Ask your class to draw a scientist. Go on, try it. Chances are you’ll get a lot of white men in lab coats, wild hair, bubbling beakers, and the occasional explosion. It’s a well-worn activity, but its results still tell us something important about the messages our pupils are absorbing, from the media, from books, and sometimes, without meaning to, from us.
The stereotype of the “mad scientist” is a stubborn one. And for many children, especially girls, pupils from ethnic minorities, or those from backgrounds where science careers feel remote, it quietly sends a message: science isn’t for people like me. That’s a problem we can do something about.
This video is taken from my Udemy course on Teaching Primary Science: Access the full course here.
Why This Matters More Than We Might Think
Research stretching back to the 1960s and 70s shows that the vast majority of children drew male scientists when asked. Things have improved gradually, and in some studies more than half of children now draw female scientists. But we’re not there yet. And the same bias shows up in other places too.
A basic image search for “a scientist” still returns a heavy majority of white men peering down microscopes. AI image generators are catching up, but not quickly enough. One test with Adobe Firefly returned three male scientists and one female from a simple prompt. The default image of science in our culture is still narrow.
As primary teachers, we sit at an interesting point in this picture. The children we work with are forming their identities, including their sense of whether certain careers or subjects are “for them”. The good news is that we have more influence than we might realise, and it doesn’t require a curriculum overhaul.
Scientists Are Everywhere
One of the simplest shifts we can make is broadening the picture of what a scientist actually looks like. Not all scientists wear white coats or work in labs. There are scientists working in rainforests, on oil rigs, underwater, in the field, and at kitchen tables. Science is not a single look or a single kind of person.
There are also many inspiring scientists whose stories are genuinely worth telling. A few worth knowing about:
- Mary Anning, already in the national curriculum, whose fossil discoveries shaped our understanding of prehistoric life
- Sarah Gilbert, who led the team behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine
- Stephanie Kwolek, who invented Kevlar
- Rosalind Franklin, whose X-ray work was crucial to understanding DNA
- Mae Jemison, the first Black female astronaut
- George Washington Carver, whose agricultural research transformed farming
The national curriculum does mention some scientists, but they tend to cluster in Years 2, 5 and 6. There is plenty of room to weave additional scientists into other year groups and topics, and doing so consistently sends a message: science has always been done by all kinds of people.
Making It Work Across the Curriculum
The practical approach here is to link a scientist to each unit of work. Rather than trying to cover everything in a standalone lesson, introduce one scientist per topic, briefly, consistently, across the year. Over time, pupils build a much more varied mental image of who does science.
When pupils research a scientist, a simple graphic organiser works well to keep the focus on the most useful information: what they’re famous for, key life events, where they studied or worked, and a fun fact or two. This avoids the “copy and paste from Wikipedia” trap and encourages genuine engagement with the person behind the work.
None of this needs to be complicated. Small, consistent steps across a year group and a key stage add up. Over time, we can help pupils see that science belongs to all of us.
Want to know more?
This video forms part of a larger online Udemy course on Teaching Primary School Science. You can access the full course here.
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