In praise of important acknowledgment & encouragement, which reminds us how much better we should be doing

Or, The International Day of Women and Girls in Science — February 11

A friend shared an experiment he performed on humans (no animals were harmed during the experiment). As a physics teacher (1), he started using female-centric references during his teaching. He did something as simple as using female names only in the problems and examples, in a class of co-eds. To his surprise, but aligning with his hypothesis, the girls got more engaged in the…