League" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:14.048812+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Olay Decode the Bias campaign === +In September 2021, Olay collaborated with AJL and O'Neil Risk Consulting & Algorithmic Auditing (ORCAA) to conduct the Decode the Bias campaign, which included an audit that explored whether the Olay Skin Advisor (OSA) System included bias against women of color. The AJL chose to collaborate with Olay due to Olay's commitment to obtaining customer consent for their selfies and skin data to be used in this audit. The AJL and ORCAA audit revealed that the OSA system contained bias in its performance across participants' skin color and age. The OSA system demonstrated higher accuracy for participants with lighter skin tones, per the Fitzpatrick Skin Type and individual typology angle skin classification scales. The OSA system also demonstrated higher accuracy for participants aged 30–39. Olay has, since, taken steps to internally audit and mitigate against the bias of the OSA system. Olay has also funded 1,000 girls to attend the Black Girls Code camp, to encourage African-American girls to pursue STEM careers. + +=== CRASH project === +In July 2020, the Community Reporting of Algorithmic System Harms (CRASH) Project was launched by AJL. This project began in 2019 when Buolamwini and digital security researcher Camille François met at the Bellagio Center Residency Program, hosted by The Rockefeller Foundation. Since then, the project has also been co-led by MIT professor and AJL research director Sasha Costanza-Chock. The CRASH project focused on creating the framework for the development of bug-bounty programs (BBPs) that would incentivize individuals to uncover and report instances of algorithmic bias in AI technologies. After conducting interviews with BBP participants and a case study of Twitter's BBP program, AJL researchers developed and proposed a conceptual framework for designing BBP programs that compensate and encourage individuals to locate and disclose the existence of bias in AI systems. AJL intends for the CRASH framework to give individuals the ability to report algorithmic harms and stimulate change in AI technologies deployed by companies, especially individuals who have traditionally been excluded from the design of these AI technologies [20, DataSociety report]. + +=== Freedom Flyers Campaign === +Beginning in 2023, the AJL launched the “Freedom Flyers” campaign, which raises awareness about the use of facial recognition by TSA at U.S. airports. As part of the campaign, the organization collects traveler experiences through a “TSA scorecard” to document how biometric systems are used at airport checkpoints . Its report ''Comply to Fly?'' found that many travelers perceive facial recognition screening as mandatory, despite official claims that it is voluntary. +The campaign also highlights that passengers can opt out of facial recognition without penalty and hosts events such as the Freedom Flyers Summit to discuss the broader implications of these technologies. It frames airport screening as a key site in the expansion of biometric surveillance and raises concerns about privacy, consent, and potential bias, particularly for marginalized groups. + +== Support and media appearances == +AJL initiatives have been funded by the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Mozilla Foundation and individual private donors. Fast Company recognized AJL as one of the 10 most innovative AI companies in 2021. Additionally, venues such as Time magazine, The New York Times, NPR, and CNN have featured Buolamwini's work with the AJL in several interviews and articles. + +== See also == + +== References == + +== External links == +Official Website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7b351b4a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "Ethics of technology" +chunk: 1/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:11.653934+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The ethics of technology is a sub-field of ethics addressing ethical questions specific to the technology age, the transitional shift in society wherein personal computers and subsequent devices provide for the quick and easy transfer of information. Technology ethics is the application of ethical thinking to growing concerns as new technologies continue to rise in prominence. +The topic has evolved as technologies have developed. Technology poses an ethical dilemma on producers and consumers alike. +The subject of technoethics, or the ethical implications of technology, have been studied by different philosophers such as Hans Jonas and Mario Bunge. + +== Technoethics == +Technoethics (TE) is an interdisciplinary research area that draws on theories and methods from multiple knowledge domains (such as communications, social sciences, information studies, technology studies, applied ethics, and philosophy) to provide insights on ethical dimensions of technological systems and practices for advancing a technological society. +Technoethics views technology and ethics as socially embedded enterprises and focuses on discovering the ethical uses for technology, protecting against the misuse of technology, and devising common principles to guide new advances in technological development and application to benefit society. Typically, scholars in technoethics have a tendency to conceptualize technology and ethics as interconnected and embedded in life and society. Technoethics denotes a broad range of ethical issues revolving around technology – from specific areas of focus affecting professionals working with technology to broader social, ethical, and legal issues concerning the role of technology in society and everyday life. +Technoethical perspectives are constantly in transition as technology advances in areas unseen by creators and as users change the intended uses of new technologies. Humans cannot be separated from these technologies because it is an inherent part of consciousness. The short term and longer term ethical considerations for technologies engage the creator, producer, user, and governments. +With the increasing impact emerging technologies have on society, the importance of assessing ethical and social issues constantly becomes more important. While such technologies provide opportunities for novel applications and the potential to transform the society on a global scale, their rise is accompanied by new ethical challenges and problems that must be considered. This becomes more difficult with the increasing pace at which technology is progressing and the increasing impact it has on the societal understanding by seemingly outrunning human control. The concept of technoethics focuses on expanding the knowledge of existing research in the areas of technology and ethics in order to provide a holistic construct for the different aspects and subdisciplines of ethics related to technology-related human activity like economics, politics, globalization, and scientific research. It is also concerned with the rights and responsibilities that designers and developers have regarding the outcomes of the respective technology. This is of particular importance with the emergence of algorithmic technology capable of making decisions autonomously and the related issues of developer or data bias influencing these decisions. To work against the manifestation of these biases, the balance between human and technology accountability for ethical failure has to be carefully evaluated and has shifted the view from technology as a merely positive tool towards the perception of technology as inherently neutral. Technoethics thus has to focus on both sides of the human technology equation when confronted with upcoming technology innovations and applications. +With technology continuing to advance over time, there are new technoethical issues that come into play. For instance, discussions on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have brought about a huge concern for technology, ethics, and safety. There is also a huge question of whether or not artificial intelligence (AI) should be trusted and relied upon. These are just some examples of how the advancements in technology will affect the ethical values of humans in the future. +Technoethics finds application in various areas of technology. The following key areas are mentioned in the literature: + +Computer ethics: Focuses on the use of technology in areas including visual technology, artificial intelligence, and robotics. +Engineering ethics: Dealing with professional standards of engineers and their moral responsibilities to the public. +Internet ethics and cyberethics: Concerning the guarding against unethical Internet activity. +Media and communication technoethics: Concerning ethical issues and responsibilities when using mass media and communication technology. +Professional technoethics: Concerning all ethical considerations that revolve around the role of technology within professional conduct like in engineering, journalism, or medicine. +Educational technoethics: Concerning the ethical issues and outcomes associated with using technology for educational aims. +Biotech ethics: Linked to advances in bioethics and medical ethics like considerations arising in cloning, human genetic engineering, and stem cell research. +Environmental technoethics: Concerning technological innovations that impact the environment and life. +Nanoethics: Concerning ethical and social issues associated with developments in the alteration of matter at the level of atoms and molecules in various disciplines including computer science, engineering, and biology. +Military technoethics: Concerning ethical issues associated with technology use in military action. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1e39c8486 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Ethics of technology" +chunk: 2/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:11.653934+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Definitions == +Ethics address the issues of what is 'right', what is 'just', and what is 'fair'. Ethics describe moral principles influencing conduct; accordingly, the study of ethics focuses on the actions and values of people in society (what people do and how they believe they should act in the world). +Technology is the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment; it may draw upon a variety of fields, including industrial arts, engineering, applied science, and pure science. Technology "is core to human development and a key focus for understanding human life, society and human consciousness." +Using theories and methods from multiple domains, technoethics provides insights on ethical aspects of technological systems and practices, examines technology-related social policies and interventions, and provides guidelines for how to ethically use new advancements in technology. Technoethics provides a systems theory and methodology to guide a variety of separate areas of inquiry into human-technological activity and ethics. Moreover, the field unites both technocentric and bio-centric philosophies, providing "conceptual grounding to clarify the role of technology to those affected by it and to help guide ethical problem solving and decision making in areas of activity that rely on technology." As a bio-techno-centric field, technoethics "has a relational orientation to both technology and human activity"; it provides "a system of ethical reference that justifies that profound dimension of technology as a central element in the attainment of a 'finalized' perfection of man." + +== Fundamental problems == +Technology is merely a tool like a device or gadget. With this thought process of technology just being a device or gadget, it is not possible for technology to possess a moral or ethical quality. Going by this thought process the tool maker or end user would be the one who decides the morality or ethicality behind a device or gadget. "Ethics of technology" refers to two basic subdivisions: + +The ethics involved in the development of new technology—whether it is always, never, or contextually right or wrong to invent and implement a technological innovation. +The ethical questions that are exacerbated by the ways in which technology extends or curtails the power of individuals—how standard ethical questions are changed by the new powers. +In the former case, ethics of such things as computer security and computer viruses asks whether the very act of innovation is an ethically right or wrong act. Similarly, does a scientist have an ethical obligation to produce or fail to produce a nuclear weapon? What are the ethical questions surrounding the production of technologies that waste or conserve energy and resources? What are the ethical questions surrounding the production of new manufacturing processes that might inhibit employment, or might inflict suffering in the third world? +In the latter case, the ethics of technology quickly break down into the ethics of various human endeavors as they are altered by new technologies. For example, bioethics is now largely consumed with questions that have been exacerbated by the new life-preserving technologies, new cloning technologies, and new technologies for implantation. In law, the right of privacy is being continually attenuated by the emergence of new forms of surveillance and anonymity. The old ethical questions of privacy and free speech are given new shape and urgency in an Internet age. Such tracing devices as RFID, biometric analysis and identification, genetic screening, all take old ethical questions and amplify their significance. As you can see, the fundamental problem is as society produces and advances technology that we use in all areas of our life from work, school, medicine, surveillance, etc. we receive great benefits, but there are underlying costs to these benefits. As technology evolves even more, some of the technological innovations can be seen as inhumane and those same technological innovations can be seen by others as creative, life changing, and innovative. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-10.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-10.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5e90551ba --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-10.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Ethics of technology" +chunk: 11/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:11.653934+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== User data ==== +In a digital world, much of users' personal lives are stored on devices such as computers and smartphones, and we trust the companies we store our lives on to take care of our data. A topic of discussion regarding the ethics of technology is just exactly how much data these companies really need and what they are doing with it. Another major cause for concern is the security of our personal data and privacy, whether it is leaked intentionally or not. +User data has been one of the main topics regarding ethics as companies and government entities increasingly have access to billions of users' information. Why do companies need so much data regarding their users and are users aware that their data is being tacked? These questions have risen over the years over concerns of how much do companies actually know. Some websites and apps now ask users if they are allowed to track user activity across different apps with the option to decline. Most companies before did not ask or notify users that their app activity would be tracked. Companies over the years have been facing an increased number of data hacks where user's data such as credit cards, social security, phone numbers, and addresses have been leaked. Users of social networks such as Snapchat and Facebook have been facing phone calls from scammers as recent data hacks released users' phone numbers. The most recent breach to affect Facebook leaked over 533 million Facebook users from 106 countries, including 32 million users alone in the U.S. The type of information leaked included user phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, bios, and email addresses. Hackers and web scrapers have been selling Facebook user data on hacker forums, information for 1 million users can go for $5,000 on these forums. +Large companies share their users' data constantly. In 2018, the U.S, government cracked down on Facebook selling user data to other companies after declaring that it had made the data in question inaccessible. One such case was in a scandal regarding Cambridge Analytica, in which Facebook sold user data to the company without consent from the users whose data was being accessed. The data was then used for several political agendas, such as the Brexit vote and the U.S. Presidential Election of 2016. In an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes, Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale described in detail how he used data taken from different social media websites to create ads that were both visually appealing to potential voters and targeted the issues that they felt strongest about. +Besides swinging political races, the theft of people's data can result in serious consequences on an individual level. In some cases, hackers can breach websites or businesses that have identifying information about a person, such as their credit card number, cell phone number, and address, and upload it to the dark web for sale, if they decide not to use it for their own deviant purposes. + +==== Drones ==== +In the book Society and Technological Change, 8th Edition, by Rudi Volti, the author comments on unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as UAVs or drones. Once used primarily as military technology, these are becoming increasingly accessible tools to the common person for hobbies like photography. In the author's belief, this can also cause concern for security and privacy, as these tools allow people with malicious intents easier access to spying. +Outside of public areas, drones are also able to be used for spying on people in private settings, even in their own homes. In an article by today.com, the author writes about people using drones and taking videos and photographs of people in their most private moments, even in the privacy of their own home. +From an ethical perspective, drones have a multitude of ethical issues many of which are determining current legal policy. Some areas include the ethical military usage of drones, private non-military use by hobbyists for photography or potential spying, drone usage in political campaigns as a way to spread campaign messages, drone usage in the private business sector as a means for delivery, and ethical usage of public/private airspace. +Pet Cloning +In 2020 pet cloning is to become something of interest for those who can afford it. For $25k - $50k anyone will be able to clone their house pet but there is no guarantee you will get the exact same pet that you once had. This may seem very appealing to certain animal-lovers, but what about all of those animals that already have no home? +There are a few different ethical questions here; the first being how is this fair to the animals that are suffering out in the wilderness with no home? The second being that cloning animals is not only for pets, but for all animals in general. Maybe people are concerned that people are going to clone animals for food purposes.Another question about animal cloning is it is good for the welfare of the animal or will the radiation and other procedural aspects cause the animals life to end earlier? These are just some of many concerns some people have with animal cloning. + +==== Animal cloning ==== +The ethical standpoint of animal cloning is a heavily debated topic in a plethora of different career paths. Some of these ethical concerns are the health and well being of the animals, long term side effects, obstetrical complications that occur during cloning, environmental impacts, use of clones in farming/repopulation of endangered species, and the use of clones for other research, specifically in the medical/pharmaceutical field. Many of these concerns are only more recently spoken about due to the advancement of cloning technology in the past decade since humanity's first clone was only twenty-five years ago in 1996 resulting in the birth of a sheep known as Dolly. + +== Facebook and Meta's ethical concerns == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-11.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-11.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..69f089423 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-11.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Ethics of technology" +chunk: 12/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:11.653934+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Facebook, or rather Meta Platforms, Facebook's parent company is currently one of the top social networking sites, throughout the early to late 2010s and into current times (2022). A variety of issues ranging from privacy concerns, the issue of who bears the responsibility of unhealthy social interactions and other unhealthy behaviors, to deliberate enabling of misinformation on the platform. Recent issues such as Facebook data leaks and circulation of fake news highlights the downside of social media when in the wrong hands. following are a few examples of various ethical concerns raised throughout the years in relation to Facebook. + +=== Federal Trade Commission v. Facebook === +A recent Forbes interview conducted on October 22, 2021, by Curt Steinhorst, a contributor for Forbes, with Michael Thate, an ethics teacher employed at Princeton University, asserts that in addition to the Federal Trade Commission v. Facebook ruling determining that Facebook had engaged in unethical antitrust behaviors with the acquisition of its competing social media platforms Instagram and WhatsApp, "Facebook developed an algorithm to capture user attention and information into a platform that they knew promoted unhealthy behaviors." Firstly the unethical acquisition of smaller competing social media platforms restricts free-market practices and restricts users' choices in, at least in this case, what social media sites they choose to access. In addition to the antitrust, the promotion of unhealthy behaviors and lifestyles to increase user engagement on the platform is considered to be by Michael Thate to be an ethical concern, as users of the social media platform are given a choice between maintaining a healthy lifestyle and engaging in the social media platform that is designed to keep them on the site and actively engaged regardless of its impact on the wellbeing of the user. + +=== Facebook's algorithm === +On October 4, 2021, CBS News interviewed Frances Haugen, a whistleblower and former employee of Facebook, who revealed Facebook was aware of various concerning ethical practices. "The complaints say Facebook's own research shows that it amplifies hate, misinformation, and political unrest—but the company hides what it knows. One complaint alleges that Facebook's Instagram harms teenage girls." These various unethical practices were all employed to, yet again promote increased user engagement with the social media platform. Fences Haugen stated in the interview: "The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook. And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money." An article written on February 10, 2021, by Paige Cooper outlines how Facebook's algorithm has changed over the years highlights the changes made by Facebook to prioritize the more emotional interactions on the site. + +=== Facebook–Cambridge Analytica === + +Through the 2010s the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica in a conjoined effort with Facebook gathered information and personal data on upwards of 87 million nonconsenting users as stated by a New York Times article titled "Cambridge Analytica and Facebook: The Scandal and the Fallout So Far". The illegally obtained data was then utilized in Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign to help develop personalized ads and campaign messages based on the data provided by Cambridge Analytica. An article was written by The Guardian on March 18, 2021, interviewing a Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie. In the interview, Wylie asserted that the data given to him was legally obtained and that he and various other academic analyses were also unaware of the nature to which the data used in the psychological profiles was obtained. + +== Areas of technoethical inquiry == + +=== Biotech ethics === + +Biotech ethics concerned with ethical dilemmas surrounding the use of biotechnologies in fields including medical research, health care, and industrial applications. Topics such as cloning ethics, e-health ethics, telemedicine ethics, genetics ethics, neuroethics, and sport and nutrition ethics fall into this category; examples of specific issues include the debates surrounding euthanasia and reproductive rights. +Telemedicine is a medical technology that has been used to advance clinical care with the use of video conferencing, text messaging, and applications. With the advantage of telemedicine, there are concerns about its pitfalls such as threats to patient privacy and HIPAA regulations. Cyberattacks in healthcare are a significant concern when implementing technology because there needs to be measures in place to keep patient privacy secure. One type of cyber attack is a medical device hijack also known as medjack where hackers can alter the functionality of implants, and expose patient medical history. When implementing technology, it is important to check for weaknesses that can cause vulnerability to hacking. +The use of technology in ethics also becomes a key factor when considering artificial intelligence. AI is not seen as a neutral tool, and policies have been set in place to ensure it is not misused under human bias. Although AI is a valuable tool in medicine, the current ethical policies are not up to standard to accommodate AI as it is a multi-disciplinary approach. AI in healthcare is not available to make clinical decisions; however, it can provide assistance in surgeries, imaging, etc. + +=== Technoethics and cognition === +This area of technoethical inquiry is concerned with technology's relation to the human mind, artificial agents, and society. Topics of study that would fit into this category would be artificial morality and moral agents, moral outsourcing, technoethical systems and techno-addiction. + +An artificial agent describes any type of technology that is created to act as an agent, either of its own power or on behalf of another agent. An artificial agent may try to advance its own goals or those of another agent. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-12.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-12.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c2ef5765d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-12.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Ethics of technology" +chunk: 13/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:11.653934+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Mass surveillance === +The ethics behind mass surveillance has become a highly discussed ethical topic in the twenty-first century, especially in the United States due to the tragedy of 9/11. Some areas of ethical concern involve privacy, discrimination, trust in government, infringement of government-granted rights/basic human rights, conflict of interest, stigmatization, and obtrusiveness. Many of these ethical topics in the timeframe between 2001 and 2021 have become the main topic of discussion in many recent laws all throughout the world. Shortly after 9/11 when the United States began to fear the idea that more terrorist attacks could occur on American soil. A law passed on October 26, 2001, known as the Patriot Act was one of the first larger Mass Surveillance laws passed in the United States. Years later, Europe would begin to follow suit with their own set of mass surveillance laws after a string of terrorist attacks. After the 2015 terrorist attacks in France, the French government would move forward with passing the International Electronic Communications Law. +The IEC would recognize the power of the French Directorate-General for External Security allowing them to collect, monitor, and intercept all communications sent or received on French territory. In 2016, the United Kingdom would pass the Investigatory Powers Act of 2016, a law allowing the GCHQ to engage in acquisition, interception, and equipment interference of communications/systems sent by anyone on British territory. Finally, in 2016, another law like the Investigatory Powers Act was passed in Germany that was named the Communications Intelligence Gathering Act. This act allowed the German intelligence community to gather foreign nationals communications while they were in German territory. In 2021, Australia passed a law known as the Surveillance Legislation Amendment, which granted the Australian Federal Police and Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission the right to modify or delete data of suspected offenders, Collect intelligence on criminal networks, and finally, forcefully break into a suspected offender's online account. After these laws were passed all throughout Europe, and later on in Australia, a string of protests would begin to arise involving the laws, as citizens from each country would feel it infringed their privacy rights. +Two years after the Investigatory Powers Act of 2016 was passed in the United Kingdom the English High Court would rule that the act would have to be rewritten. This ruling occurred due to the High Court finding the law to be incompatible with EU law since the law "authorizes the UK government to issue retention notices with no prior independent checks, such as review by a court or other body, and for the purpose of investigating crime that is not "serious crime"; and (2) subsequent access to any retained data was similarly not subject to any independent authorization and not limited to the purpose of combating "serious crime". The origin of this ruling comes from a human rights group known as Liberty who first began to battle the act shortly after it was enacted as they stated it violates the United Kingdom's citizens the right to privacy. In 2020, four years after Germany enacted the Communications Intelligence Gathering Act it would also make its way to court to be reviewed. Receiving heavy backlash from multiple members of the German public and Non-German citizens. Many of these complaints continued to dwell on the same issue of the privacy of both German and non-German citizens. After a two day trial, the high German court did rule that the law was unconstitutional and gave the German parliament until 2021 to make corrections to the Act. +Though, as of recent in the year 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ethical atmosphere regarding public health surveillance began to take center stage due to its overall use during the height of the pandemic. The purpose of this mass surveillance was for data collection of the transmission of the COVID-19. Though, many individuals around the world cited they felt this form of surveillance infringed on their privacy and basic human rights. Another concern regarding this level of surveillance was the lack of government or institutional policy documents regarding how to address the ethical challenges around mass surveillance to track a pandemic transmission rate. The use of this mass surveillance was used on a far larger scale compared to some of the other acts passed in recent years, as this had a more global focus due to the want to bring the transmission of COVID-19 to a halt. For example, on March 16, 2020, the Israeli government allowed emergency regulations regarding mass location tracking of citizens to slow the spread of the disease. Singapore and Taiwan also did something similar, yet their method of mass surveillance was allowing their law-enforcement agencies to monitor quarantine orders. + +=== Technoethics and society === +This field is concerned with the uses of technology to ethically regulate aspects of a society. For example: digital property ethics, social theory, law, science, organizational ethics and global ethics. +Digital property rights or DPR refers to individual rights on information available online such as email accounts, online website accounts, posts, blogs, pictures, and other digital media. Digital property rights can be regulated and protected by making the digital property tamper-proof, by adding legal clause to the digital properties, and limiting the sharing of software code. +Social theory refers to how societies change and develop over time in terms of behavior and explanation of behaviors. Technology has a great impact on social change. As technology evolves and upgrades, human interaction goes along with the changes. "Technological theory suggests that technology is an important factor for social change, and it would initiate changes in the arrangement of social relationships". +Organizational ethics refers to the code of conduct and the way an organization responds to stimulus. Techno ethics plays a role in organizational ethics because technology can be embedded and incorporated in many different aspects of ethical values. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-13.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-13.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..62189cd12 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-13.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "Ethics of technology" +chunk: 14/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:11.653934+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Technofeminism === +Technoethics has concerned itself with society as a general group and made no distinctions between the genders, but considers technological effects and influences on each gender individually. This is an important consideration as some technologies are created for use by a specific gender, including birth control, abortion, fertility treatments, and Viagra. Feminists have had a significant influence on the prominence and development of reproductive technologies. Technoethical inquiry must examine these technologies' effects on the intended gender while also considering their influence on the other gender. Another dimension of technofeminism concerns female involvement in technological development: women's participation in the field of technology has broadened society's understanding of how technology affects the female experience in society. + +=== Information and communication technoethics === +Information and communication technoethics is "concerned with ethical issues and responsibilities arising when dealing with information and communication technology in the realm of communication." This field is related to internet ethics, rational and ethical decision making models, and information ethics. A major area of interest is the convergence of technologies: as technologies become more interdependent and provide people with multiple ways of accessing the same information, they transform society and create new ethical dilemmas. This is particularly evident in the realms of the internet. In recent years, users have had the unprecedented position of power in creating and disseminating news and other information globally via social networking; the concept of "citizen journalism" primarily relates to this. With developments in the media, has led to open media ethics as Ward writes, leading to citizen journalism. +In cases such as the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami or the 2011 Arab Spring movements, citizen journalists were seen to have been significant sources of facts and information in relation to the events. These were re-broadcast by news outlets, and more importantly, re-circulated by and to other internet users. As Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin state in their book Remediation: Understanding New Media (1999): "The liveness of the Web is a refashioned version of the liveness of broadcast television" However, it is commonly political events (such as 'Occupy' movements or the Iran Elections of 2009) that tend to raise ethical questions and concerns. In the latter example, there had been efforts made by the Iranian government in censoring and prohibiting the spread of internal happenings to the outside by its citizen journalists. This occurrence questioned the importance of the spread of crucial information regarding the issue, and the source from which it came from (citizen journalists, government authorities, etc.). This goes to prove how the internet "enables new forms of human action and expression [but] at the same time it disables [it]" Information and Communication Technoethics also identifies ways to develop ethical frameworks of research structures in order to capture the essence of new technologies. + +=== Educational and professional technoethics === + +Technoethical inquiry in the field of education examines how technology impacts the roles and values of education in society. This field considers changes in student values and behavior related to technology, including access to inappropriate material in schools, online plagiarism using material copied directly from the internet, or purchasing papers from online resources and passing them off as the student's own work. Educational technoethics also examines the digital divide that exists between educational institutions in developed and developing countries or between unequally-funded institutions within the same country: for instance, some schools offer students access to online material, while others do not. Professional technoethics focuses on the issue of ethical responsibility for those who work with technology within a professional setting, including engineers, medical professionals, and so on. Efforts have been made to delineate ethical principles in professions such as computer programming (see programming ethics). + +=== Environmental and engineering technoethics === + +Environmental technoethics originate from the 1960s and 1970s' interest in environment and nature. The field focuses on the human use of technologies that may impact the environment; areas of concern include transport, mining, and sanitation. Engineering technoethics emerged in the late 19th century. As the Industrial Revolution triggered a demand for expertise in engineering and a need to improve engineering standards, societies began to develop codes of professional ethics and associations to enforce these codes. Ethical inquiry into engineering examines the "responsibilities of engineers combining insights from both philosophy and the social sciences." + +=== Technoethical assessment and design === + +A technoethical assessment (TEA) is an interdisciplinary, systems-based approach to assessing ethical dilemmas related to technology. TEAs aim to guide actions related to technology in an ethical direction by advancing knowledge of technologies and their effects; successful TEAs thus produce a shared understanding of knowledge, values, priorities, and other ethical aspects associated with technology. TEAs involve five key steps: + +Evaluate the intended ends and possible side effects of the technology in order to discern its overall value (interest). +Compare the means and intended ends in terms of technical and non-technical (moral and social) aspects. +Reject those actions where the output (overall value) does not balance the input in terms of efficiency and fairness. +Consider perspectives from all stakeholder groups. +Examine technological relations at a variety of levels (e.g. biological, physical, psychological, social, and environmental). +Technoethical design (TED) refers to the process of designing technologies in an ethical manner, involving stakeholders in participatory design efforts, revealing hidden or tacit technological relations, and investigating what technologies make possible and how people will use them. TED involves the following four steps: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-14.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-14.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..acb885095 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-14.md @@ -0,0 +1,98 @@ +--- +title: "Ethics of technology" +chunk: 15/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:11.653934+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Ensure that the components and relations within the technological system are explicitly understood by those in the design context. +Perform a TEA to identify relevant technical knowledge. +Optimize the technological system in order to meet stakeholders' and affected individuals' needs and interests. +Consult with representatives of stakeholder and affected groups in order to establish consensus on key design issues. +Both TEA and TED rely on systems theory, a perspective that conceptualizes society in terms of events and occurrences resulting from investigating system operations. Systems theory assumes that complex ideas can be studied as systems with common designs and properties which can be further explained using systems methodology. The field of technoethics regards technologies as self-producing systems that draw upon external resources and maintain themselves through knowledge creation; these systems, of which humans are a part, are constantly in flux as relations between technology, nature, and society change. TEA attempts to elicit the knowledge, goals, inputs, and outputs that comprise technological systems. Similarly, TED enables designers to recognize technology's complexity and power, to include facts and values in their designs, and to contextualize technology in terms of what it makes possible and what makes it possible. + +== Organizational technoethics == +Recent advances in technology and their ability to transmit vast amounts of information in a short amount of time has changed the way information is being shared amongst co-workers and managers throughout organizations across the globe. Starting in the 1980s with information and communications technologies (ICTs), organizations have seen an increase in the amount of technology that they rely on to communicate within and outside of the workplace. However, these implementations of technology in the workplace create various ethical concerns and in turn a need for further analysis of technology in organizations. As a result of this growing trend, a subsection of technoethics known as organizational technoethics has emerged to address these issues. + +== Key scholarly contributions == +Key scholarly contributions linking ethics, technology, and society can be found in a number of seminal works: + +The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of Ethics for the Technological Age (Hans Jonas, 1979). + On Technology, Medicine and Ethics (Hans Jonas, 1985). + The Real World of Technology (Franklin, 1990). +Thinking Ethics in Technology: Hennebach Lectures and Papers, 1995-1996 (Mitcham, 1997). +Technology and the Good Life (Higgs, Light & Strong, 2000). +Readings in the Philosophy of Technology (Kaplan, 2004). +Ethics and technology: Ethical issues in an age of information and communication technology (Tavani, 2004). +This resulting scholarly attention to ethical issues arising from technological transformations of work and life has helped given rise to a number of key areas (or branches) of technoethical inquiry under various research programs (i.e., computer ethics, engineering ethics, environmental technoethics, biotech ethics, nanoethics, educational technoethics, information and communication ethics, media ethics, and Internet ethics). + +== See also == +Algorithmic bias +Democratic transhumanism +Engineering ethics +Ethics of artificial intelligence +Information ethics +Information privacy +Organizational technoethics +Philosophy of technology +Robotic governance +Techno-progressivism +Technocriticism +Digital public goods + +== References == + +Hans Jonas, The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of Ethics for the Technological Age (1979). +Hans Jonas, On Technology, Medicine and Ethics (1985). +Melanie G. Snyders, CyberEthics and Internet Downloads: An Age by Age Guide to Teaching Children what they need to know (2005). + +== Further reading == + +=== General === +Hans Jonas (2003). "Toward a Philosophy of Technology" (PDF). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-08-09. Retrieved 2013-08-22. +Kristin Shrader-Frechette. (2003). "Technology and Ethics," in Philosophy of Technology: The Technological Condition, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. +Eugene Mirman. (2009) "The Will To Whatevs: A Guide to Modern Life." Harper Perennial. +Daniel A. Vallero. (2007) "Biomedical Ethics for Engineers: Ethics and Decision Making in Biomedical and Biosystem Engineering." Amsderdam: Academic Press. + +=== Ethics, technology and engineering === +Fleddermann, C.B. (2011). Engineering Ethics. Prentice Hall. 4th edition. +Harris, C.E., M.S. Pritchard, and M.J. Rabins (2008). Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases. Wadsworth Publishing, 4th edition. +Hauser-Katenberg, G., W.E. Katenberg, and D. Norris (2003). "Towards Emergent Ethical Action and the Culture of Engineering," Science and Engineering Ethics, 9, 377–387. +Huesemann M.H., and J.A. Huesemann (2011). Technofix: Why Technology Won't Save Us or the Environment, Chapter 14, "Critical Science and Social Responsibility", New Society Publishers. +Layton, E. (1986). The Revolt of the Engineers: Social Responsibility and the American Engineering Profession. The Johns Hopkins University Press. +Martin, M.W., and R. Schinzinger (2004). Ethics in Engineering. McGraw-Hill. 4th edition. +Peterson, M. (2017). The Ethics of Technology: A Geometric Analysis of Five Moral Principles. Oxford University Press. +Mitcham, C. (1984). Thinking through technology, the path between engineering and philosophy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. +Van de Poel, I., and L. Royakkers (2011). Ethics, Technology, and Engineering: An Introduction. Wiley-Blackwell. + +=== Education and technology === +Marga, A. (2004). "University Reforms in Europe: Some Ethical Considerations," Higher Education in Europe, Vol. 79, No. 3, pp. 432–820. + +== External links == +National Academies of Engineering's Center for Engineering, Ethics, and Society +Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society +California Polytechnic State University's Ethics + Emerging Sciences Group +University of Notre Dame's Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values +Arizona State University's Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics +Santa Clara University's Markkula for Applied Ethics +Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Australia +Yale University's Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics +Case Western Reserve University's Inamori Center for Ethics and Excellence +University of Delaware's Center for Science, Ethics, and Public Policy Archived 2013-08-13 at the Wayback Machine +University of Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute +UNESCO - Ethics of Science and Technology +4TU.Centre for Ethics and Technology Archived 2012-09-19 at the Wayback Machine +Cyber Crime Archived 2018-12-22 at the Wayback Machine + +=== Journals === +Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy +Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy +Philosophy and Technology +Ethics and Information Technology +Journal of Responsible Innovation +Technology in Society +Minds and Machines +Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-15.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-15.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2981b08f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-15.md @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +--- +title: "Ethics of technology" +chunk: 16/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:11.653934+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Organizations === +Ethics and Emerging Sciences Group +W. Maurice Centre for Applied Ethics +United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO +Institute for Ethics in Artificial intelligence +Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies +Institute for Ethics in AI + +=== Technoethics === +Ahmad Al Khabaz vs Dawson college +Adam-swartz case +Bagheri, A. (2011). The Impact of the UNESCO Declaration in Asian and Global Bioethics. Asian Bioethics Review, Vol. 3(2), 52–64. +Bolter, J. D., Grusin, R., & Grusin, R. A. (2000). Remediation: Understanding new media. MIT Press. +Borgmann, A. (1984). Technology and the character of contemporary life: A philosophical inquiry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. +Coyne, R., 1995, Designing information technology in the postmodern age: From method to metaphor. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. +Castells, M. (2000). The rise of the network society. The information age: economy, society and culture (Vol. 1). Malden, UK: Blackwell. +Canada Foundation for Innovation: www.innovation.ca +Puig de la Bellacasa, M. (2017). Matters of care: speculative ethics in more than human worlds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. +Dreyfus, H.L., 1999, "Anonymity versus commitment: The dangers of education on the internet," Ethics and Information Technology, 1/1, p. 15-20, 1999 +Gert, Bernard. 1999, "Common Morality and Computing," Ethics and Information Technology, 1/1, 57–64. +Fleddermann, C.B. (2011). Engineering Ethics. Prentice Hall. 4th edition. +Harris, C.E., M.S. Pritchard, and M.J. Rabins (2008). Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases. Wadsworth Publishing, 4th edition. +Heidegger, M., 1977, The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays, New York: Harper Torchbooks. +Huesemann M.H., and J.A. Huesemann (2011). Technofix: Why Technology Won't Save Us or the Environment, Chapter 14, "Critical Science and Social Responsibility", New Society Publishers, ISBN 0865717044, 464 pp. +Ihde, D. 1990, Technology and the Lifeworld: From garden to earth. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. +Jonas, H. (1979). The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of Ethics for the Technological Age, Chicago: Chicago University Press. +Jonas, H. (1985). On technology, medicine and ethics. Chicago: Chicago University Press. +Levinas, E., 1991, Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. +Luppicini, R., (2008). The emerging field of Technoethics. In R. Luppicini and R. Adell (eds.). Handbook of Research on Technoethics (pp. 49–51). Hershey: Idea Group Publishing. +Luppicini, R., (2010). Technoethics and the Evolving Knowledge Society: Ethical Issues in Technological Design, Research, Development and Innovation. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. +Martin, M.W., and R. Schinzinger (2004). Ethics in Engineering. McGraw-Hill. 4th edition. +Mitcham, C. (1994). Thinking through technology. University of Chicago Press. +Mitcham, C. (1997). Thinking ethics in technology: Hennebach lectures and papers, 1995–1996. Golden, CO: Colorado School of Mines Press. +Mitcham, C. (2005). Encyclopedia of science, technology, and ethics. Detroit: Macmillan Reference. +Sullins, J. (2010). RoboWarfare: can robots be more ethical than humans on the battlefield. Journal of Ethics and Information Technology, Vol. 12(3), 263–275. +Tavani, H. T. (2004). Ethics and technology: Ethical issues in an age of information and communication technology. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. +Turkle, S. 1996, "Parallel lives: Working on identity in virtual space." in D. Grodin & T. R. Lindlof, (eds.), Constructing the self in a mediated world, London: Sage, 156–175. +Van de Poel, I., and L. Royakkers (2011). Ethics, Technology, and Engineering: An Introduction. Wiley-Blackwell. +Ward, S. & Wasserman, T. (2010). "Towards and open ethics: implications of new media platforms for global ethics discourse". Journal of Mass Media Ethics. 25 (4): 275–292. doi:10.1080/08900523.2010.512825. S2CID 143463760. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b8d845972 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Ethics of technology" +chunk: 3/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:11.653934+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== History of technoethics == +Though the ethical consequences of new technologies have existed since Socrates' attack on writing in Plato's dialogue Phaedrus, the formal field of technoethics had only existed for a few decades. The first traces of TE can be seen in Dewey and Peirce's pragmatism. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, it was easy to see that technological advances were going to influence human activity. This is why they put emphasis on the responsible use of technology. +The term "technoethics" was coined in 1977 by the philosopher Mario Bunge to describe the responsibilities of technologists and scientists to develop ethics as a branch of technology. Bunge argued that the current state of technological progress was guided by ungrounded practices based on limited empirical evidence and trial-and-error learning. He recognized that "the technologist must be held not only technically but also morally responsible for whatever he designs or executes: not only should his artifacts be optimally efficient but, far from being harmful, they should be beneficial, and not only in the short run but also in the long term." He recognized a pressing need in society to create a new field called 'technoethics' to discover rationally grounded rules for guiding science and technological progress. +With the spurt in technological advances came technological inquiry. Societal views of technology were changing; people were becoming more critical of the developments that were occurring and scholars were emphasizing the need to understand and to take a deeper look and study the innovations. Associations were uniting scholars from different disciplines to study the various aspects of technology. The main disciplines being philosophy, social sciences and science and technology studies (STS). Though many technologies were already focused on ethics, each technology discipline was separated from each other, despite the potential for the information to intertwine and reinforce itself. As technologies became increasingly developed in each discipline, their ethical implications paralleled their development, and became increasingly complex. Each branch eventually became united, under the term technoethics, so that all areas of technology could be studied and researched based on existing, real-world examples and a variety of knowledge, rather than just discipline-specific knowledge. + +== Technology and ethics == + +=== Ethics theories === +Technoethics involves the ethical aspects of technology within a society that is shaped by technology. This brings up a series of social and ethical questions regarding new technological advancements and new boundary crossing opportunities. Before moving forward and attempting to address any ethical questions and concerns, it is important to review the three major ethical theories to develop a perspective foundation: + +Utilitarianism (Bentham) is an ethical theory which attempts to maximize happiness and reduce suffering for the greatest number of people. Utilitarianism focused on results and consequences rather than rules. +Duty ethics (Kant) notes the obligations that one has to society and follows society's universal rules. It focuses on the rightness of actions instead of the consequences, focusing on what an individual should do. +Virtue ethics is another main perspective in normative ethics. It highlights the role and virtues that an individual's character contains to be able to determine or evaluate ethical behaviour in society. By practicing honing honest and generous behavior, Aristotle, the philosopher of this theory believes that people will then make the right choice when faced with an ethical decision. +Relationship ethics states that care and consideration are both derived from human communication. Therefore, ethical communication is the core substance to maintain healthy relationships. + +=== Historical framing of technology – four main periods === +Greek civilization defined technology as techné. Techné is "the set principles, or rational method, involved in the production of an object or the accomplishment of an end; the knowledge such as principles of method; art." This conceptualization of technology used during the early Greek and Roman period to denote the mechanical arts, construction, and other efforts to create, in Cicero's words, a "second nature" within the natural world. +Modern conceptualization of technology as invention materialized in the 17th century in Bacon's futuristic vision of a perfect society governed by engineers and scientists in Saloman's House, to raise the importance of technology in society. +The German term "Technik" was used in the 19th-20th century. Technik is the totality of processes, machines, tools and systems employed in the practical arts and Engineering. Webber popularized it when it was used in broader fields. Mumford said it was underlying a civilization. Known as: before 1750: Eotechnic, in 1750-1890: Paleoethnic and in 1890: Neoethnic. Place it at the center of social life in close connection to social progress and societal change. Mumford says that a machine cannot be divorced from its larger social pattern, for it is the pattern that gives it meaning and purpose. +Rapid advances in technology provoked a negative reaction from scholars who saw technology as a controlling force in society with the potential to destroy how people live (Technological Determinism). Heidegger warned people that technology was dangerous in that it exerted control over people through its mediating effects, thus limiting authenticity of experience in the world that defines life and gives life meaning. It is an intimate part of the human condition, deeply entrenched in all human history, society and mind. + +=== Significant technoethical developments in society === +Many advancements within the past decades have added to the field of technoethics. There are multiple concrete examples that have illustrated the need to consider ethical dilemmas in relation to technological innovations. Beginning in the 1940s influenced by the British eugenic movement, the Nazis conduct "racial hygiene" experiments causing widespread, global anti-eugenic sentiment. In the 1950s the first satellite Sputnik 1 orbited the Earth, the Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant was the first nuclear power plant to be opened, the American nuclear tests take place. The 1960s brought about the first crewed Moon landing, ARPANET created which leads to the later creation of the Internet, first heart transplantation completed, and the Telstar communications satellite is launched. The 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s and 2010s also brought multiple developments. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c7b71dc1c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +--- +title: "Ethics of technology" +chunk: 4/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:11.653934+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Technological consciousness === +Technological consciousness is the relationship between humans and technology. Technology is seen as an integral component of human consciousness and development. Technology, consciousness and society are intertwined in a relational process of creation that is key to human evolution. Technology is rooted in the human mind, and is made manifest in the world in the form of new understandings and artifacts. The process of technological consciousness frames the inquiry into ethical responsibility concerning technology by grounding technology in human life. +The structure of technological consciousness is relational but also situational, organizational, aspectual and integrative. Technological consciousness situates new understandings by creating a context of time and space. As well, technological consciousness organizes disjointed sequences of experience under a sense of unity that allows for a continuity of experience. The aspectual component of technological consciousness recognizes that individuals can only be conscious of aspects of an experience, not the whole thing. For this reason, technology manifests itself in processes that can be shared with others. The integrative characteristics of technological consciousness are assimilation, substitution and conversation. Assimilation allows for unfamiliar experiences to be integrated with familiar ones. Substitution is a metaphorical process allowing for complex experiences to be codified and shared with others — for example, language. Conversation is the sense of an observer within an individual's consciousness, providing stability and a standpoint from which to interact with the process. + +=== Misunderstandings of consciousness and technology === +According to Rocci Luppicini, the common misunderstandings about consciousness and technology are listed as follows. The first misunderstanding is that consciousness is only in the head when according to Luppicini, consciousness is not only in the head meaning that "[c]onsciousness is responsible for the creation of new conscious relations wherever imagined, be it in the head, on the street or in the past." The second misunderstanding is technology is not a part of consciousness. Technology is a part of consciousness as "the conceptualization of technology has gone through drastic changes." The third misunderstanding is that technology controls society and consciousness, by which Luppicini means "that technology is rooted in consciousness as an integral part of mental life for everyone. This understanding will most likely alter how both patients and psychologists deal with the trials and tribunes of living with technology." The last misunderstanding is society controls technology and consciousness. "…(other) accounts fail to acknowledge the complex relational nature of technology as an operation within mind and society. This realization shifts the focus on technology to its origins within the human mind as explained through the theory of technological consciousness." + +Consciousness (C) is only a part of the head: C is responsible for the creation of new conscious relations +Technology (T) is not part of C: Humans cannot be separated from technology +T controls society and C: Technology cannot control the mind +Society controls T and C: Society fails to take in account the consideration of society shaping what technology gets developed? + +== Types of technology ethics == +Technology ethics are principles that can be used to govern technology including factors like risk management and individual rights. They are basically used to understand and resolve moral issues that have to do with the development and application of technology of different types. +There are many types of technology ethics: + +Access rights: access to empowering technology as a right +Accountability: decisions made for who is responsible when considering success or harm in technological advancements +Digital rights: protecting intellectual property rights and privacy rights +Environment: how to produce technology that could harm the environment +Existential risk: technologies that represent a threat to the global quality of life pertaining to extinction +Freedom: technology that is used to control a society raising questions related to freedom and independence +Health and safety: health and safety risks that are increased and imposed by technologies +Human Enhancement: human genetic engineering and human-machine integration +Human judgement: when can decisions be judged by automation and when do they acquire a reasonable human? +Over-automation: when does automation decrease quality of life and start affecting society? +Precaution principle: Who decides that developing this new technology is safe for the world? +Privacy: protection of privacy rights +Security: Is due diligence required to ensure information security? +Self replicating technology: should self replicating be the norm? +Technology transparency: clearly explaining how a technology works and what its intentions are +Terms of service: ethics related to legal agreements + +=== Ethical challenges === +Ethical challenges arise in many different situations: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..828d662e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Ethics of technology" +chunk: 5/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:11.653934+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Human knowledge processes +Workplace discrimination +Strained work-life balance in technologically enhanced work environments: Many people find that simply having the technology allowing one to do work while at home increases stress levels. In a recent study 70% of respondents said that since technology, work has crept into their personal lives. +Digital divide: Inequalities in information access for parts of the population +Unequal opportunities for scientific and technological development +Norris says access to information and knowledge resources within a knowledge society tend to favour the economically privileged who have greater access to technological tools needed to access information and knowledge resources disseminated online and the privatization of knowledge +Inequality in terms of how scientific and technological knowledge is developed around the globe. Developing countries do not have the same opportunities as developed countries to invest in costly large-scale research and expensive research facilities and instrumentation +Organizational responsibility and accountability issues +Intellectual property ownership issues +Information overload: Information processing theory asserts that working memory that has a limited capacity and too much information can lead to cognitive overload resulting in loss of information from short-term memory +Knowledge society is intertwined with changing technology requiring new skills of its workforce. Cutler says that there is the perception that older workers lack experience with new technology and that retaining programs may be less effective and more expensive for older workers. Cascio says that there is a growth of virtual organizations. Saetre & Sornes say that it is a blurring of the traditional time and space boundaries has also led to many cases in the blurring of work and personal life +Negative impacts of many scientific and technological innovations have on humans and the environment has led to some skepticism and resistance to increasing dependence on technology within the Knowledge Society. Doucet calls for city empowerment to have the courage and foresight to make decisions that are acceptable to its inhabitants rather that succumb to global consumer capitalism and the forces of international corporations on national and local governments +Scientific and technological innovations that have transformed organizational life within a global economy have also supplanted human autonomy and control in work within a technologically oriented workplace +The persuasive potential of technology raises the question of "how sensitive ... designers and programmers [should] be to the ethics of the persuasive technology they design." Technoethics can be used to determine the level of ethical responsibility that should be associated with outcomes of the use of technology, whether intended or unintended +Rapidly changing organizational life and the history of unethical business practices have given rise to public debates concerning organizational responsibility and trust. The advent of virtual organizations and increase in remote work has bolstered ethical problems by providing more opportunities for fraud and the production of misinformation. Concerted efforts are required to uphold ethical values in advancing new knowledge and tools within societal relations which do not exclude people or limit liberties of some people at the expense of others +Artificial Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence seems to be one of the most talked of challenges when it comes to ethics. In order to avoid these ethical challenges some solutions have been established; first and for most it should be developed for the common good and benefit of humanity. Secondly, it should operate on principles of intelligibility and fairness. It should also not be used to diminish the data rights or privacy of individuals, families, or communities. It is also believed that all citizens should have the right to be educated on artificial intelligence in order to be able to understand it. Finally, the autonomous power to hurt, destroy, or deceive humans should never be vested in artificial intelligence. + +=== Current issues === + +==== Copyrights ==== +Digital copyrights are a complicated issue because there are multiple sides to the discussion. There are ethical considerations surrounding the artist, producer, and end user. Not to mention the relationships with other countries and the impact on the use of content housed in their countries. In Canada, national laws such as the Copyright Act and the history behind Bill C-32 are just the beginning of the government's attempt to shape the "wild west" of Canadian Internet activities. The ethical considerations behind Internet activities such a peer-to-peer file sharing involve every layer of the discussion – the consumer, artist, producer, music/movie/software industry, national government, and international relations. Overall, technoethics forces the "big picture" approach to all discussions on technology in society. Although time-consuming, this "big picture" approach offers some level of reassurance when considering that any law put in place could drastically alter the way we interact with our technology and thus the direction of work and innovation in the country. +The use of copyrighted material to create new content is a hotly debated topic. The emergence of the musical "mashup" genre has compounded the issue of creative licensing. A moral conflict is created between those who believe that copyright protects any unauthorized use of content, and those who maintain that sampling and mash-ups are acceptable musical styles and, though they use portions of copyrighted material, the result is a new creative piece which is the property of the creator, and not of the original copyright holder. Whether or not the mashup genre should be allowed to use portions of copyrighted material to create new content is one which is currently under debate. + +==== Cybercriminality ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0e19052eb --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Ethics of technology" +chunk: 6/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:11.653934+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Cybercrime can consist of many subcategories and can be referred to as a big umbrella. Cyber theft such as online fraud, identity theft, and digital piracy can be classified as one sector. Another section of cybercrime can include cyber-violence which can be defined as online behavior that can be anywhere from hate speeches, harassment, cyberstalking, to behavior that leads to physical, psychological, or emotional assault against the well-being of an individual. Cyber obscenity is another section when child sexual exploitation materials are involved. Cyber trespass is when there is unauthorized computer system access. Cybercrime can encompass many other sections where technology and computers are used to assist and commit various forms of crimes. +For many years , new technologies took an important place in social, cultural, political, and economic life. Thanks to the democratization of informatics access and the network's globalization, the number of exchanges and transaction is in perpetual progress. +In the article, "The Dark Figure of Online Property Crime: Is Cyberspace Hiding a Crime Wave?", the authors analyze evidence that reveals cyber criminality rates are increasing as the typical street crimes gradually decrease. With the increase in cyber criminality, it is imperative to research more information on how to increase cyber security. The issue with increasing cyber security is that the more laws to protect people, the more citizens would feel threatened that their freedom is being compromised. One way to avoid making people feel threatened by all the security measures and protocols is by being as clear and straightforward as possible. Gregory Nojeim in his article "Cybersecurity and Freedom on the Internet" state, "Transparency in the cybersecurity program will build the confidence and trust that is essential to industry and public support for cybersecurity measures." It is important to create ethical laws that protect privacy, innovation, and consumers' freedom. +Many people are exploiting the facilities and anonymity that modern technologies offer in order to commit multiple criminal activities. Cybercrime is one of the fastest growing areas of crime. The problem is that some laws that profess to protect people from those who would do wrong things via digital means also threaten to take away people's freedom. + +==== Privacy vs. security: Full-body airport scanners ==== +Since the introduction of full body X-ray scanners to airports in 2007, many concerns over traveler privacy have arisen. Individuals are asked to step inside a rectangular machine that takes an alternate wavelength image of the person's naked body for the purpose of detecting metal and non-metal objects being carried under the clothes of the traveler. This screening technology comes in two forms, millimeter wave technology (MM-wave technology) or backscatter X-rays (similar to x-rays used by dentists). Full-body scanners were introduced into airports to increase security and improve the quality of screening for objects such as weapons or explosives due to an increase of terrorist attacks involving airplanes occurring in the early 2000s. +Ethical concerns of both travelers and academic groups include fear of humiliation due to the disclosure of anatomic or medical details, exposure to a low level of radiation (in the case of backscatter X-ray technology), violation of modesty and personal privacy, clarity of operating procedures, the use of this technology to discriminate against groups, and potential misuse of this technology for reasons other than detecting concealed objects. Also people with religious beliefs that require them to remain physically covered (arms, legs, face etc.) at all times will be unable and morally opposed to stepping inside of this virtually intrusive scanning technology. The Centre for Society, Science and Citizenship have discussed their ethical concerns including the ones mentioned above and suggest recommendations for the use of this technology in their report titled "Whole Body Imaging at airport checkpoints: the ethical and policy context" (2010). + +==== Privacy and GPS technologies ==== +The discourse around GPS tracking devices and geolocation technologies and this contemporary technology's ethical ramifications on privacy is growing as the technology becomes more prevalent in society. As discussed in the New York Times's Sunday Review on September 22, 2012, the editorial focused on the ethical ramifications that imprisoned a drug offender because of the GPS technology in his cellphone was able to locate the criminal's position. Now that most people carry on the person a cell, the authorities have the ability to constantly know the location of a large majority of citizens. The ethical discussion now can be framed from a legal perspective. As raised in the editorial, there are stark infractions that these geolocation devices on citizens' Fourth Amendment and their protection against unreasonable searches. This reach of this issue is not just limited to the United States but affects more democratic state that uphold similar citizens' rights and freedoms against unreasonable searches. +These geolocation technologies are not only affecting how citizens interact with their state but also how employees interact with their workplaces. As discussed in article by the Canadian Broadcasting Company, "GPS and privacy", that a growing number of employers are installing geolocation technologies in "company vehicles, equipment and cellphones" (Hein, 2007). Both academia and unions are finding these new powers of employers to be indirect contradiction with civil liberties. This changing relationship between employee and employer because of the integration of GPS technology into popular society is demonstrating a larger ethical discussion on what are appropriate privacy levels. This discussion will only become more prevalent as the technology becomes more popular. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9631584e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Ethics of technology" +chunk: 7/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:11.653934+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) ==== +Genetically modified foods have become quite common in developed countries around the world, boasting greater yields, higher nutritional value, and greater resistance to pests, but there are still many ethical concerns regarding their use. Even commonplace genetically modified crops like corn raise questions of the ecological consequences of unintended cross pollination, potential horizontal gene transfer, and other unforeseen health concerns for humans and animals. +Trademarked organisms like the "Glofish" are a relatively new occurrence. These zebrafish, genetically modified to appear in several fluorescent colours and sold as pets in the United States, could have unforeseen effects on freshwater environments were they ever to breed in the wild. +Providing they receive approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), another new type of fish may be arriving soon. The "AquAdvantage salmon", engineered to reach maturity within roughly 18 months (as opposed to three years in the wild), could help meet growing global demand. There are health and environmental concerns associated with the introduction any new GMO, but more importantly this scenario highlights the potential economic impact a new product may have. The FDA does perform an economic impact analysis to weigh, for example, the consequences these new genetically modified fish may have on the traditional salmon fishing industry against the long term gain of a cheaper, more plentiful source of salmon. These technoethical assessments, which regulatory organizations like the FDA are increasingly faced with worldwide, are vitally important in determining how GMOs—with all of their potential beneficial and harmful effects—will be handled moving forward. + +==== Pregnancy screening technology ==== +For over 40 years, newborn screening has been a triumph of the 20th century public health system. Through this technology, millions of parents are given the opportunity to screen for and test a number of disorders, sparing the death of their children or complications such as intellectual disability. However, this technology is growing at a fast pace, disallowing researchers and practitioners from being able to fully understand how to treat diseases and provide families in need with the resources to cope. +A version of pre-natal testing, called tandem mass spectrometry, is a procedure that "measures levels and patterns of numerous metabolites in a single drop of blood, which are then used to identify potential diseases. Using this same drop of blood, tandem mass spectrometry enables the detection of at least four times the number of disorders than was possible with previous technologies." This allows for a cost-effective and fast method of pre-natal testing. +However, critics of tandem mass spectrometry and technologies like it are concerned about the adverse consequences of expanding newborn screen technology and the lack of appropriate research and infrastructure needed to provide optimum medical services to patients. Further concerns include "diagnostic odysseys", a situation in which the patient aimlessly continues to search for diagnoses where none exists. +Among other consequences, this technology raises the issue of whether individuals other than newborn will benefit from newborn screening practices. A reconceptualization of the purpose of this screening will have far reaching economic, health and legal impact. This discussion is only just beginning and requires informed citizenry to reach legal if not moral consensus on how far we as a society are comfortable with taking this technology. + +==== Citizen journalism ==== + +Citizen journalism is a concept describing citizens who wish to act as a professional journalist or media person by "collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information" According to Jay Rosen, citizen journalists are "the people formerly known as the audience," who "were on the receiving end of a media system that ran one way, in a broadcasting pattern, with high entry fees and a few firms competing to speak very loudly while the rest of the population listened in isolation from one another—and who today are not in a situation like that at all. ... The people formerly known as the audience are simply the public made realer, less fictional, more able, less predictable". +The internet has provided society with a modern and accessible public space. Due to the openness of the internet, there are discernible effects on the traditional profession of journalism. Although the concept of citizen journalism is a seasoned one, "the presence of online citizen journalism content in the marketplace may add to the diversity of information that citizens have access to when making decisions related to the betterment of their community or their life". The emergence of online citizen journalism is fueled by the growing use of social media websites to share information about current events and issues locally, nationally and internationally. +The open and instantaneous nature of the internet affects the criteria of information quality on the web. A journalistic code of ethics is not instilled for those who are practicing citizen journalism. Journalists, whether professional or citizen, have needed to adapt to new priorities of current audiences: accessibility, quantity of information, quick delivery and aesthetic appeal. Thus, technology has affected the ethical code of the profession of journalism with the popular free and instant sharing qualities of the internet. Professional journalists have had to adapt to these new practices to ensure that truthful and quality reporting is being distributed. The concept can be seen as a great advancement in how society communicates freely and openly or can be seen as contributing to the decay of traditional journalistic practices and codes of ethics. +Other issues to consider: + +Privacy concerns: location services on cell devices which tell all users where a person is should they decide to turn on this feature, social media, online banking, new capabilities of cellular devices, Wi-fi, etc. +New music technology: People see more electronic music today with the new technology able to create it, as well as more advanced recording technology \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1bed84948 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "Ethics of technology" +chunk: 8/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:11.653934+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Recent developments === +Despite the amassing body of scholarly work related to technoethics beginning in the 1970s, only recently has it become institutionalized and recognized as an important interdisciplinary research area and field of study. In 1998, the Epson Foundation founded the Instituto de Tecnoética in Spain under the direction of Josep Esquirol. This institute has actively promoted technoethical scholarship through awards, conferences, and publications. This helped encourage scholarly work for a largely European audience. The major driver for the emergence of technoethics can be attributed to the publication of major reference works available in English and circulated globally. The "Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics" included a section on technoethics which helped bring it into mainstream philosophy. +This helped to raise further interest leading to the publication of the first reference volume in the English language dedicated to the emerging field of Technoethics. The two volume Handbook of Research on Technoethics explores the complex connections between ethics and the rise of new technologies (e.g., life-preserving technologies, stem cell research, cloning technologies, new forms of surveillance and anonymity, computer networks, Internet advancement, etc.) This recent major collection provides the first comprehensive examination of technoethics and its various branches from over 50 scholars around the globe. The emergence of technoethics can be juxtaposed with a number of other innovative interdisciplinary areas of scholarship which have surfaced in recent years such as technoscience and technocriticism. + +==== Technology and ethics in the music industry ==== +With all the developments we've had in technology it has created a lot advancement for the music industry both positive and negative. A main concern is piracy and illegal downloading; with all that is available through the internet a lot of music (TV shows and movies as well) have become easily accessible to download and upload for free. This does create new challenges for artist, producers, and copyright laws. The advances it has positively made for the industry is a whole new genre of music. Computers are being used to create electronic music, as well as synthesizers (computerized/electronic piano). This type of music is becoming rapidly more common and listened to. These advances have allowed the industry to try new things and make new explorations. +Because the internet is not controlled by a centralized power, users can maintain anonymity and find loopholes to avoid consequences for using peer-to-peer technology. The peer-to-peer network allows users to connect to a computer network and freely trade songs. Many companies, like Napster, have taken advantage of this because the protection of intellectual property is close to impossible on the internet. Digital and downloadable music has become a severe threat to major record companies. Associated digital music technologies have changed the power dynamics greatly for major record companies, music consumers, and the artists. Not only has this change in power dynamics provided more opportunities for independent music labels but also reduce costs for music. +The digital environment in the music industry is always evolving. "The industry is beginning to work at adapting to the digital environment and downturns in a business performance like by online distribution and sales; harnessing visibility events for sales momentum; new capabilities for artist management in the digital age and by leveraging online communities to influence product development, among others". These new capabilities and new developments need strong intellectual property regulations to protect artists. +Technology is a pillar in the music industry; therefore, it is imperative to have strong technology ethics. Copyright protections and legislation help artists trademark their music and protect their intellectual property. Protecting intellectual property in the music industry becomes tricky when music firms are in the process of incorporating new technologies and methodologies, which forces firms to be innovative and update the industry standards. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..064f2a357 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Ethics of technology" +chunk: 9/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:11.653934+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Technology and ethics during the coronavirus pandemic ==== +As of April 20, 2020 there has been over 43 contract tracing apps available globally. Countries are in the process of creating their own methods of digitally tracing coronavirus status (symptoms, confirmed infected, exposed). Apple and Google are working together on a shared solution that helps with contract tracing around the world. Since this is a global pandemic with no end in sight, the restriction of some fundamental rights and freedoms may be ethically justifiable. It may be unethical to not use these tracing solutions to slow the spread. The European Convention on Human Rights, the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the United Nations Siracusa Principles all indicate when it is ethical to restrict the rights of the population to prevent the spread of infectious disease. All three documents cite that the circumstances for restricting rights must be time-bound, meet standards of necessity, proportionality, and scientific validity. We must evaluate if the gravity of the situation justifies the potential negative impact, if the evidence shows that the technology will work, is timely, will be adopted by enough people and yields accurate data and insights, and evaluate if the technology will only be temporary. These three documents also provide guidelines on how to ethically develop and design technologies. The development and design guidelines are important for being effective and for security reasons. +The development of technology has enhanced the ability to obtain, track, and share data. Technology has been mobilized by governments around the world to combat the issue of COVID-19, which has brought attention to several issues surrounding ethics. Governments have implemented technologies such as smartphone metadata and Bluetooth applications to contact trace and notify the public of any important information. There are implications for privacy as technologies such as metadata have the capacity to track every movement of an individual. Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, contact tracing and other tracking apps have been implemented globally in order to fight against the pandemic. Countries across the globe have developing various methods of digitally tracing corona virus such as outbreak origin, symptoms, confirmed positives, and those who are potentially exposed. Governments around the world combined available technology to identify individuals and surveillance technology while still having a low impact on individuals privacy. In 2020, the Australian government released a Bluetooth connected app that allows phones communicate through Bluetooth opposed to metadata. This allowed the app to connect with surrounding phones through Bluetooth opposed to metadata or GPS, which can have a bigger impact on individual privacy. The technology records individuals who have been in close proximity, by connecting through their phones, and recording the data for a certain time period before deleting itself. The app does not track individual's locations but still can pinpoint if they have had close contact with those who were positive or exposed. +On the other hand, some countries such as South Korea utilized metadata technology to closely surveillance their citizens. Metadata can provide a detailed description of an individual's movements by staying regularly in contact with the local cellular towers to maintain reception. In S. Korea, the government utilized individuals' metadata information to convey any public health message to the public. Anonymized information would be released to the public of the locations of individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19. Similarly in Israel, the government approved emergency regulations that allowed authorities to utilize a database that tracks the movements of individuals that have tested positive for COVID-19. +The rise of surveillance technologies by the government to track individuals raises many questions of ethic concerns. As lockdowns and Covid protocols continue, the focus on protecting public health can severely conflict with individual autonomy, although it can be necessary to implement certain technologies and protocols. +Even though these three bodies of government can deem contact tracing ethical, all these contact tracing apps come with a price. They are collecting sensitive personal data including health data. This poses a threat to violate HIPAA and PII if not handled and processed correctly. Even if these apps are only used temporarily, they are storing permanent records of health, movements, and social interactions. Not only do we have to consider the ethical implications of your personal information being stored, but we must also look at the accessibility and digital literacy of the users. Not everyone has access to a smartphone or a cell phone. If we are developing smartphone applications, we will be missing a huge portion of coronavirus data. + +While it may be necessary to utilize technology to slow the spread of coronavirus, the Government needs to design and deploy the technology in a way that does not breach the public trust. There is a fine line of saving lives and possibly harming the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals. + +=== Future developments === +The future of technoethics is a promising, yet evolving field. The studies of e-technology in workplace environments are an evolving trend in technoethics. With the constant evolution of technology, and innovations coming out daily, technoethics is looking to be a rather promising guiding framework for the ethical assessments of new technologies. Some of the questions regarding technoethics and the workplace environment that have yet to be examined and treated are listed below: + +Are organizational counter measures not necessary because it invades employee privacy? +Are surveillance cameras and computer monitoring devices invasive methods that can have ethical repercussions? +Should organizations have the right and power to impose consequences? \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-9.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-9.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e0db23c01 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology-9.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Ethics of technology" +chunk: 10/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_technology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:11.653934+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Artificial intelligence ==== +Artificial intelligence is a large range of technology that deals with building smart machines and data processing so tasks can be performed by machines that are normally completed by humans. AI may prove to be beneficial to human life, but it can also quickly become pervasive and dangerous. Changes in AI are difficult to anticipate and understand, such as employers spying on workers, facial recognition, deep fakes, etc. Along with AI, the algorithms used to implement the technology may prove to be biased which can have detrimental effects on individuals. For example, in facial recognition technology, the AI may be proven to be biased toward different ethnic and racial groups than others. These challenges have social, racial, ethical, and economic implications. + +==== Deepfakes ==== +Deepfake is a form of media in which one existing image or video is replaced or altered by someone else. Altering may include acting out fake content, false advertisement, hoaxes, and financial fraud. The technology of deepfakes may also use machine learning or artificial intelligence. Deepfakes propose an ethical dilemma due to how accessible they are as well as the implications on one's integrity it may cause to viewers. Deepfakes reconsider the challenge of trustworthiness of the visual experience and can create negative consequences. Deepfakes contribute to the problem of "fake news" by enabling both the more widespread fabrication or manipulation of media that may be deliberately used for the purposes of disinformation. There are four categories of deepfakes: deepfake porn, deepfake political campaigns, deepfake for commercial use, and creative deepfakes. Deepfakes have many harmful effects such as deception, intimidation, and reputational harm. Deception causes views to synthesize a form of reality that did not exist before and may think of it as real footage. The contents of the footage may be detrimental depending on what it is. Detrimental information may include fraudulent voter information, candidate information, money fraud, etc. Intimidation may occur by targeting a certain audience with harmful threats to generate fear. An example of intimidation may be deepfake revenge pornography which also ties into reputational harm. +Accessibility of deepfakes also raises ethical dilemmas as it can be accessed through apps like FakeApp, Zao, and Impressions. The accessibility to these applications may cause legal action. In 2018 the Malicious Deep Fake Prohibition Act was introduced to protect those who may be harmed by deepfakes. These crimes can result in prosecution for harassment or sentences to imprisonment. Although there can be legal actions for deepfakes, they do become increasingly difficult as many parties are involved in its development. The many parties for a deepfake such as the software developer, the application for amplification, the user of the software, etc. Due to these many different components, it may be difficult to prosecute individuals for deepfakes. + +==== United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) ==== +UNESCO – a specialized intergovernmental agency of the United Nations, focusing on promotion of education, culture social and natural sciences and communication and information. +In the future, the use of principles as expressed in the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (2005) will also be analyzed to broaden the description of bioethical reasoning. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trends_in_International_Mathematics_and_Science_Study-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trends_in_International_Mathematics_and_Science_Study-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b943cbea4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trends_in_International_Mathematics_and_Science_Study-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +title: "Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trends_in_International_Mathematics_and_Science_Study" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:02.285750+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA)'s Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is a series of international assessments of the mathematics and science knowledge of students around the world. The participating students come from a diverse set of educational systems (countries or regional jurisdictions of countries) in terms of economic development, geographical location, and population size. In each of the participating educational systems, a minimum of 4,000 to 5,000 students is evaluated. Contextual data about the conditions in which participating students learn mathematics and science are collected from the students and their teachers, their principals, and their parents via questionnaires. +TIMSS is one of the studies established by IEA aimed at allowing educational systems worldwide to compare students' educational achievement and learn from the experiences of others in designing effective education policy. This assessment was first conducted in 1995, and has been administered every four years thereafter. Therefore, some of the participating educational systems have trend data across assessments from 1995 to 2023. TIMSS assesses 4th and 8th grade students, while TIMSS Advanced assesses students in the final year of secondary school in advanced mathematics and physics. + +== Definition of terms == +"Eighth grade" in the United States is approximately 13–14 years of age and equivalent to: + +Year 9 (Y9) in England and Wales +2nd Year (S2) in Scotland +2nd Year in the Republic of Ireland +1st Year in South Africa +Form 2 in Hong Kong +4e in France +Year 9 in New Zealand +Form 2 in Malaysia +2nd Year in Japan +"Fourth grade" in the United States is approximately equivalent to 9–10 years of age and equivalent to: + +Year 5 (Y5) in England and Wales +Primary 6 (P6) in Scotland +Group 6 in the Netherlands +CM1 in France +Fourth Class in the Republic of Ireland +Standard 3 or Year 5 in New Zealand +4th Year in Japan + +== History == +A precursor to TIMSS was the First International Mathematics Study (FIMS) performed in 1964 in 11 countries for students aged 13 and in the final year of secondary education (FS) under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). This was followed in 1970–1971 by the First International Science Study (FISS) for students aged 10, 14, and FS. Fourteen countries tested 10-year-olds; 16 countries tested the older two groups. These were replicated between 1980 and 1984. +These early studies were revised and combined by the IEA to create TIMSS, which was first administered in 1995. It was the largest international student assessment study of its time and evaluated students in five grades. In the second cycle (1999) only eighth-grade students were tested. In the next cycles (2003, 2007, 2011, and 2015) both 4th and 8th grade students were assessed. The 2011 cycle was performed in the same year as the IEA's Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), offering a comprehensive assessment of mathematics, science and reading for the countries participating in both studies. The sixth cycle was conducted in 2015, and the results were released in 2016; the data set was published in February 2017. TIMSS 2015 included data collected from parents for the first time. TIMSS Advanced, previously conducted in 1995 and 2008, was also conducted in 2015, and assessed final-year secondary students' achievement in advanced mathematics and physics. Policy-relevant data about curriculum emphasis, technology use, and teacher preparation and training accompanies the TIMSS Advanced results. +The seventh cycle of TIMSS was conducted in 2019 and marked the beginning of the transition to a digital assessment format, with the digital assessment administered to half of participating countries, and the paper assessment administered to the remaining half. 64 countries and 8 benchmarking systems participating in TIMSS 2019. Results were released in December 2020. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trends_in_International_Mathematics_and_Science_Study-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trends_in_International_Mathematics_and_Science_Study-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..398b57745 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trends_in_International_Mathematics_and_Science_Study-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +title: "Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trends_in_International_Mathematics_and_Science_Study" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:02.285750+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Method, data and documentation == +Along with the overall students' achievement data, TIMSS comprehensive assessments include data on student performance in various mathematics and science domains (algebra, geometry, biology, chemistry, etc.) and on performance in the problem solving challenges in each of these contexts. In addition, TIMSS provides contextual data on crucial curricular, instructional, and resource-related factors that can impact the teaching and learning process. These data are gathered using student, teacher, school, and curriculum (national) questionnaires filled out by students, teachers, school principals and National Research Coordinators, respectively. +According to the TIMSS 2019 Assessment Frameworks, "The TIMSS mathematics and science achievement scales were created with the first TIMSS assessment in 1995, separately for each subject and each grade. The scale units were established so that 100 points on the scale was equivalent to one standard deviation of the distribution of achievement across all of the countries that participated in TIMSS 1995, and the scale midpoint of 500 was located at the mean of this international achievement distribution. The TIMSS achievement scales were first used for reporting TIMSS results with TIMSS 1995, and all results from subsequent TIMSS assessments have been reported on the same scale metrics, making it possible to measure growth or decline in countries' achievement distributions from assessment to assessment." +Because TIMSS is administered in four-year cycles, it enables participating counties to use the results between the fourth and eighth grades to track the changes in achievement and certain background factors from an earlier study. For example, results of the fourth grade in TIMSS 1995 can be compared with the results of the eighth grade in TIMSS 1999, as fourth graders had become eighth graders in the next cycle of study. +The collected information is presented in different formats. For example, for TIMSS 2019 the results are presented as TIMSS 2019 International Results in Mathematics and Science TIMSS 2019 International Results in Mathematics and Science. The TIMSS 2019 Encyclopedia provides an overview of how mathematics and science are taught in each participating country. Methods and Procedures: TIMSS 2019 Technical Report documents the development of the TIMSS assessments and questionnaires, and describes the methods used. The TIMSS 2019 User Guide for the International Database describes the content and format of the data in the TIMSS 2019 International Database +The IEA has developed an application for working with data from TIMSS and other IEA large-scale assessments called the IEA International Database (IDB) Analyzer. This application allows researchers to combine data files and facilitates some types of statistical analysis (such as computing means, percentages, percentiles, correlations, and estimating single level multiple linear regression). The application takes into account the complex sample structure of the databases when calculating the statistics and their standard errors. It also allows researchers to estimate achievement scores and their standard errors. +For an overview of the IEA study results and interpretation of information, see IEA's Data Visualizer. + +== Cycles == + +=== TIMSS 2027 Assessment === +The official TIMSS 2027 Assessment Frameworks for mathematics and science have been released, providing a detailed blueprint for how the upcoming assessment cycle will be designed and implemented. These frameworks outline the content domains, cognitive domains, and performance expectations for participating grade levels. Compared with previous cycles, they reflect refinements in topic emphasis, updated learning progressions, and stronger alignment with contemporary curricula. In addition, the frameworks include revised contextual questionnaires for students, teachers, and school leaders, aimed at capturing richer background data on instructional practices, school environments, and learning conditions. +In the United States, the Department of Education opened a public comment period in late 2025 to solicit feedback on proposed revisions to the TIMSS 2027 international questionnaires. + +=== TIMSS 2023 === +TIMSS 2023 was the eighth cycle of TIMSS and reported overall achievement as well as results according to international benchmarks, by major content domains (number, algebra, and geometry in mathematics, and earth science, biology, and chemistry in science) and by cognitive domains (knowing, applying, reasoning). TIMSS 2023 collected detailed information about curriculum and curriculum implementation of participating countries and published this information the TIMSS 2023 Encyclopedia: Education Policy and Curriculum in Mathematics and Science. +TIMSS 2023 results are summarized in TIMSS 2023 International Results in Mathematics and Science.".This detailed report presents achievement and contextual data from participating countries and benchmarking entities. The TIMSS 2023 Encyclopedia: Education Policy and Curriculum in Mathematics and Science describes various features of the education systems in each participating country, including the mathematics and science curriculum, professional development requirements for teachers, and methods of monitoring student progress in mathematics and science. Each country's "chapter" in the encyclopedia was authored by that country's TIMSS representative. +England and other countries have analysing their TIMSS 2023 results to understand how student achievement in mathematics and science has evolved since the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In England's case, analysis published in late 2024 and updated in 2025 points to a recovery in average mathematics performance to pre-pandemic levels, as well as notable increases in science scores for both primary (Year 5) and lower secondary (Year 9) students when compared with TIMSS 2019 results. This suggests that schools and students have shown resilience following substantial interruptions to teaching and learning during the pandemic. + +==== Eighth grade ==== + +==== Fourth grade ==== + +=== TIMSS 2019 === +TIMSS 2019 marked the transition to a digital assessment format, allowing for new and innovative item types. In the digital assessment, students solved problems by interacting with shapes and patterns, arranging items on the screen, dragging and dropping items, and drawing. The digital version of TIMSS 2019 also introduced Problem Solving and Inquiry tasks that simulated real-world and laboratory situations and called for students to integrate and apply process skills and content knowledge. Half of the participating countries took the paper version of TIMSS and half of the participating countries took the digital version of TIMSS. + +==== Eighth grade ==== + +==== Fourth grade ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trends_in_International_Mathematics_and_Science_Study-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trends_in_International_Mathematics_and_Science_Study-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..366e6da9a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trends_in_International_Mathematics_and_Science_Study-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,96 @@ +--- +title: "Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trends_in_International_Mathematics_and_Science_Study" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:02.285750+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== TIMSS 2015 === +In TIMSS 2015, nationally representative samples of students in 57 countries and 7 benchmarking entities participated in the fourth grade assessment, the eighth grade assessment, or both. + +==== Eighth grade ==== + +==== Fourth grade ==== + +=== TIMSS 2011 === +TIMSS 2011 had 52 participating educational systems for the fourth grade and 45 for the eighth grade. + +==== Eighth grade ==== + +==== Fourth grade ==== + +=== TIMSS 2007 === +In TIMSS 2007, 43 educational systems participated in the fourth grade and 56 educational systems in the eighth grade. + +==== Eighth grade ==== + +==== Fourth grade ==== + +=== TIMSS 2003 === +In TIMSS 2003, there were 26 educational systems for the fourth grade and 48 for the eighth grade. + +==== Eighth grade ==== + +==== Fourth grade ==== + +=== TIMSS 1999 === +In 1999, TIMSS only focused on the eighth grade in 38 educational systems; there was no study done for the fourth grade in that year. + +==== Eighth grade ==== + +=== TIMSS 1995 === +In TIMSS 1995, there were 41 educational systems in five grades (third, fourth, seventh, eighth, and the final year of secondary school). + +==== Eighth grade ==== + +==== Fourth grade ==== + +== Additional initiatives == +The TIMSS 1999 Video Study was a study of eighth-grade mathematics and science teaching in seven countries. The study involved videotaping and analyzing teaching practices in more than one thousand classrooms. In conjunction with the IEA, the study was conducted by the US National Center for Education Statistics, and the US Department of Education under a contract with LessonLab, Inc. of Los Angeles, California. + +== Cooperative partners == +TIMSS depends on the collaboration of a large number of individuals and organizations around the world including the TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center at Boston College, IEA's offices in Amsterdam and Hamburg, Statistics Canada, and Educational Testing Service (ETS). In the United States, TIMSS is conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics of the US Department of Education. Data for US students is further tracked for ethnic and racial groups. TIMSS is mainly funded by the participating countries. Also, the US National Center for Education Statistics of the US Department of Education and the World Bank provide major support funding for the assessments. + +=== United States results by race and ethnicity === + +==== Eighth grade ==== + +==== Fourth grade ==== + +== All average country scores == +TIMSS 1995: 4th grade [1]; 8th grade [2] +TIMSS 1999: 8th grade [3] +TIMSS 2003: 4th grade [4][5]; 8th grade [6][7] +TIMSS 2007: 4th and 8th grades [8][9] +TIMSS 2011: 4th grade [10][11]; 8th grade [12][13] +TIMSS 2015: 4th and 8th grades [14][15] +TIMSS 2019: [16] + +== TIMSS and other international math and science studies == +Hanushek and Woessmann developed a methodology to rescale 14 different international comparisons of math and/or science achievement to make them comparable. This includes the FIMS, FISS, and PISA, mentioned above, with TIMSS. +This methodology is disputed amongst experts. Quantitative methods used in educational and psychological measurement disagree with the approach as it is basically only a linear scale transformation that cannot ensure or examine whether PISA and TIMSS scores are based on the same or at least comparable measurement constructs: The numerical values used to measure shoe size and intelligence can be transformed so that both have the same arithmetic mean and standard deviation, but they still represent two very different characteristics. The equivalency of what is being measured needs to be established in linking studies that utilize well-designed joint data collections such as the TIMSS NAEP link, or IEA's Rosetta Stone. +Wu (2003, 2010) has shown that TIMSS and PISA do not produce exchangeable scores. One reason may be reading load even for mathematics and science items. TIMSS questions focus on the mathematics curricula taught around the world as seen in TIMSS example items, while PISA attempts to assess mathematics embedded in descriptions of situations encountered outside of the classroom, see PISA examples. + +== Participating countries == + +== See also == +International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement +Numeracy +Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), an educational ranking among OECD nations +Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) +Scientific literacy + +== Notes == + +== References == +Hanushek, Eric A.; Woessmann, Ludger (2015), The knowledge capital of nations, CESifo, ISBN 978-0-262-02917-9. + +== External links == +IEA's TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center at Boston College +www.iea.nl: TIMSS. Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study +U.S. Department of Education TIMSS +TIMSS: What Have We Learned about Math and Science Teaching? Archived 2012-02-11 at the Wayback Machine - Education Resources Information Center Clearinghouse for Science Mathematics and Environmental Education, Columbus, Ohio. +Benchmarking to the world's best in mathematics. Quality control in curriculum and instruction among the top performers in the TIMSS \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Eyed_Seeing-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Eyed_Seeing-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..145db56a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Eyed_Seeing-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Two-Eyed Seeing" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Eyed_Seeing" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:03.475324+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Two-Eyed Seeing (Mi'kmaq: Etuaptmumk) is a basis in viewing the world through both Western and Indigenous knowledges and worldviews. +Two-Eyed Seeing was introduced by Mi'kmaq Elders Albert D. Marshall and Murdena Marshall from Eskasoni First Nation, alongside professor Cheryl Bartlett. Albert Marshall describes Two-Eyed Seeing as an approach to viewing the world "from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous ways of knowing, and to see from the other eye with the strengths of Western ways of knowing, and to use both of these eyes together". +Two-Eyed Seeing was originally brought forward as a tactic to encourage Mi'kmaq university students to pursue an education in science. Since its implementation, the use of Two-Eyed Seeing has been integrated into various institutions' strategic plans, government policies, and research, some of which include the Canadian Institute of Health Research. + +== Background == + +=== Integrative Science === +In the 1990s, Murdena and Albert Marshall, and Cheryl Bartlett, began a grassroots effort to encourage Indigenous students to participate in science and science-related programs at Cape Breton University (CBU), by developing a science curriculum of both Mi'kmaw and other Indigenous knowledges (IK) and ways of knowing, with mainstream/western knowledge. Its inception began when Bartlett asked Murdena why there was a lack of Mi'kmaq enrollment; her reply: "Well, we Mi'kmaqs have been here for thousands of years—don't you think we've learned something about plants and animals?". The tendency for Western science to fragment and silo the world does not fall in with Mi'kmaw worldview, and thus another reason for a lack of enthusiasm from Mi'kmaq students to pursue an academic career in science. +Bartlett and the Marshalls are the parents of the Integrative Science academic program, conceptualized in the mid-1990s and brought into fruition in 1999 at CBU. The Integrative Science program was developed to shed light on the importance of acquiring knowledge from various perspectives. The curriculum included new science courses called Mi'kmaw for "everything together" (MSIT) as part of a new established undergraduate program called "Integrative Science" (in Mi'kmaw, Toqwa'tu'kl Kjijitaqnn for "bringing our knowledges together") as part of the Bachelor of Science Community Studies (BScCS) degree at CBU. +In 2001, the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission approved the program and was then operational as an accredited university degree program in fall of 2001. In 2010, the program was formally assigned to the then new Department of Indigenous Studies. As of 2010, Albert, Murdena and Cheryl were no longer associated with the academic program of Integrative Science but have continued to work and promote the philosophies of Integrative Science. + +=== Marshall, Marshall, and Bartlett === +Dr. Murdena Marshall (1942–2018) was clan mother of the Muin (Bear) Clan and a spiritual leader for the Mi'kmaq. Murdena was instrumental in establishing the Mi'kmaw studies program and was an Associate Professor of Mi'kmaw studies at CBU. Albert Marshall, husband to Murdena Marshall, is from the Moose Clan and has been instrumental in being a voice on environmental issues for Mi'kmaw Elders in Unama'ki. Albert, in 2004, brought to light the guiding principle of Two-Eyed Seeing. Both Murdena and Albert were awarded honorary doctors of letters by CBU in 2009 in recognition of their work encouraging the integration of both Indigenous and Western knowledges, and have subsequently been contributors to the Integrative Science (IS) co-learning journey at CBU, alongside Cheryl Bartlett. Dr. Cheryl Bartlett is a biologist, specializing in wildlife parasitology, and friend of Murdena and Albert. The trio have worked together professionally to weave Indigenous and Western knowledges within science curricula and projects. + +=== L'nu culture === +The concept of Etuaptmumk (Two-Eyed Seeing) reflects the reality of L'nu (Mi'kmaq) constantly evolving as a nation due to colonialism and the ever-changing ecological circumstances of their territory. Two-Eyed Seeing, as a concept, has existed as part of L'nu tribal awareness since the early colonial period. A symbol, often associated with Two-Eyed Seeing, is Trees Holding Hands, conjured by late Mi'kmaw Chief of the Acadia First Nation, Charles Labrador. In Labrador's words, "you see the birch, pine, maple. Look underground and you'll see that all those trees are holding hands. We as people have to do the same". + +== Challenges == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Eyed_Seeing-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Eyed_Seeing-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5450a4120 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Eyed_Seeing-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Two-Eyed Seeing" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Eyed_Seeing" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:03.475324+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In the Mi'kmaq language, Toqwa'tu'kl Kjijitaqnn (Integrative Science) evokes the idea of bringing knowledge together using the principles of Two-Eyed Seeing. The Two-Eyed Seeing approach is a method of education within Integrative Science that takes on a more holistic, multidisciplinary, and trans-cultural interpretation of the natural world and beyond. The advancement of Integrative Science may pose certain challenges, some of which include differences in interpretation among Indigenous and Western knowledge, differences in knowledge transfer, and available resources. +Philosophical differences among Western and Indigenous knowledge can lead to interpretation problems when attempting to understand the environment from both perspectives, for both the educators, researchers, and learners. Western-trained academics and researchers can unconsciously or consciously categorize it within classifications to understand the concept within Western science philosophies, missing the foundational make-up of Indigenous knowledge as fluid, adaptable and continuously evolving. Students may encounter differing responses to the decolonization of discussion and curricula, some of which have included frustration with peers who are not at the same level of comprehension. There can be an added pressure on Indigenous students who can be seen as experts on the subject and be called upon to share their 'expertise'. +Indigenous knowledges can be seen as living and breathing, based on "gardening" knowledge with living knowledge-keepers, compared to knowledge transfer via books and papers, widely used in Western-based curricula. Knowledge gardening reflects the inclusion of community members, such as Elders and people who work the land, to transfer knowledge passed down from generations and using examples and issues that reflect the interests of the students, and the community in general. +A lack of resources in the classroom and research has led to challenges when implementing an integrative approach. For settler educators, there can be long-term investment of time and effort needed, if not already familiar, to fully understand and engage with the material and deliver an educational experience that fully embraces both Indigenous and Western ways of knowing. In Canada's Nunavut Territory, there is insufficient K-12 Inuit educators to teach Inuit-ways of knowing and understanding, therefore requiring non-Inuit and non-Indigenous educators to teach Inuit values in school, which can lead to a misrepresentation of the full extent of what is required to be taught due to possible unpreparedness. + +== In practice == +Since its introduction, TES has been recognized and applied in Canadian academic institutions, community research, government strategic plans and policies. +Some examples include the Aboriginal Children's Hurt & Healing (ACHH) Initiative. ACHH is an example of research conducted within a TES approach to gather and share Indigenous knowledge towards the goal of improving the health care experience and outcomes. ACHH is a partnership between Dr. Margot Latimer of Dalhousie University/IWK Health and L'nu Eskasoni First Nation Health Director, Sharon Rudderham. This initiative was kickstarted as a result of a very low percentage of admitted Indigenous children to pediatric care when this demographic actually experiences a very high rate of pain, compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts. Through TES, findings have provided community-based evidence about pain occurrences in First Nation youth, facilitating the advocation of resources such as screening equipment and treatment processes. Additionally, an app was created to aid children express their pain and hurt to health care professionals. Through TES, early health care experiences of Indigenous youth were improved with the accessible distribution of health and wellness information and tools, that met the needs and requirements for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth. +A 2019 Reflection Paper prepared for the Canadian Commission for UNESCO proposed a "Two-Eyed" concept for guiding the development and application of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It suggested that seeing through one eye with the best of the Indigenous ways of knowing could be a model for balancing ethical concerns with technological priorities as seen through the eye of Western science. +Other examples of the concept of TES being used include the Department of Environment in Nunavut, in which the department used TES to manage their Arctic lands, and led camp events for students, through the Department of Education, to integrate Inuit knowledge and Western science. Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission has also used TES when gathering and analyzing information related to the trauma of Indigenous peoples and cultures when forced to attend Residential Schools. The guiding framework has also been employed at the Canadian Institute of Health research – Institute of Aboriginal Peoples' Health (CIHR-IAPH) and within the IAPH's 2014 strategic plan, highlighting its importance in Indigenous health research. The most recent strategic plan, CIHR strategic plan 2021–2031, outlines their commitment to continue to implement the integration of Indigenous ways of knowing within health research and decisions. + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Auckland_Faculty_of_Science-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Auckland_Faculty_of_Science-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8af10e197 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Auckland_Faculty_of_Science-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,105 @@ +--- +title: "University of Auckland Faculty of Science" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Auckland_Faculty_of_Science" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:04.632186+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The University of Auckland Faculty of Science (Māori: Te Whare Pūtaiao) is one of eight faculties and schools that make up the University of Auckland. + + +== Location == + +The Faculty of Science houses several Schools, Departments and Institutes. These are based in various locations, including the City Campus, Newmarket Campus, Leigh Campus, Tāmaki Innovation Campus and the Grafton Campus. +In November 2013, the Faculty of Science embarked on a NZ$200m redevelopment/expansion project on its main buildings in the City Campus. Following multiple delays, the state-of-the-art Science Centre was opened in July 2017. The Faculty of Science administration office is based on level 6 of the new Science Centre. In 2018, design work has begun for the potential development of a new "Gateway building" on Symonds Street to replace the Thomas Building Complex for the School of Biological Sciences. + + +== Divisions == +The Faculty of Science comprises the following Schools and Departments: + +School of Biological Sciences +School of Chemical Sciences +School of Computer Science +School of Environment +Institute of Marine Science +Department of Mathematics +Department of Physics +School of Psychology +Department of Exercise Sciences +Department of Statistics +The Faculty of Science also hosts several research institutes and centres: + +Bioinformatics Institute +Centre for Biodiversity and Biosecurity +Centre for Computational Evolution +Centre for eResearch +Centre for Green Chemical Science +George Mason Centre for the Natural Environment +Institute for Innovation in Biotechnology +The Cyber Security Foundry + + +== Science Programs == +Undergraduate Programs + +Bachelor of Science (BSc) +Graduate Diploma in Science (GradDipSci) +In 2020, the Faculty of Science will offer a new four-year programme called Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) (BAdvSci(Hons)), a programme that is designed for high achieving students who want to pursue postgraduate research. +Conjoint Programs + +Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science - (BA/BSc) +Bachelor of Commerce/Bachelor of Science - (BCom/BSc) +Bachelor of Engineering(Hons)/Bachelor of Science - (BE(Hons)/BSc) +Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Nursing - (BSc/BNurs) +Bachelor of Music/Bachelor of Science - (BMus/BSc) +Bachelor of Property/Bachelor of Science - (BProp/BSc) +Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Laws - (BSc/LLB) +Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Laws(Hons) - (BSc/LLB(Hons)) +Postgraduate Programs + +Honours +Bachelor of Science (Honours) +Postgraduate Certificate/Diploma +Postgraduate Certificate in Information Technology +Postgraduate Diploma in Science (PGDipSci) +Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Psychology (PGDipAppPsych) +Postgraduate Diploma in Bioscience Enterprise (PGDipBioEnt) +Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Psychology (PGDipClinPsy) +Postgraduate Diploma in Forensic Science (PGDipForensic) +Postgraduate Diploma in Operations Research (PGDipOR) +Masters +Master of Information Technology +Master of Speech Language Therapy Practice (MSLTPrac) +Master of Professional Studies in Data Science (MProfStuds) +Master of Professional Studies in Digital Security (MProfStuds) +Master of Professional Studies in Food Safety (MProfStuds) +Master of Professional Studies in Mathematics Education (MProfStuds) +Master of Science (MSc) +Master of Bioscience Enterprise (MBioEnt) +Master of Operations Research(MOR) +Doctoral Programs + +Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) +Doctor of Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy) +Other Programs + +Graduate Certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (GradCertInnovEnt) +Graduate Diploma in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (GradDipInnovEnt) +Postgraduate Certificate in Commercialisation and Entrepreneurship (PGCertCE) +Master of Energy (MEnergy) +Masters of Commercialisation and Entrepreneurship (MCE) +Certificate of Proficiency (COP) + + +== Official magazine == +inSCight is the official magazine of the Faculty of Science at the University of Auckland. It was first published in 2007. The magazine is published annually. The target audience of the inSCight magazine is the alumni and friends of the faculty. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official website of the Faculty of Science, University of Auckland \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VISQ-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VISQ-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b95e25364 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VISQ-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "VISQ" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VISQ" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:07.183622+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +VISQ (Portuguese acronym for "Variables that Interact Semi-Quantitatively") is a scientific-educational software developed using Carnegie-Mellon's cT, in the year of 1993 by M. Thielo (as a physics undergrad at the time), based on Jon Ogborn ideas for semi-quantitative modeling of dynamical systems, for both MS-DOS and Macintosh systems (in 2012 the author published a new, Windows compatible version). Awarded by the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in 1994, the system is based on the theory of continuous neural networks, and have been used in many research projects since then, mainly in Master and Doctoral Dissertations in the area of environmental education. An introduction to VISQ (in Portuguese) can be found at the university site, and the software can be freely downloaded from the author's site + + +== References == + + +== External links == +[1] Download MS-DOS Version of VISQ +[2] Reference manual (English) +[3] Archived 2009-09-26 at the Wayback Machine Representing Semiquantitative Variables with VISQ (in Portuguese) +[4] Journal Article containing a case study with the program, published in the International Journal of Computer Assisted Learning +[5] Animated example of a semiquantitative model running in VISQ. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_Science_Trust-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_Science_Trust-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..37f5e0bb7 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_Science_Trust-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ +--- +title: "Vega Science Trust" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_Science_Trust" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:05.855767+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Vega Science Trust was a not-for-profit organisation which provided a platform from which scientists can communicate directly with the public on science by using moving image, sound and other related means. The Trust closed in 2012 but the website and streaming video remains active (based at Sheffield University). + + +== History == +Founded in 1995 by Nobel Laureate Sir Harry Kroto and BBC Education Producer Patrick Reams the Vega Science Trust was awarded a COPUS start-up grant from the Royal Society in 1995 and then went on in 1999 to be allocated core funding from the Office of Science and Technology (OST). Starting with recording science programmes for terrestrial television the Vega Science Trust produced a number of programmes such as recordings of Royal Institution Discources which were broadcast on BBC 2 and a set of Masterclasses. In 2001 Harry Kroto was awarded the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize - the UK's premier award for science communication 'for his dedication to the notion of working scientists being communicators of their work and in particular for his establishment of the Vega Science Trust whose films and related activities reflect the excitement of scientific discovery to the public'. The Trust went on to co-produce with the BBC Open University a set of science discussion programmes covering hot topics such as Stem Cells, Energy, Mobile Phones, GM Food, Disease, Nanotechnology and Ageing. With the BBC/Open University the Trust also produced with sponsorship from HEFCE Widening Participation Team a set of award-winning career programmes featuring young scientists. Both series were broadcast on BBC2. +Very early audio-visual recordings of individual scientists are relatively rare but in the recent past some recordings were carried out by such organisations as the BBC. In 1997 the Vega Science Trust embarked on a plan to record in-depth interviews with scientists such as Rotblat, Sanger, Perutz, Cornforth, Walter Kohn and Richard Ernst which could be both viewed and preserved as an historical record for the future. More recently the British Library embarked on a similar project of recording audio-visual interviews under the National Life Stories project although at present their archive consists of oral recordings of scientists. The Vega Science Trust's in-depth interviews with scientists led onto a project recording interviews with Nobel Laureates attending the annual Nobel Laureate Meetings at Lindau in 2004/5/6. In 2006 the Vega Science Trust's website received a special mention at The International Association for Media Science Awards. +In 2007 the Vega Science Trust started on-going work with Jonathan Hare BBC Rough Science on a series of short instructional films intended to show how things work. For instance a number of the films show how we can generate electricity, another shows how we can generate wind power, others the molecular structure of C60, carbon nanotubes and graphene. +From 2007–2010 the Trust concentrated on bringing to the public's attention the process of science research. The Nano2Hybrids EU STReP project for instance was an innovative project where research scientists recorded their own progress on a research project to invent a gas sensor made using carbon nanotubes. In addition recording science in society projects such as Women in Nanotechnology and Diversity illuminate work towards promoting women scientists into decision making positions in science research environments. +The Vega Science Trust closed in March 2012 after 17 years of operation. However, the website will continue to host the existing film archive. + + +== Governance == +The Vega Science Trust was governed by a board of five Trustees who are active research scientists, media, copyright, and educational specialists. Trustees step down and/or are re-elected each year. +The Vega Science Trust employed one member of staff (and for a period, a second technical member) and operated in a mixed economy of core grant-in-aid support from Florida State University, and from research grants and sponsorship. It was an independent body with its own self-contained offices, initially in the University of Sussex chemistry department, and later at the Innovation Centre, University of Sussex, Brighton. + + +== Vision == +The Vega Science Trust aimed to see science more fully integrated into our everyday culture. Vega's vision has been to do so by providing a platform from which scientists can broadcast science programmes directly to the public. +Activities + +Recording scientists. +Covering a wide array of research. +Making available to the public by streaming from the Vega Science Trust's website. +Videos stream in different formats. +Creating an historical archive of some of the world's most eminent scientists. +Interviewing Nobel Laureates and other eminent scientists. +Experimenting with new ways of outreaching/engaging with the public via audio-visual means. +Creating different programme formats. +Provide on-line science resources for school, university and the public via informal learning. +Creating informative videos for imparting scientific concepts. +Vega Science Trust Collection +The collection of recordings also acts as an historical record and archive of world scientists and their research discoveries. Recorded to broadcast quality they provide a valuable collection, much of which is open to the public via the Vega Science Trust's website. + + +=== Video clips === +Vega Science Trust YouTube channel + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Vega Science Trust +British Council Public Engagement of Science +Nobel Meeting at Lindau Archived 2011-05-25 at the Wayback Machine +Creative Science Centre \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..47201d9a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "Women in STEM" +chunk: 1/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:08.521064+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Many scholars and policymakers have noted that the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have remained predominantly male with historically low participation among women since the origins of these fields in the 18th century during the Age of Enlightenment. +Scholars are exploring the various reasons for the continued existence of this gender disparity in STEM fields. Those who view this disparity as resulting from discriminatory forces are also seeking ways to redress this disparity within STEM fields. STEM professions are typically construed as well-compensated, high-status professions with universal career appeal. + +== History == +Women's participation in science, technology, and engineering has been limited and also under-reported throughout most of history. This has been the case, with exceptions, until large-scale changes began around the 1970s. Scholars have discussed possible reasons and mechanisms behind the limitations such as ingrained gender roles, sexism, and sex differences in psychology. There has also been an effort among historians of science to uncover under-reported contributions of women. The "Computer Women" at NASA during the 1950s and 1960s were a group of women known as "computers" who performed essential calculations for aeronautical and space research. They worked as mathematicians, engineers, and analysts, laying the groundwork for early space exploration, even though their contributions were often overlooked. +The term STEM was first used in 2001, primarily in connection with the choice of education and career. Different STEM fields have different histories, but women's participation, although limited, has been seen throughout history. Science, protoscience and mathematics have been practiced since ancient times, and during this time women have contributed to fields such as medicine, botany, astronomy, algebra, and geometry. In the Middle Ages in Europe and the Middle East, Christian monasteries and Islamic madrasas were places where women could work on such subjects as mathematics and the study of nature. Ada Lovelace, an English mathematician, is often credited as the world's first computer programmer. In the mid-1800s, she worked on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical computer, the Analytical Engine. She created an algorithm intended to be processed by the machine, making her a pioneer in the field of computer science. +Universities in the Christian tradition began as places of education for a professional clergy that allowed no women, and the practice of barring women continued even after universities' missions broadened. Because women were generally barred from formal higher education until late in the 19th century, it was very difficult for them to enter specialized disciplines. +The development of industrial technology was dominated by men, and early technical achievements, such as the invention of the steam engine, were mainly due to men. Nevertheless, there are many examples of women's contributions to engineering. +Initially, a "computer" was a person who performed computations, who was often a woman. Working as a computer required conscientiousness, accuracy and speed. Some women who initially worked as human computers later advanced from doing simpler calculations to higher levels of work, where they specified tasks and algorithms and analyzed results. +Women's participation rates in the STEM fields started increasing noticeably in the 1970s and 1980s. Some fields, such as biotechnology now has almost 50% participation of women. + +== Gender imbalance in STEM fields == + +Studies suggest that many factors contribute to attitudes toward achievement in mathematics and science among young people, including encouragement from parents, interactions with mathematics and science teachers, curriculum content, hands-on laboratory experiences, high school achievement in mathematics and science, and resources available at home. In the United States, research findings are mixed concerning when boys' and girls' attitudes about mathematics and science diverge. Analyzing several nationally representative longitudinal studies, one researcher found few differences in girls' and boys' attitudes toward science in the early secondary school years. Students' aspirations to pursue careers in mathematics and science influence both the courses they choose to take in those areas and the level of effort they put forth in these courses. +A 1996 U.S. study suggested that girls begin to lose self-confidence in middle school because they believe that men possess more intelligence in technological fields. The fact that men outperform women in some measures of spatial ability, a skill set many engineering professionals deem vital, generates this misconception. Feminist scholars postulate that boys are more likely to gain spatial skills outside the classroom because they are culturally and socially encouraged to build and work with their hands. Research shows that girls can develop these same skills with the same form of training. +A 1996 U.S. study of college freshmen by the Higher Education Research Institute shows that men and women differ greatly in their intended fields of study. Of first-time college freshmen in 1996, 20 percent of men and 4 percent of women planned to major in computer science and engineering, while similar percentages of men and women planned to major in biology or physical sciences. The differences in the intended majors between male and female first-time freshmen directly relate to the differences in the fields in which men and women earn their degrees. At the post-secondary level, women are less likely than men to earn a degree in mathematics, physical sciences, or computer sciences and engineering. An exception to this gender imbalance is seen in the field of life science. + +=== Effects of under-representation of women in STEM careers === +In Scotland, a large number of women graduate in STEM subjects but are less likely than men to pursue a STEM career. The Royal Society of Edinburgh estimates that doubling women's high-skill contributions to Scotland's economy would benefit it by £170 million per annum. +A 2017 study found that closing the gender gap in STEM education would have a positive impact on economic growth in the EU, contributing to an increase in GDP per capita of 0.7–0.9% across the bloc by 2030 and of 2.2–3.0% by 2050. + +=== Men's and women's earnings === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..be199a23c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "Women in STEM" +chunk: 2/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:08.521064+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Female college graduates earned less on average than male college graduates, even though they shared the earnings growth of all college graduates in the 1980s. Some of the salary differences are related to the differences in occupations entered by women and men. Among recent science and engineering bachelor's degree recipients, women were less likely than men to be employed in science and engineering occupations. There remains a wage gap between men and women in comparable scientific positions. Among more experienced scientists and engineers, the gender gap in salaries is greater than for recent graduates. Salaries are highest in mathematics, computer science, and engineering, which are fields in which women are not highly represented. In Australia, a study conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics has shown that the current gender wage gap between men and women in STEM fields in Australia stands at 30.1 percent as of 2013, which is an increase of 3 percent since 2012. In addition, according to a study done by Moss, when faculty members of top research institutions in America were asked to recruit student applicants for a laboratory manager position, both men and women faculty members rated the male applicants as more hireable and competent for the position, as opposed to the female applicants who shared an identical resume with the male applicants. Faculty members were willing to give the male applicants a higher starting salary and career mentoring opportunities. + +=== Education and perception === +The percentage of Ph.D.s in STEM fields in the U.S. earned by women is about 42%, whereas the percentage of Ph.D. in all fields earned by women is about 52%. Stereotypes and educational differences can lead to the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields. These educational disparities begin as early as the third grade according to Thomas Dee, with boys advancing in math and science and girls advancing in reading. According to UNESCO, as of 2023, 122 million girls worldwide are out of school, and women still account for nearly two-thirds of all adults who cannot read. + +== Representation of women worldwide == + +UNESCO, among other agencies including the European Commission and The Association of Academies and Societies of Sciences in Asia (AASSA), has been outspoken about the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields globally. +Despite their efforts to compile and interpret comparative statistics, it is necessary to exercise caution. Ann Hibner Koblitz has commented on the obstacles to making meaningful statistical comparisons between countries: + +For a variety of reasons, it is difficult to obtain reliable data on international comparisons of women in STEM fields. Aggregate figures do not tell us much, especially since terminology describing educational levels, content of majors, job categories, and other markers varies from country to country. + +Even when different countries use the same definitions of terms, the social significance of the categories may differ considerably. Koblitz remarks: + +It is not possible to use the same indicators to determine the situation in every country. The significant statistic might be the percentage of women teaching at the university level. But it might also be the proportion of women at research institutes and academies of sciences (and at what level), or the percentage of women who publish (or who publish in foreign as opposed to domestic journals), or the proportion of women who go abroad for conferences, postgraduate study, and so on, or the percentage of women awarded grants by national and international funding agencies. Indices can have different meanings in different countries, and the prestige of various positions and honors can vary considerably. + +=== Africa === +According to UNESCO statistics, 30% of the Sub-Saharan tech workforce are women; this share rose to 33.5 percent in 2018. South Africa features among the top 20 countries in the world for the share of professionals with skills in artificial intelligence and machine learning, with women representing 28 percent of these South African professionals. + +=== Asia === + +A fact sheet published by UNESCO in March 2015 presented worldwide statistics of women in the STEM fields, with a focus on Asia and the Pacific region. It reports that, worldwide, 30 percent of researchers are women; as of 2018, this share had increased to 33 percent. In these areas, East Asia, the Pacific, South Asia and West Asia had the most uneven balance, with 20 percent of researchers being women in each of those sub-regions. Meanwhile, Central Asia had the most equal balance in the region, with women comprising 46 percent of its researchers. The Central Asian countries Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan were the only countries in Asia with women as the majority of their researchers, though in both cases it was by a very small margin. + +==== Cambodia ==== +As at 2004, 13.9% of students enrolled in science programs in Cambodia were female and 21% of researchers in science, technology, and innovation fields were female as of 2002. These statistics are significantly lower than those of other Asian countries such as Malaysia, Mongolia, and South Korea. According to a UNESCO report on women in STEM in Asian countries, Cambodia's education system has a long history of male dominance stemming from its male-only Buddhist teaching practices. Starting in 1924, girls were allowed to enroll in school. Bias against women, not only in education but in other aspects of life as well, exists in the form of traditional views of men as more powerful and dignified than women, especially in the home and in the workplace, according to UNESCO's A Complex Formula. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-10.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-10.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..719297d99 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-10.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +--- +title: "Women in STEM" +chunk: 11/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:08.521064+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Self-affirmation ==== +Researchers have investigated the usefulness of self-affirmation in alleviating stereotype threat. One study found that women who affirmed a personal value prior to experiencing stereotype threat performed as well on a math test as men and as women who did not experience stereotype threat. A subsequent study found that a short writing exercise in which college students, who were enrolled in an introductory physics course, wrote about their most important values substantially decreased the gender performance gap and boosted women's grades. Scholars believe that the effectiveness of such values-affirmation exercises is their ability to help individuals view themselves as complex individuals, rather than through the lens of a harmful stereotype. Supporting this hypothesis, another study found that women who were encouraged to draw self-concept maps with many nodes did not experience a performance decrease on a math test. However, women who did not draw self-concept maps or only drew maps with a few nodes did perform significantly worse than men on the math test. The effect of these maps with many nodes was to remind women of their "multiple roles and identities," that were unrelated to, and would thus not be harmed by, their performance on the math test. + +=== Organized efforts === +To increase women's enrollment in the STEM field, researchers believe that it should occur in elementary and middle schools. Gender differences are evident by kindergarten, and many children have developed an attitude towards math and their career. According to a study about high school and middle school students, there is evidence of a gender gap in science and math test scores. Another method to reduce the gender gap is to create communities and opportunities apart from school. For instance, creating a residential program, women's only college, and affiliation between high school and college for STEM programs will help eliminate the gender gap. The research has shown that gender gap in STEM might be because of unsupportive culture that hurts woman's advancement in their career. Therefore, women all over the United States are underrepresented in tenure faculty and leadership positions. +Organizations such as Girls Who Code, StemBox, and Stanford's Women in Data Science Initiative aim to encourage women and girls to explore male-dominated STEM fields. Many of these organizations offer summer programs and scholarships to girls interested in STEM fields. +The U.S. government has funded similar endeavors; the Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs created TechGirls and TechWomen, exchange programs which teach Middle Eastern and North African girls and women skills valuable in STEM fields and encourage them to pursue STEM careers. There is also the TeachHer Initiative, spearheaded by UNESCO, Costa Rican First Lady, Mercedes Peñas Domingo, and Jill Biden which aims to close the gender gap in STEAM curricula and careers. The Initiative also emphasizes the importance of after school activities and clubs for girls. That's why Dell Technologies teamed up with Microsoft and Intel in 2019 to create an after-school program for young girls and underserved K-12 students across the U.S. and Canada called Girls Who Game (GWG). The program uses Minecraft: Education Edition as a tool to teach the girls communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking skills. +Current campaigns to increase women's participation within STEM fields include the UK's GlamSci, and Verizon's #InspireHerMind project. The US Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Obama administration collaborated with the White House Council on Women and Girls to increase the participation of women and girls within STEM fields along with the "Educate to Innovate" campaign. +In August 2019, the University of Technology Sydney announced that women, or anyone with a long term educational disadvantage, applying to the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, and for a construction project management degree in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, will be required to have a minimum Australian Tertiary Admission Rank that is ten points lower than that required of other students. +Programs such as FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) are constantly working to eliminate the gender gap in computer science. FIRST is a robotics community for K–12 students. The activities and competitions in the program are usually about current STEM problems. Students also get practice with business, leadership, and communication skills. According to a 2016 National Science Board report, 67% of men and 47% of women who engaged in the FIRST program intend to major in engineering, compared to 13.7% of men and 2.6% of women entering college in general. +Creative Resilience: Art by Women in Science is a multi-media exhibition and accompanying publication, produced in 2021 by the Gender Section of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The project aims to give visibility to women, both professionals and university students, working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). With short biographical information and graphic reproductions of their artworks dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and accessible online, the project provides a platform for women scientists to express their experiences, insights, and creative responses to the pandemic. + +== See also == + +Timeline of women in science +Timeline of women in mathematics + +== References == + +=== Notes === + +=== Sources === + This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0 (license statement/permission). Text taken from A Complex Formula: Girls and Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in Asia​, 15, 23–24, UNESCO. + This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA. Text taken from Cracking the code: girls' and women's education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)​, UNESCO. + This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under C-BY-SA 3.0 IGO. Text taken from To be smart, the digital revolution will need to be inclusive​, Bello et al., UNESCO. + +=== Further reading === +American Association of University Women (2010). Why So Few? +American Association of University Women - official website and career development grants Archived 2020-02-13 at the Wayback Machine for women: [1] +Campero S. 2020. "Hiring and Intra-occupational Gender Segregation in Software Engineering." American Sociological Review. +Moskowitz, Clara, "Marie Curie's Hidden Network: How she recruited a generation of women scientists", Scientific American, vol. 332, no. 2 (February 2025), pp. 78–79. +Natarajan, Priyamvada, "Calculating Women" (review of Margot Lee Shetterly, Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, William Morrow; Dava Sobel, The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars, Viking; and Nathalia Holt, Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars, Little, Brown), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXIV, no. 9 (25 May 2017), pp. 38–39. +Sobel, Dava (2024), The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science, ISBN 978-0802163820, OCLC 1437997660 +Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act +World Economic Forum "Global Gender Gap 2020" \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7b165ecef --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +title: "Women in STEM" +chunk: 3/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:08.521064+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Indonesia ==== +UNESCO's A Complex Formula states that Indonesia's government has been working towards gender equality, especially through the Ministry of Education and Culture, but stereotypes about women's roles in the workplace persist. Due to traditional views and societal norms, women struggle to remain in their careers or to move up in the workplace. Substantially more women are enrolled in science-based fields such as pharmacy and biology than in mathematics and physics. Within engineering, statistics vary based on the specific engineering discipline; women make up 78% of chemical engineering students but only 5% of mechanical engineering students. As of 2005, out of 35,564 researchers in science, technology, and engineering, only 10,874 or 31% were female. + +==== Japan ==== +According to OECD data, about 25 percent of enrollment in science programs at the tertiary education level in Japan are women. Japan has the lowest share of women in tertiary teaching staff among OECD countries, with only 28% of female faculty members, far below the OECD average of 44%. Women make up just 17.7% of teaching staff at national universities, with only 10.8% in science and engineering fields and 9.4% in executive positions. Additionally, female enrollment in natural sciences, mathematics, and statistics stands at 27% (OECD average: 52%), while in engineering, manufacturing, and construction, it is just 16% (OECD average: 26%)." + +==== Kazakhstan ==== +According to OECD data, about 66 percent of enrollment in science programs at the tertiary education level in Kazakhstan are women. Despite strong enrollment rates, women in Kazakhstan remain underrepresented in STEM leadership roles. The government, along with international organizations, has introduced mentorship programs, scholarships, and leadership training to encourage more women to enter and stay in STEM careers. These initiatives aim to close the gender gap and promote inclusivity in high-tech industries. + +==== Malaysia ==== +According to UNESCO, 48.19% of students enrolled in science programs in Malaysia were female as of 2011. This number has grown significantly in the past three decades, during which the country's employment of women has increased by 95%. In Malaysia, over 50% of employees in the computer industry, which is generally a male-dominated field within STEM, are women. Of students enrolled in pharmacy, more than 70% are female, while in engineering only 36% of students are female. Women held 49% of research positions in science, technology, and innovation as of 2011. + +==== Mongolia ==== +According to UNESCO's data from 2012 and 2018 respectively, 40.2% of students enrolled in science programs and 49% of researchers in science, technology, and innovation in Mongolia are female. Traditionally, nomadic Mongol culture was fairly egalitarian, with both women and men raising children, tending livestock, and fighting in battle, which mirrors the relative equality of women and men in Mongolia's modern-day workforce. More females than males pursue higher education and 65% of college graduates in Mongolia are women. However, women earn about 19–30% less than their male counterparts and are perceived by society to be less suited to engineering than men. Thirty percent or less of employees in computer science, construction architecture, and engineering are female while three in four biology students are female. + +==== Nepal ==== +As of 2011, 26.17% of Nepal's science students were women and 19% of their engineering students were also women. In research, women held 7.8% of positions in 2010. These low percentages correspond with Nepal's patriarchal societal values. In Nepal, women that enter STEM fields most often enter forestry or medicine, specifically nursing, which is perceived as a predominantly female occupation in most countries. + +==== South Korea ==== +In 2012, 30.63% of students who enrolled in science programs in South Korea were female, a number that has been increasing since the digital revolution. Numbers of male and female students enrolled at most levels of education are comparable as well, though the gender difference is larger in higher education. Confucian beliefs in the lower societal value of women as well as other cultural factors could influence South Korea's STEM gender gap. In South Korea, as in other countries, the percentage of women in medicine (61.6%) is much higher than the percentage of women in engineering (15.4%) and other more math-based stem fields. In research occupations in science, technology, and innovation, women made up 17% of the workforce as of 2011. In South Korea, most women working in STEM fields are classified as "non-regular" or temporary employees, indicating poor job stability. In a study conducted by the University of Glasgow which examined math anxiety and test performance of boys and girls from various countries, researchers found that South Korea had a high sex difference in mathematics scores, with female students scoring significantly lower than and experiencing more math anxiety on math tests than male students. + +==== Thailand ==== +According to OECD data, about 53 percent of enrollment in science programs at the tertiary education level in Thailand are women. + +==== Gulf Cooperation Council States ==== +Ann Hibner Koblitz reported on a series of interviews conducted in 2015 in Abu Dhabi with women engineers and computer scientists who had come to the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states to find opportunities that were not available to them in their home country. The women spoke of a remarkably high level of job satisfaction and relatively little discrimination. Koblitz comments that + +...most people in most countries outside of the Middle East have no idea that the region, in particular the UAE, is a magnet for young, dynamic Arab women making successful careers for themselves in a variety of high-tech and other scientific fields; "land of opportunity," "a tech-person's paradise," and yes, even "mecca" were among the terms used to describe the UAE by the women I met. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e21d5d54d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Women in STEM" +chunk: 4/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:08.521064+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Central and South America === +Nearly half of PhD degrees pursued in Central and South America are completed by women (2018). However, only a small minority is represented at decision-making levels. +A 2018 study gathered 6,849 articles published in Latin America and found that women researchers were 31% of published researchers in 2018, an increase from 27% in 2002. The same study also found that when women lead the research group, women contributors were published 60%, compared to when men are the leaders and the women contributors were published 20%. +When looking at over 1,500 articles related to Botany published in Latin America, a study found that participation from both women and men were equal, whether it be in publications or leading roles in scientific organizations. Also women had higher rates of publication in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico when compared to other Latin American countries despite participation being nearly the same throughout the region. Although women have higher publications in Botany, men still out publish women and are often the ones cited in research papers and studies relating to the sciences. + +The study concluded that according to the data (shown in the table above), women in Chile that are enrolled in STEM have higher enrollment in the sciences closely related to Biology and Medicine than other sciences in the technological field. After graduation women made up 67.70% of the workers in Engineering in Health and 59.80% of workers in Biomedical Engineering. While in other fields, such as Mechanical Engineering or Electrical Engineering (the more technical fields), men dominated the workforce with over 90% of workers being male. + +=== Europe === + +In the European Union only 16.7% on average of ICT (Information and communication technology) specialists are women. Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Latvia each around ~27–28 %, making them among the top performers for female ICT specialists. The gender distribution is more balanced, particularly in new member states when taking into account ICT technicians (middle and low-ranking positions). +In 2012, the percentage of women PhD graduates was 47.3% of the total, 51% of the social sciences, business and law, 42% of the science, mathematics and computing, and just the 28% of PhD graduates in engineering, manufacturing and construction. In the computing subfield only 21% of PhD graduates were women. In 2013 in the EU as an average men scientists and engineers made up 4.1% of total labour force, while women made up only 2.8%. In more than half of the countries women make up less than 45% of scientists and engineers. The situation has improved, as between 2008 and 2011 the number of women amongst employed scientists and engineers grew by an average of 11.1% per year, while the number of men grew only by 3.3% over the same period. +In 2015, in Slovenia, Portugal, France, Sweden, Norway, and Italy there were more boys than girls taking advanced courses in mathematics and physics in secondary education in Grade 12. +In 2018, European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Mariya Gabriel announced plans to increase the participation of women in the digital sector by challenging stereotypes; promoting digital skills and education and advocating for more women entrepreneurs. +In 2018, Ireland took the step of linking research funding from the Higher Education Authority to an institution's ability to reduce gender inequality. + +=== North America === + +==== United States ==== +According to the National Science Foundation, women comprise 43 percent of the U.S. workforce for scientists and engineers (S&E) under 75 years old. For those under 29 years old, women comprise 56% of the science and engineering workforce. Of scientists and engineers seeking employment, 50% under 75 are women, and 49% under 29 are women. About one in seven engineers are female. However, women comprise 28% of workers in S&E occupations - not all women who are trained as S&E are employed as scientists or engineers. Women hold 58% of S&E related occupations. +Women in STEM fields earn considerably less than men, even after controlling for a wide set of characteristics such as education and age. On average, men in STEM jobs earn $36.34 per hour while women in STEM jobs earn $31.11 per hour. +There are many reasons why gender pay gaps in STEM fields continue to exist which include women choosing STEM majors that pay less. However, even with the same degree, women still earned less. A research study on starting pay with an engineering degree found that women earned less than $61,000 while men earned more than $65,000. + +Women dominate the total number of persons with bachelor's degrees, as well as those in STEM fields defined by the National Center for Education Statistics. However, they are underrepresented in specific fields including Computer Sciences, Engineering, and Mathematics. Along with women, racial/ethnic minorities in the United States are also underrepresented in STEM. +Asian women are well represented in STEM fields in the U.S.(though not as much as males of the same ethnicity) compared to African American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, and Native American women. Within academia, these minority women represent less than 1% of tenure-track positions in the top 100 U.S. universities despite constituting approximately 13% of total US population. A 2015 study suggested that attitudes towards hiring women in STEM tenure track positions has improved, with a 2:1 preference for women in STEM after adjusting for equal qualifications and lifestyles (e.g., single, married, divorced). \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4ab7a5735 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +title: "Women in STEM" +chunk: 5/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:08.521064+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== African American women ==== +According to Kimberly Jackson, prejudice and assumed stereotypes keep women of color, especially black women from studying in STEM fields. Psychologically, stereotypes on black women's intellect, cognitive abilities, and work ethic contribute to their lack of confidence in STEM. Some schools, such as Spelman College, have made attempts to change perceptions of African-American women and improve their rates of becoming involved and technically proficient in STEM. Students of color, especially Black students, face difficulty in STEM majors as they face hostile climates, microaggressions, and a lack of support and mentorship. +Despite facing discrimination, many African American women have risen to prominence in STEM fields, starting in the mid-1800s, when physician Rebecca Lee Crumpler was the first African American woman to earn a medical degree. In our day major scientific advances have been made by African American women such as Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, who contributed to developing COVID-19 vaccines; Dr. Ayanna Howard, a leader in robotics and artificial intelligence; and Dr. Hadiyah-Nicole Green, a physicist known for her work in cancer treatments using lasers. Several organizations have worked to help African American women obtain the support needed to be successful in STEM; some of them include Sisters in STEM, Black Girls Do Stem, STEMNoire, and BWIStem. + +==== Latin American women ==== +A 2015 NCWIT study estimated that Latin American women represented only 1% of the US tech workforce. A 2018 study on 50 Latin American women who founded a technology company indicated that 20% were Mexican, 14% bi-racial, 8% unknown, 4% Venezuelan. + +==== Canada ==== +A Statistics Canada study from 2019 found that first-year women make up 44% of STEM students, compared with 64% of non-STEM students. Those women who transfer out of STEM courses usually go to a related field, such as health care or finance. A study conducted by the University of British Columbia discovered that only 20–25% of computer science students from all Canadian colleges and universities are women. As well, only about 1 in 5 of that percentage will graduate from those programs. +Statistically, women are less likely to choose a STEM program, regardless of mathematical ability. Young men with lower marks in mathematics are more likely to pursue STEM fields than their women-identified peers with higher marks in mathematics. + +=== Oceania === + +==== Australia ==== +Australia has only recently made significant attempts to promote participation of women in STEMM disciplines, including the formation of Women in STEMM Australia in 2014, a non-profit organisation that aims at connecting women in STEMM disciplines in a coherent network. Similarly, the STEM Women directory has been established to promote gender equity by showcasing the diversity of talent in Australian women in STEM fields. In 2015, the SAGE (Science in Australia Gender Equity) was started as a joint venture of the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering. The program is tasked with implementing a pilot of the Athena SWAN accreditation framework within Australian higher education institutions. + +== Underrepresentation in STEM-related awards and competitions == + +In terms of the most prestigious awards in STEM fields, fewer have been awarded to women than to men. Between 1901 and 2017 the female:total ratio of Nobel Prizes were 2:207 for physics, 4:178 for chemistry, 12:214 for physiology/medicine, and 1:79 for economic sciences. +The ratios for other fields were 14:114 in literature and 16:104 for peace. Maryam Mirzakhani was the first woman and first Iranian to receive the Fields Medal in 2014. The Fields Medal, is one of the most prestigious prize in mathematics, and has been awarded 56 times in total. +Fewer female students participate in prestigious STEM-related competitions such as the International Mathematical Olympiad. In 2017, only 10% of the IMO participants were female and there was one female on the South Korean winning team of six. + +== Recent advances in technology == + +Abbiss states that "the ubiquity of computers in everyday life has seen the breaking down of gender distinctions in preferences for and the use of different applications, particularly in the use of the internet and email." Both genders have acquired skills, competencies and confidence in using a variety of technological, mobile and application tools for personal, educational and professional use at high school level, but the gap still remains when it comes to enrollment of girls in computer science classes, which declines from grades 10 to 12. For higher education programs in information and communications technology, women make up only 3% of graduates globally. +A review of UK patent applications, in 2016, found that the proportion of new inventions registered by women was rising, but that most female inventors were active in stereotypically female fields such as "designing bras and make-up". 94% of inventions in the field of computing, 96% in automotive applications and mining, and 99% in explosives and munitions, were by men. In 2016 Russia had the highest percentage of patents filed by women, at about 16%. Then in 2019, the USPTO issued a report showing that the share of female inventors listed on US patents had recently risen to about 17%. + +== Explanations for low representation of women == +There are a variety of proposed reasons for the relatively low numbers of women in STEM fields. These can be broadly classified into societal, psychological, and innate explanations. However, explanations are not necessarily restricted to just one of these categories. + +=== Societal === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8671262f6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Women in STEM" +chunk: 6/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:08.521064+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Discrimination ==== +This leakage may be due to discrimination, both overt and covert, faced by women in STEM fields. According to Schiebinger, women are twice as likely to leave jobs in science and engineering than men are. In the 1980s, researchers demonstrated a general evaluative bias against women. +In a 2012 study, email requests were sent to meet to professors in doctoral programs at the top 260 U.S. universities. It was impossible to determine whether any particular individual in this study was exhibiting discrimination, since each participant only viewed a request from one potential graduate student. However, researchers found evidence for discrimination against ethnic minorities and women relative to Caucasian men. In another study, science faculty were sent the materials of students who were applying for a lab manager position at their university. The materials were the same for each participant, but each application was randomly assigned either a male or a female name. The researchers found that faculty members rated the male candidates as both more competent and more hirable than the female candidates, despite applications being otherwise identical. If individuals are given information about a prospective student's gender, they may infer that he or she possesses traits consistent with stereotypes for that gender. A study in 2014 found that men are favored in some domains, such as tenure rates in biology, but that the majority of domains were gender-fair. The authors interpreted this to suggest that the underrepresentation of women in the professorial ranks was not solely caused by sexist hiring, promotion, and remuneration. +Audery Azoulay, UNESCO Chief, stated that even in, "21st century, women and girls are sidelined in science-related fields due to their gender." A 2017 survey showed that women working in the STEM fields are more likely to experience workplace discrimination than men. Around half of the women in the STEM profession have experienced gender-based discrimination, such as the man being paid more for the same job, being treated like they do not qualify for the job, or being mocked or insulted. Some women also stated that in a workplace where most employees were male, they felt that being a woman was a barrier to their success. + +==== Stereotypes ==== +Stereotypes about what someone in a STEM field should look and act like may cause established members of these fields to overlook individuals who are highly competent. The stereotypical scientist or individual in another STEM profession is usually thought to be male. Women in STEM fields may not fit individuals' conception of what a scientist, engineer, or mathematician "should" look like and may thus be overlooked or penalized. The Role Congruity Theory of Prejudice states that perceived incongruity between gender and a particular role or occupation can result in negative evaluations. In addition, negative stereotypes about women's quantitative abilities may lead people to devalue their work or discourage these women from continuing in STEM fields. +Both men and women who work in "nontraditional" occupations may encounter discrimination, but the forms and consequences of this discrimination are different. Individuals of a particular gender are often perceived to be better suited to particular careers or areas of study than those of the other gender. A study found that job advertisements for male-dominated careers tended to use more agentic words (or words denoting agency, such as "leader" and "goal-oriented") associated with male stereotypes. Social Role Theory, proposed in 1991, states that men are expected to display agentic qualities and women to display communal qualities. These expectations can influence hiring decisions. A 2009 study found that women tended to be described in more communal terms and men in more agentic terms in letters of recommendation. These researchers also found that communal characteristics were negatively related to hiring decisions in academia. +Although women entering traditionally male professions face negative stereotypes suggesting that they are not "real" women, these stereotypes do not seem to deter women to the same degree that similar stereotypes may deter men from pursuing nontraditional professions. There is historical evidence that women flock to male-identified occupations once opportunities are available. On the other hand, examples of occupations changing from predominantly female to predominantly male are very rare in human history. The few existing cases—such as medicine—suggest that redefinition of the occupations as appropriately masculine is necessary before men will consider joining them. +Although men in female-dominated occupations may contend with negative stereotypes about their masculinity, they may also experience certain benefits. In 1992 it was suggested that women in male-dominated occupations tended to hit a glass ceiling; while men in female-dominated occupations may hit a "glass escalator". + +==== Black Sheep effect ==== + +The Black Sheep effect occurs when individuals are likely to evaluate members of their in-group more favorably than members of their out-group when those members are highly qualified. However, when an individual's in-group members have average or below average qualities, they are likely to evaluate them much lower than out-group members with equivalent qualifications. This suggests that established women in STEM fields will be more likely than established men to help early career women who display sufficient qualifications. However, established women will be less likely than men to help early career women who display insufficient qualifications. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fdd4f2571 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Women in STEM" +chunk: 7/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:08.521064+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Queen Bee effect ==== +The Queen Bee effect is similar to the Black Sheep effect but applies only to women. It explains why higher-status women, particularly in male-dominated professions, may actually be far less likely to help other women than their male colleagues might be. A 2004 study found that while doctoral students in a number of different disciplines did not exhibit any gender differences in work commitment or work satisfaction, faculty members at the same university believed that female students were less committed to their work than male students. What was particularly surprising was that these beliefs by faculty members were most strongly endorsed by female faculty members, rather than male faculty members. One potential explanation for this finding is that individual mobility for a member of a negatively stereotyped group is often accompanied by a social and psychological distancing of oneself from the group. This implies that successful women in traditionally male-dominated careers do not see their success as evidence that negative stereotypes about women's quantitative and analytical abilities are wrong, but rather as proof that they personally are exceptions to the rule. Thus, such women may actually play a role in perpetuating, rather than abolishing, these negative stereotypes. + +==== Mentorship ==== +In STEM fields, the support and encouragement of a mentor can make a lot of difference in women's decisions of whether or not to continue pursuing a career in their discipline. This may be particularly true for younger individuals who may face many obstacles early on in their careers. Since these younger individuals often look to those who are more established in their discipline for help and guidance, the responsiveness and helpfulness of potential mentors is incredibly important. +There are many emerging mentorship programs. However, many women experience harassment from their mentors which can cause them to be unable to finish the program among many other issues. +A 2020 study surveyed women who are working in STEM field and live in the U.S., Northeast, and Eastern Canada. Most women reported that finding a mentor at their workplace was complex, and only a third of the women had some sort of mentor, formal or informal. During their time in school, half of the participants were able find a professor to be their mentor. They added that mentorship helped them complete their degree and guided them from the educational sphere to the workplace. The majority of the women agreed that mentorship is a crucial resource, and many want to be involved in mentorship, but there are not enough resources or opportunities in their work environment. + +==== Lack of support ==== +Women in STEM may leave due to not being invited to professional meetings, the use of sexually discriminating standards against women, inflexible working conditions, the perceived need to hide pregnancies, and the struggle to balance family and work. Women in STEM fields that have children either need child care or to take a long leave of absence. When a nuclear family can not afford child care, typically it is the mother that gives up her career to stay at home with the children. This is due in part to women being paid statistically less in their careers. The man makes more money so the man goes to work and the woman gives up her career. Maternity leave is another issue women in STEM fields face. In the U.S., maternity leave is required by The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA). The FMLA requires 12 weeks of unpaid leave annually for mothers of newborn or newly adopted children. This is one of the lowest levels of leave in the industrialized world. All developed countries except the United States guarantee mothers at least some paid time off. If a new mother does not have external financial support or savings, they may not be able to take their full maternity leave. Few companies allow men to take paternity leave and it may be shorter than women's maternity leave. + +==== Harassment ==== +In 1993, The New England Journal of Medicine indicated that three-quarters of women students and residents were harassed at least once during their medical training. The 2020 Tribeca Film Festival documentary, "Picture a Scientist", highlighted the severe sexual and physical harassment women in STEM fields can face, often without adequate recourse. In that film Jane Willenbring, a female scientist and associate professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, shared how she was harassed by her mentor David R. Marchant during her fieldwork. She was called many demeaning names, harassed when using the bathroom, and even had shards of volcanic sand blown into her eyes. + +==== Lack of role models ==== +In engineering and science education, women made up almost 50 percent of non-tenure track lecturer and instructor jobs, but only 10 percent of tenured or tenure-track professors in 1996. In addition, the number of female department chairs in medical schools did not change from 1976 to 1996. Moreover, women who do make it to tenured or tenure-track positions may face the difficulties associated with holding a token status. They may lack support from colleagues and may face antagonism from peers and supervisors. Research has suggested that women's lack of interest may in part stem from stereotypes about employees and workplaces in STEM fields, to which stereotypes women are disproportionately responsive. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..866454769 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Women in STEM" +chunk: 8/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:08.521064+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Clustering and leaky pipeline ==== +In the early 1980s, Rossiter put forth the concept of "territorial segregation" or occupational segregation, which is the idea that women "cluster" in certain fields of study. For example, "women are more likely to teach and do research in the humanities and social sciences than in the natural sciences and engineering", and the majority of college women tend to choose majors such as psychology, education, English, performing arts, and nursing. +Rossiter also used "hierarchical segregation" as an explanation for the low number of women in STEM fields. She describes "hierarchical segregation" as a decrease in the number of women as one "moves up the ladder of power and prestige." This is related to the leaky STEM pipeline concept. The metaphor of the leaky pipeline has been used to describe how women drop out of STEM fields at all stages of their careers. In the U.S., out of 2,000 high school aged persons, 1944 were enrolled in high school fall 2014. Assuming equal enrollment for boys and girls, 60 boys and 62 girls are considered "gifted." By comparing enrollment to the population of persons 20–24 years old, 880 of the 1,000 original women, and 654 of the original 1,000 men will enroll in college (2014). In freshman year 330 women and 320 men will express an intent to study science or engineering. Of these only 142 women and 135 men will actually obtain a bachelor's degree in science or engineering, and only 7 women and 10 men will obtain a PhD in science or engineering. + +=== Psychological === + +==== Lack of interest ==== +A meta-analysis concluded that men prefer working with things and women prefer working with people. When interests were classified by RIASEC type (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional), men showed stronger Realistic and Investigative interests, and women showed stronger Artistic, Social, and Conventional interests. Sex differences were also found for more specific measures of interest in engineering, science, and mathematics, where men favored these interests. +In a 3-year interview study, Seymour and Hewitt (1997) found that perceptions that non-STEM academic majors offered better education options and better matched their interests was the most common (46%) reason provided by female students for switching majors from STEM areas to non-STEM areas. The second most frequently cited reason given for switching to non-STEM areas was a reported loss of interest in the women's chosen STEM majors. Additionally, 38% of female students who remained in STEM majors expressed concerns that there were other academic areas that might be a better fit for their interests. Preston's (2004) survey of 1,688 individuals who had left sciences also showed that 30 percent of the women endorsed "other fields more interesting" as their reason for leaving. +Advanced math skills do not often lead women to be interested in a STEM career. A Statistics Canada survey found that even young women of high mathematical ability are much less likely to enter a STEM field than young men of similar or even lesser ability. +A 2018 study originally claimed that countries with more gender equality had fewer women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Some commentators argued that this was evidence of gender differences arising in more progressive countries, the so-called gender-equality paradox. However, a 2019 correction to the study outlined that the authors had created a previously undisclosed and unvalidated method to measure "propensity" of women and men to attain a higher degree in STEM, as opposed to the originally claimed measurement of "women's share of STEM degrees". Harvard researchers were unable to independently recreate the data reported in the study. A follow-up paper by the researchers who discovered the discrepancy found conceptual and empirical problems with the gender-equality paradox in STEM hypothesis. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..74a347a48 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Women in STEM" +chunk: 9/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:08.521064+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Lack of confidence ==== +According to A. N. Pell, the pipeline has several major leaks spanning the time from elementary school to retirement. One of the most important periods is adolescence. One of the factors behind girls' lack of confidence might be unqualified or ineffective teachers. Teachers' gendered perceptions on their students' capabilities can create an unbalanced learning environment and deter girls from pursuing further STEM education. They can also pass these stereotyped beliefs onto their students. Studies have also shown that student-teacher interactions affect girls' engagement with STEM. Teachers often give boys more opportunity to figure out the solution to a problem by themselves while telling the girls to follow the rules. Teachers are also more likely to accept questions from boys while telling girls to wait for their turns. This is partly due to gender expectations that boys will be active but that girls will be quiet and obedient. Prior to 1985, girls were provided fewer laboratory opportunities than boys. In middle and high school, science, mathematics, mechanics and computers courses are mainly taken by male students and also tend to be taught by male teachers. A lack of opportunities in STEM fields could lead to a loss of self-esteem in math and science abilities, and low self-esteem could prevent people from entering science and math fields. +One study found that women steer away from STEM fields because they believe they are not qualified for them; the study suggested that this could be fixed by encouraging girls to participate in more mathematics classes. Out of STEM-intending students, 35% of women stated that their reason for leaving calculus was due to lack of understanding the material, while only 14% of men stated the same. The study reports that this difference in reason for leaving calculus is thought to develop from women's low level of confidence in their ability, and not actual skill. This study continues to establish that women and men have different levels of confidence in their ability and that confidence is related to how individual's performance in STEM fields. It was seen in another study that when men and women of equal math ability were asked to rate their own ability, women will rate their own ability at a much lower level. Programs with the purpose to reduce anxiety in math or increase confidence have a positive impact on women continuing their pursuit of a career in the STEM field. +Not only can the issue of confidence keep women from even entering STEM fields, but even women in upper-level courses with higher skill are more strongly affected by the stereotype that they (by nature) do not possess innate ability to succeed. This can cause a negative effect on confidence for women despite making it through courses designed to filter students out of the field. + +==== Stereotype threat ==== +Stereotype threat arises from the fear that one's actions will confirm a negative stereotype about one's in-group. This fear creates additional stress, consuming valuable cognitive resources and lowering task performance in the threatened domain. Individuals are susceptible to stereotype threat whenever they are assessed in a domain for which there is a perceived negative stereotype about a group to which they belong. Stereotype threat undermines the academic performance of women and girls in math and science, which leads to an underestimation of abilities in these subjects by standard measures of academic achievement. Individuals who identify strongly with a certain area (e.g., math) are more likely to have their performance in that area hampered by stereotype threat than those who identify less strongly with the area. This means that even highly motivated students from negatively stereotyped groups are likely to be adversely affected by stereotype threat and thus may come to disengage from the stereotyped domain. +Negative stereotypes about girls' capabilities in mathematics and science drastically lower their performance in mathematics and science courses as well as their interest in pursuing a STEM career. Studies have found that gender differences in performance disappear if students are told that there are no gender differences on a particular mathematics test. This indicates that the learning environment can greatly impact success in a course. +Stereotype threat has been criticized on a theoretical basis. Several attempts to replicate its experimental evidence have failed. The findings in support of the concept have been suggested to be the product of publication bias. +A study was done to determine how stereotype threat and math identification can affect women who were majoring in a STEM related field. There were three different situations, designed to test the impact of stereotype on performance in math. One group of women were informed that men had previously out-performed women on the same calculus test they were about to take. The next group was told men and women had performed at the same level. The last group was told nothing about how men had performed and there was no mention of gender before taking their test. Out of these situations, women performed at their best scores when there was no mention of gender. The worst scores were from the situation where women were told that men had performed better than women. For women to pursue the male-dominated field of STEM, previous research shows that they must have more confidence in math/science ability. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-9.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-9.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c3969e4a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM-9.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "Women in STEM" +chunk: 10/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_STEM" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:08.521064+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Innate versus learned skill === +Some studies propose the explanation that STEM fields (and especially fields like physics, math and philosophy) are considered by both teachers and students to require more innate talent than skills that can be learned. Combined with a tendency to view women as having less of the required innate abilities, researchers proposed that this can result in assessing women as less qualified for STEM positions. In a study done by Ellis, Fosdick and Rasmussen, it was concluded that without strong skills in calculus, women cannot perform as well as their male counterparts in any field of STEM, which leads to the fewer women pursuing a career in these fields. A high percentage of women that do pursue a career in STEM do not continue on this pathway after taking Calculus I, which was found to be a class that weeds out students from the STEM pathway. +There have been several controversial statements about innate ability and success in STEM. A few notable examples include Lawrence Summers, former president of Harvard University who suggested cognitive ability at high end positions could cause a population difference. Summers later stepped down as president. Former Google engineer, James Damore, wrote a memo entitled Google's Ideological Echo Chamber suggesting that differences in trait distributions between men and women was a reason for gender imbalance in STEM. The memo stated that affirmative action to reduce the gap could discriminate against highly qualified male candidates. Damore was fired for sending out this memo. + +=== Comparative advantage === +A 2019 study by two Paris economists suggests that women's under-representation in STEM fields could be the result of comparative advantage, caused not by girls' 10% lower performance on math tests, but rather their far superior reading performance, which, when taken together with their math performance, results in almost one standard deviation better overall performance than boys, which is theorized to make women more likely to study humanities-related subjects than math-related ones. +The current gender gap, however, is widely considered to be economically inefficient overall. + +== Strategies for increasing representation of women == + +There are a multitude of factors that may explain the low representation of women in STEM careers. Anne-Marie Slaughter, the first woman to hold the position of Director of Policy Planning for the United States Department of State, has recently suggested some strategies to the corporate and political environment to support women to fulfill to the best of their abilities the many roles and responsibilities that they undertake. The academic and research environment for women may benefit by applying some of the suggestions she has made to help women excel, while maintaining a work-life balance. + +=== Social-psychological interventions === +A number of researchers have tested interventions to alleviate stereotype threat for women in situations where their math and science skills are being evaluated. The hope is that by combating stereotype threat, these interventions will boost women's performance, encouraging a greater number of them to persist in STEM careers. +One simple intervention is simply educating individuals about the existence of stereotype threat. Researchers found that women who were taught about stereotype threat and how it could negatively impact women's performance in math performed as well as men on a math test, even when stereotype threat was induced. These women also performed better than women who were not taught about stereotype threat before they took the math test. + +==== Role models ==== +One of the proposed methods for alleviating stereotype threat is through introducing role models. One study found that women who took a math test that was administered by a female experimenter did not suffer a drop in performance when compared to women whose test was administered by a male experimenter. Additionally, these researchers found that it was not the physical presence of the female experimenter but rather learning about her apparent competence in math that buffered participants against stereotype threat. +The findings of another study suggest that role models do not necessarily have to be individuals with authority or high status, but can also be drawn from peer groups. This study found that girls in same-gender groups performed better on a task that measured math skills than girls in mixed-gender groups. This was due to the fact that girls in the same-gender groups had greater access to positive role models, in the form of their female classmates who excelled in math, than girls in mixed-gender groups. +Similarly, another experiment showed that making groups achievements salient helped buffer women against stereotype threat. Female participants who read about successful women, even though these successes were not directly related to performance in math, performed better on a subsequent math test than participants who read about successful corporations rather than successful women. +A study investigating the role of textbook images on science performance found that women demonstrated better comprehension of a passage from a chemistry lesson when the text was accompanied by a counter-stereotypic image (i.e., of a female scientist) than when the text was accompanied by a stereotypic image (i.e., of a male scientist). +Other scholars distinguish between the challenges of both recruitment and retention in increasing women's participation in STEM fields. These researchers suggest that although both female and male role models can be effective in recruiting women to STEM fields, female role models are more effective at promoting the retention of women in these fields. Female teachers can also act as role models for young girls. Reports have shown that the presence of female teachers positively influences girls' perceptions of STEM and increases their interest in STEM careers. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can_with_Beakman_and_Jax-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can_with_Beakman_and_Jax-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ef02dddb2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can_with_Beakman_and_Jax-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "You Can with Beakman and Jax" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can_with_Beakman_and_Jax" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:09.766079+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +You Can with Beakman and Jax, also known in its Spanish-language version as El Mundo de Beakman ("The World of Beakman"), is an American science and education syndicated comic strip by Jok Church, which ran from July 14, 1991 to July 17, 2016. The comic strip, and associated television series, featured facts about science and languages. +The comic strip is a text-based comic, that answers readers' questions, with illustrations of the main characters, various objects, and, or the experiments being discussed. It is run as a single panel comic that appears in newspapers as a color, or black and white Sunday feature, in either a quarter-page strip, or half-tab format. The comic has reached a readership of fifty-two million readers in thirteen countries. About 80% of the letters it receives are from females. From its comic origins, its lead character Beakman would later star in his own live action television series, Beakman's World. The comic also branched out into other media, gaining numerous awards along the way. Its author died of a heart attack on April 29, 2016, after which the comic continued for nearly three months. Jok's final remaining comic was published on July 17, 2016, just three days after the strip's 25th anniversary of publication. + + +== Publication history and media == +The comic first appeared in the Marin Independent Journal, and was offered to them for free. The earlier comic strips were then reprinted in three Science Stuff You Can Do books, a Best of, and was the bases for two specialty books, Beakman & Jax's Bubble Book and Beakman & Jax's Microscope Book. +In 1995, an official website opened for the strip published by the "North Bay Network", it won many awards. It later moved to its current location in 1996, published by Network Solutions. Where it has received several positive reviews from such internet guides as "The parents' pocket guide to kids & computers" by Family Computer Workshop, which gave the site 5 out of 5 stars and recommended it for readers 7–13. At the time the site contained questions and answers, as well as hands-on activities, some of which required Netscape and Shockwave Player. +The final strip was published on July 17, 2016, three days after its 25th anniversary and three months after Jok Church died. + + +== Format == + +The comic strip was originally named You Can with Beakman (also called U Can with Beakman). Its only main character at the time was Beakman Place, a male figure with spiky blue hair, glasses, a neck tie, and a breast pocket full of instruments. Beakman is a non-scientist that learns about the world through books, and then finds ways to prove what he's read about. He was named after Beekman Place, a small street on the east side of Manhattan, New York City. The comic is in a question-and-answer format, in which a reader asks a question, addressed to either Beakman, or also later, his sister Jax Place, a red head, with her hair curled up behind her head in blue circular bands, she wears glasses, and jacks in her hair, and as earrings. Church provides the answer, usually by means of a simple experiment the children reading can do (often with parental assistance or supervision). A paragraph after the results of the experiment, in inverted text at the bottom of the comic, would explain the answer. + + +== Concept == +The idea for doing a comic strip came to Jok while he was working for Lucasfilm, and answering questions from George Lucas's fan mail, stating that he was "overcome by the bravery children showed by asking Mr. Lucas anything at all" and he "decided to write about real questions from real kids". While working at Lucasfilm, Jok began working on a project called "Here's How" a comic strip and educational television series featuring C-3PO teaching foreign language and R2-D2 explaining the more physical world", the idea was eventually shelved, but the concept later evolved into Jok's comic strip featuring a character named Beakman. He would receive these science questions from children, and he would choose to answer them based on subjects that he didn't know about, and wanted to learn. The comic was written for an audience that includes children, but not exclusively children. He felt his purpose in making the comics was "to make sure my readers are not intimidated by the world through which they walk". He would then research the subject, write, draw, and color the comics by using a Macintosh computer. This process gained him criticism in May 1994 when he explained how to do an experiment separating hydrogen and oxygen from water, through electrolysis using a single jar and a nine-volt battery, for which he defended the comic strip, by explaining the small amount of gas that would be produced in this way would not be overly dangerous. The syndicate's managing editor claimed this to be the first time an experiment's safety was questioned. +Besides answering questions from children, Jok also took questions from adults. One such question came from the Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien, who asked about why golf balls had little dents. Jok later explained that he "has world leaders periodically contribute to his ... feature." Within the comic strip Jok also introduced an annual "Beakman and Jax Make Up Your Own Rules Contest", in which the reader could report on an experiment or research they did. There were up to 100 winners from around the world, and the prizes were such things as free telescopes and copies of the Beakman & Jax books. + + +== In other media == +Shortly after the release of the first book June 1, 1992, on September 18, 1992 an Emmy Award-winning television series named Beakman's World began, starring Paul Zaloom as the show's main character, along with three female laboratory assistants over the years, Lester the Rat, and two puppet penguins. According to Jok the television series was "written to build a bridge between children and the adult members of their family," and "we created the show to be like a live action cartoon." Beakman's sister Jax however, was not included in the television series, which Jok referred to as "my one disappointment with the show." Although his sister wasn't present in the television show, two of Beakman's family members did appear on the television show, his mother Beakmom, and his brother Meekman. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file