Summer is here (feeling the heat!), and hopefully, you can set aside a bit of time to spend on developing yourself professionally! In the School of Life Sciences Teaching Innovation Center (TIC), we’re reading evidence-based articles this summer and meeting to discuss them to grow in our teaching practice. We did this last summer and found it to be successful! We invite you to join us in reading one article each month for June and July. We will meet virtually to discuss the key takeaways and how we can implement the strategies provided in the articles for our courses. Bonus: in June, the first author of the article, Student Perceptions of Instructor Supportiveness: What Characteristics Make a Difference , will be joining us to share their research and answer questions we have.  TIC Summer Reading Group Sign-up to receive invitations to the conversations! We plan to meet via Zoom on Fridays, June 25 and July 23, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Arizona/PST time. June 25 Schussler, E. E., Wea...

We are excited to announce 16 events this term that all focus on racial justice in biology. These events are open to the School of Life Sciences (SOLS) community.  Please join our suite of virtual workshops, seminars, and discussions to learn and become more self-aware of how we can become more inclusive.  The sessions are for faculty, staff, and students – all of the seminars will be recorded and posted on the  RISE Center website  for viewing afterwards.  For a full description of the events, click the links below: SABER events An initiative sponsored by the Society for the Advancement in Biology Education Research (SABER) focused on promoting awareness, understanding, and commitment to change academic biology environments to be more inclusive and strive for racial justice in STEM Education.  RISE Up events An initiative sponsored by ASU’s Research for Inclusive STEM Education (RISE) Center focused on enhancing awareness, understanding, and commitment to...

While racism is very apparent in the world today, many don’t realize how prevalent it is within academia as well. Not only have I experienced this myself, but I have many friends with countless stories of their own. The reality is that I have experienced and witnessed racism and discrimination at almost every single school I have attended. It’s always a matter of exterior judgement. Does that student look professional? Does this student look “college ready?" Does that student look like they could be in higher classes? Throughout my public school experience I was classified as "gifted" and although anyone could technically take the tests to be in these "gifted" programs, the demographic was completely discriminatory. Not only was I literally the only black person, I was one of very few females. Because there was no representation of black people in these types of classes, I felt like an outsider, and was seen this way as well. At a volunteer event outside ...

How can we act individually to promote inclusive classroom spaces? When the daily structure of classes are up to so many factors, pin-pointing a single source to propagate positive change in educational settings can seem far-fetched. This is because it is. Brazilian philosopher Paulo Freire strongly believed that cultural shifts require equal efforts from both sides of the system. In other words, if marginalized students are putting in the effort for a course then it should follow that those responsible for teaching said course are putting in an effort for the marginalized students. Educators with authority in these spaces can have profound impacts by creating space for others. When creating inclusive spaces, I’ve learned that there are three important concepts that need to first be understood. The Space You Occupy In a classroom, to not only grow your own set of skills but somebody else’s is an amazing opportunity that should not be wasted.  To make sure this doesn’t happen, f...