Do you want to make your classroom more inclusive? Do you feel like you might need to learn more about what inequities might even exist in the classroom? The ASU Research for Inclusive STEM Education (RISE) Center is sponsoring a virtual seminar series this semester focused on inclusive STEM education! Building off of a successful seminar series last year that attracted between 200-1000 people at each talk, there will be three seminars this fall term. All of the events are free, no registration is required, and online ! Just click the zoom links below to join the Zoom webinar! For more information (or to check out past recorded seminars), visit the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research  (SABER) website on diversity and inclusion efforts . Upcoming Events Understanding oppression faced by Asian Americans Thursday, September 16th, 9am PT Sapna Cheryan, University of Washington Zoom link:  https://asu.zoom.us/j/85307613286 The meaning beyond the words: Ho...

Active learning has been recommended as a more effective way to teach when compared to traditional lecturing, yet active learning can be implemented in many different ways. One common approach in active learning is to ask students to share out their thoughts either with other students or in front of the whole class. These social interactions can be fruitful for hearing different perspectives and building classroom community, but they also can present challenges because they create a larger number of opportunities for a student to feel judged based on their answers. This worry of being judged, or fear of negative evaluation, has been shown to be a problem in active learning, particularly for students with anxiety . Implementation of Active Learning In two interview studies, one with students from a research institution and a second with community college students , students reported that how active learning is implemented matters. Answering a question that is timed based on accuracy...

It’s no secret that enrollment numbers are increasing, whether due to a global pandemic or more run-of-the-mill economic changes, workforce needs and demands, or personal and professional enrichment goals. Scaling increases access to high-quality education for a wide swath of learners who may never have even considered it an option, regardless of their socioeconomic status (a hallmark of ASU’s charter). Designing, developing, and delivering courses at scale often necessitates reimagining teaching and learning of a particular topic. This series of articles from  ASU’s Teach Online introduces various aspects of scalable design by focusing on reducing/eliminating costs; accessibility and inclusivity; how learners achieve and demonstrate subject-matter mastery; and a team-oriented approach to see things through from conception to completion. The links below will help you get started: What Does it Mean to Design for Scale? A “No-cost Course” Means New Solutions for Accessible, High-qual...

Although Christians are overrepresented in American society, they are underrepresented in biology careers. What is the reason for this under-representation? Prior research has indicated that Christians feel as though they don’t belong in biology , that some biology instructors make Christians feel as though they have to choose between their faith and biology, and many people incorrectly assume that one has to be an atheist to accept evolution . When biology faculty members were asked whether they would take on a graduate student who was an evangelical Christian, they were less likely to want to hire this person than someone who did not reveal an evangelical Christian identity. These studies indicate that the Christian identity may be stigmatized in the context of academic biology. Because Christianity is an identity that can be hidden or invisible, it could be considered a concealable stigmatized identity (CSI) in the biology community. Concealable Identities Concealable stigmati...

Many STEM students are seeking the opportunity to conduct undergraduate research at some point in their academic career due to its many benefits. However, finding and securing a research position can be challenging, and may be more difficult for some students than others. In a recent publication in the International Journal of STEM Education, researchers interviewed undergraduates who were involved in undergraduate research and students who were not involved but interested in participating in research in order to compare their knowledge on finding and securing research positions at a research-intensive institution ( Cooper et al., 2021 ). How can students find research? Students who were interviewed said that they found research opportunities by talking with instructors, academic advisors, peers, or teaching assistants or by using online university resources. The study found that there were no differences between students who did research and students who wanted to do research in the ...

Higher education today is filled with information about inclusive practices for our classrooms and schools that need to be discussed from multiple perspectives, and do not have simple solutions. A quick Google search will lead to hundreds of education events focused on inclusion for nearly every day of the year. These webinars are informative, use highly qualified speakers, and share new ideas and perspectives. However, studies have shown that although webinars are great ways to give faculty information, they do little in terms of changing behaviors or decisions by educators in the long term. A quote from Nancy Dana, author of “The PLC Book” states “While we may have been intrigued and even inspired, the next day we would all return to the hectic pace of our classroom routines, and whatever was learned during that one “in-service” day, quickly faded from our memories.” Dana goes on to promote PLCs (Professional Learning Communities) as a way to follow up information workshops with oppo...

The Black Lives Matter movement and protests in Summer 2020 after the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Tony McDade, have prompted many educators and researchers to reflect upon racism in the spaces we occupy. As copies of “How to be an anti-racist” by Ibram X. Kendi flew off the shelves in bookstores, we at the Research for Inclusive STEM Education (RISE) center found ourselves wondering what an anti-racist biology curriculum might look like and what steps we could take to re-imagine the curriculum. In response, we organized a workshop in Fall 2020 where graduate students, instructors, faculty, instructional developers, and other staff members came together to begin to address this question. Here, we share some of the ideas that emerged from those discussions in the hopes that we can continue the dialogue on these critical issues. What are some ways in which racism exists in biology curricula and classrooms? In order to dismantle racism in institutional str...

People of color are underrepresented in many STEM fields, and this underrepresentation is especially prevalent for Black individuals in evolutionary biology. Although there are many potential reasons why, a new study focuses on a factor that is often missing from these discussions: religious beliefs. It has been well established that Black individuals are more likely to be Christian compared to white individuals. Previous studies have also reported that Black individuals are less likely to accept evolution. However, no prior study has explored the relationships between race/ethnicity, religious beliefs, and evolution acceptance. Because there is often a perceived conflict between Christianity and evolution, a recent study set out to examine if there may be a connection between people of color’s religious affiliation and their acceptance of evolution. People of color are more religious and less accepting of evolution Collecting data from almost 10,000 students in 77 undergraduate biolo...

How do you know if your assessments are inclusive? How can you reconsider your assessments to make them more inclusive? Last week, we learned from K. Supriya, Ph.D. , Postdoctoral Researcher in the ASU School of Life Sciences , on ways we can assess our assessments for inclusiveness.  During the webinar we discussed the purpose of assessments in class, examined the various assessment practices we have experienced as students or teachers in various STEM courses with a critical lens, and then came up with an assessment plan for a course we will/might teach in the future.  Watch the discussion here . Purpose of Assessment Let's consider the differences between assessment and evaluation. The purpose of assessment is to increase quality, as seen in formative quizzes, building upon each other. The purpose of evaluation is to judge quality, which is seen more as summative or at the end of the unit or course.  Define Inclusive Assessment Two definitions that Dr. K. Supriya shared...

The ASU RISE Center is hosting a  series of events this term focused on racial justice to find ways in which the School of Life Sciences (SOLS) can be inclusive and anti-racist. On September 2nd, we had 19 students of color attend a listening session to discuss problems and challenges for students of color in SOLS. SOLS PhD student Miranda Bernard facilitated the session. Thirteen faculty/staff attended this session and listened silently. We report here on the issues and challenges that emerged from this discussion. Note: these are experiences and perspectives of the individual students who attended the session and they do not represent the perspectives of all students of color. Lack of community and support in SOLS for people of color Many students echoed this theme where they did not feel like there was a sense of community in SOLS generally, but more specifically for students of color. Students highlighted that they often felt as though their own experience was...

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...

Most scientists agree that the theory of evolution is a foundational concept in understanding biology, yet it remains rejected by nearly half of the college student population ( Barnes & Brownell, 2018 ). With religious students making up a large percentage of the student body on college campuses across the United States, it is important to consider how the way we teach evolution may impact religious students as they integrate the scientific view of evolution with their religious beliefs. One influential factor in religious student acceptance lies in the debate of whether you can believe in God and still accept evolution. A new study has shown that the ability of religious students to perceive evolution as agnostic – not being able to say whether there is or isn’t a God- rather than atheistic – saying there is no God- increased their comfort in learning and understanding evolution and also increased their acceptance of evolution. Bridges and barriers to being both religious and ...