Inclusivity in Introductory STEM Courses: Mini Zoom Workshops
We are planning three interactive Zoom mini-workshops to help STEM
educators improve inclusivity in introductory courses. Each workshop will
be facilitated by an expert in the field, and there will be opportunities
for active participation. The goal is for participants to leave the
workshops with specific ideas of activities and approaches that can be
integrated into courses at their home institutions. We are aiming to
make it as easy as possible for interested educators to participate. Each
workshop requires a time commitment of only 1.5 hours, and participants
can sign up for any or all of the workshops (it is not necessary to
commit to all three). You can register for any of the workshops at any time
up to the day before the workshop.
The three workshops are:
Dr. Estrada will talk about how shift to classrooms, training programs
and mentorship relationships that provide kindness cues that affirm
social inclusion may impact the integration experience for students,
faculty, and administrators. She will particularly focus on how these
shifts impact people historically excluded because of their ethnicity and
race (PEER) in academia and underrepresented among Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) degree earners and career pathways.
This workshop has already been completed, but there is a video
that you can access - click on the window below. (Note that we have
edited out the dead periods during the breakout sessions.)
Instructors often only focus on content knowledge and skills to improve
student engagement and learning in science courses. However, students’
sense-of-belonging, self-efficacy and mindset can also play an important
role in their engagement and success in science. For example, students’
sense of belonging in a science class, their self-efficacy, and views
about whether intelligence in science is “fixed” or “malleable”
can affect engagement and learning. These types of concerns can
especially impact the learning outcomes of marginalized students and
stereotype threats can exacerbate these issues. I will discuss prior
research studies that show how different types of social psychological
interventions (e.g., social belonging and growth mindset) have improved
the learning outcomes of all students, and this is especially true for
marginalized students in science fields. I will discuss how ecological
belonging interventions can be adapted and implemented in science classes
to make them more equitable and inclusive. These types of interventions
are short even though they have the potential to impact student outcomes
significantly—especially for marginalized students in science classes.
This workshop has already been completed, but there is a video
that you can access - click on the window below. (Note that we have
edited out the dead periods during the breakout sessions.)
In this session, participants will have the opportunity to engage in critical conversations around what constitutes both “whiteness” and structural racism, and how they manifest within introductory STEM courses. By “seeing” the presence of whiteness and structural racism within STEM and how it negatively influences students’ engagement, conversations will shift towards tangible actions and strategies faculty can implement to mitigate and potentially redress these phenomena.
For questions, contact
Tom Solomon (tsolomon@bucknell.edu)
The workshops have been completed. Scroll down to view
recordings of them.
Prof. Mica Estrada, Institute for Health and Aging, University of California, San Franciso:
"Creating Pathways of Kindness and Inclusion in STEM Education"
Prof. Chandralekha Singh, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Pittsburgh: "Promoting Equity in Science Learning"
Prof. Terrell Morton, College of Education and Human Development,
University of Missouri: "Whiteness and Structural Racism in Introductory
STEM courses"
These mini-workshops are sponsored by FLAMEnet
and by Research Corporation through
the Cottrell Scholar Collaborative program.
