United States

Promoting Inclusive Strategies to Improve Outcomes in the Natural Sciences
Nike Olabisi, Associate Professor Biological Sciences, University of Delaware
Our objective is to identify the issues and propose interventions aimed at improving the academic and professional outcomes of our underrepresented students at the University of Delaware through multiple approaches. Comprehensive analysis of existing institutional data indicate that the 4 year graduation rates and science GPA’s tend to be lower in under-represented students than other student groups. This directly impacts the students’ ability to be competitive in securing opportunities to enter graduate, medical and professional schools. The low representation in the science classrooms could also lead to more stereotype threat. Students also wrestle with feelings of inadequacy due to varied levels of preparedness from high schools, especially when unskilled in effective study strategies. Navigating the academy can also be a challenge especially for first generation students or Pell eligible students who are often also juggling employment with their academic demands. The interventions proposed are intended to promote measurable successful outcomes and guide focused post college career aspirations in research and professional degrees. These include faculty training in inclusive strategies with universal design (1) especially in large introductory and gateway courses, use of underrepresented peer mentors, assignment of undergraduate teaching assistants to interact with students, study skills training, time management, strategic coursework scheduling, research opportunities, dedicated career counselling and one on one focused advisement. We also propose group support sessions to build and strengthen community with each other and multicultural interest groups on campus. Fostering a deep sense of belonging and connecting with faculty who instill scientific identity is key to their persistence and thriving in the academy. This multipronged approach is designed to promote positive outcomes for these students, demonstrate their potential and close the current achievement gap existing at ours and other universities (2). 
References:
Lombardi, A.R., Murray C. and Gerdes, H. (2011). College faculty and inclusive instruction: Self-reported attitudes and actions pertaining to Universal Design. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Vol 4(4), 250-261
Ansell, S. (2011, July 7). Achievement Gap. Education Week. Retrieved Month Day, Year from http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/achievement-gap/


12th Conference on Understanding Interventions 2020

Promoting Inclusive Strategies to Improve Outcomes in the Natural Sciences

The annual UI conference has grown from a meeting to a community of more than 6,000 researchers, program officers, evaluators, program directors, training faculty, and others within STEM, and now operates with a mission to mutually inform scholarship and practice, develop and enhance the community interested in educational interventions, and provide professional development for all STEM persons. UI held its first Virtual conference in December of 2020 in response to Covid-19 restrictions that forced the cancellation of the original March 2020 in person meeting. Born out of necessity, the virtual conference introduced a format that provided pre conference availability of symposia, Deeper Dives and Poster presentations. The 13th Annual Understanding Interventions Conference will continue with that design and we foresee future conferences adopting aspects of that format in reaching a virtual audience as well as those who attend the conferences in-person.

Attendees will experience plenaries, workshops, symposia, and poster presentations on hypothesis-based research on interventions and initiatives that broaden participation in STEM careers. The conference will continue to facilitate the dialogue among education, behavioral, and social science researchers, evaluators, and faculty in STEM fields who participate in intervention programs. Graduate students in these fields are strongly encouraged to attend. Workshops, sessions, and posters will communicate effective strategies from successful STEM intervention programs, present results from empirical research studies, and synthesize the translation of research findings into practice on STEM learning, undergraduate research, graduate education, and student retention.

The cost to attend the conference is $150. There are special rates for post-doctoral fellows and graduate students, as well as conference grants that can be provided for those with need. Registration for the conference is open, with additional information to come.

13th Conference on Understanding Interventions 2021

The annual UI conference has grown from a meeting to a community of more than 6,000 researchers, program officers, evaluators, program directors, training faculty, and others within STEM, and now operates with a mission to mutually inform scholarship and practice, develop and enhance the community interested in educational interventions, and provide professional development for all STEM persons. 

poster

UI is excited to announce the rescheduled 12th Annual Conference on Understanding Interventions December 10 & 12, 2020! As you may recall, the original conference scheduled back in March 2020 had to be cancelled due the worsening global conditions, and further declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stay tuned for details regarding the virtual conference.

On December 10, 2020 from 12:00-5:00pm (EST), and December 12, 2020 from 11:00am-5:00pm (EST), UI will host the Virtual 12th Annual Understanding Interventions Conference powered by Underline. Attendees will experience plenaries, workshops, symposia, and poster presentations on hypothesis-based research on interventions and initiatives that broaden participation in STEM careers. The conference will continue to facilitate the dialogue among education, behavioral, and social science researchers, evaluators, and faculty in STEM fields who participate in intervention programs. Graduate students in these fields are strongly encouraged to attend. Workshops, sessions, and posters will communicate effective strategies from successful STEM intervention programs, present results from empirical research studies, and synthesize the translation of research findings into practice on STEM learning, undergraduate research, graduate education, and student retention.

12th Annual Understanding Interventions Conference continues to facilitate the dialogue among education, behavioral, and social science researchers, evaluators, and faculty in STEM fields who participate in intervention programs. Workshops, sessions, and posters communicate effective strategies from successful STEM intervention programs, present results from empirical research studies, and synthesize the translation of research findings into practice on STEM learning, undergraduate research, graduate education, and student retention.

"Abstract: Background: The ASCEND (A Student-Centered ENtrepreneurship Development) Training Model is an NIH-funded initiative at Morgan State University (MSU) to increase diversity in the biomedical research workforce. Unlike the traditional apprenticeship-style research training model, the ASCEND Entrepreneurial Research Training Model (ERTM) involves undergraduate students in active leadership roles in their research projects. ASCEND's ERTM-based interventions are designed to enhance students' sense of science identity, research competency, and peer support, which are predictors of academic success and persistence. 

One of ASCEND's interventions, the Student Research Center (SRC), is an undergraduate student organization that is partially run by student members and has the following main aims: (1) Recruitment and Community Service, (2) Leadership Development, (3) Research Productivity and (4) Graduate School/Academic Preparation. We report on the Health Research Concepts Competition (HRCC), an ASCEND SRC initiative developed to achieve the SRC's aim of research productivity. 

Methods: The HRCC is designed to expose MSU undergraduate students to the real-world research grant application process by simulating it and providing the students with an opportunity to conduct research on a topic of their own choosing about which they are passionate.

The HRCC runs twice a year (one round in the fall semester and another round in the spring) and is open only to members of the SRC. A research associate coordinates the HRCC process and provides technical support to applicants throughout the application process.
Students seeking funding for their research are required to submit an abstract according to the HRCC guidelines established by the SRC. The abstract is submitted along with a literature review/list of references and a project budget. A general information session and a technical assistance workshop are offered to students before the abstract submission deadline. Applicants are also offered the opportunity to get one-on-one support/technical assistance from the research associate as they prepare their abstracts for submission. Each submitted abstract undergoes internal review by two MSU faculty members, after which feedback is provided to the students so they can develop full proposals. At least two external reviews per proposal are then conducted by faculty members from other institutions who are leading researchers in the related field. Based on the HRCC guidelines, each applicant must be mentored by an MSU faculty member and receive step-by-step support to develop their concepts into strong proposals that will lead to a successful application. Grant awards of up to $5,000 are provided per health-related research project and projects are funded for a duration of one year.

Results: Five rounds of HRCC have been conducted since spring semester of 2017, with 39 concepts submitted for internal review. Of these, 13 concepts have been developed into full proposals and reviewed by external reviewers. Ten of the externally reviewed proposals have been funded. In terms of dissemination, there have been five abstracts presented at national/international scientific conferences and one peer-reviewed journal publication. Of the 12 students who participated in the HRCC who have graduated, seven have entered into graduate STEM or health-related research programs. 

Conclusion: The HRCC initiative of the ASCEND model exposed students to the real-life grant application process and empowered them to take ownership of their research, thereby making them leaders in their research projects. Participating in the HRCC was instrumental in students' transition into graduate research programs.
"

Cultivating an Entrepreneurial Mindset Among Undergraduate Student Researchers: The ASCEND Health Research Concepts Competition

"The BioFIRE Living and Learning Program was created to support academic and social integration of incoming freshmen in the biological and chemical sciences. BioFIRE employs a combination of evidence-based interventions, including student learning communities, close interaction with faculty, intensive advising, and early research experience. Students live in on the same floor of a residence hall with integrated academic support, participate in community building activities, enroll together in introductory science courses, and are immersed in authentic, faculty-driven, coursed-based research during their first three semesters. BioFIRE students have higher persistence in STEM compared to students with similar entry credentials who are not in a living-learning community. We used the PITS (Persistence in the Sciences, Hanauer et al., 2016) assessment to measure several psychological constructs correlated with persistence in science, including science self-efficacy, science identity, and science community values. Analysis of data from 100 students in two BioFIRE cohorts (N=100) shows that science self-efficacy and science identity remain unchanged over three semesters participation in research, while science community values decline slightly over the same period. This is consistent with previous studies showing research participation can buffer students against declines in their intent to persist in STEM that often occur early in a student’s academic program.


Hanauer, D.I., Graham, M.J., Hatfull, G.F. (2016). A Measure of College Student Persistence in the Sciences (PITS). CBE Life Sci Educ 15:ar54, 1-10.
Hernandez, P.R., Hopkins, P.D., Masters, K, Halland, L., Mei, B.M., Richards-Babb, M., Quedado, K. Shook, N.J. (2018). Student integration into STEM careers and culture: A longitudinal examination of summer faculty mentors and project ownership. CBE Life Sci Educ 17:ar50, 1-14.

Impact of a STEM-focused living and learning community and early research experience on science self-efficacy, identity, and community values

Lamkn: Teaching STEM concepts using the forgotten technologies embodied in recyclables

Cameron: Decoding the Signals of Mentor-Mentee Interaction: Seeking Understanding through

Matsui: Think Differently, Think "Program 2.0": Disrupt, not Replicate to Diversify STEM

Estrada: Cultivating Kindness and Community in STEM

There has been a nationwide effort to increase the number, caliber and diversity of the STEM workforce. The Joint Dual (JD) Engineering Program between Hostos Community College (HCC) and The City College of New York’s Grove School of Engineering of The City University of New York provides an opportunity to advance this effort. Most of the JD Engineering Program students at HCC are first-generation college attendees and face significant financial challenges that may hinder their success. Specifically, ~36% of all JD Engineering students are low-income academically talented students with a remaining unmet need of more than $6,000. However, the literature shows that providing financial aid alone is not a sufficient factor for academic success of low-income academically talented college students. Thus, HCC has recently created the Hostos Engineering Academic Talent (HEAT) Scholarship Program designed to offer not only its scholars financial support, but also a wealth of high-impact extracurricular activities that have been shown to improve their likelihood of success while at school and beyond. The project was awarded an NSF S-STEM award. HEAT, as a model of intervention, aims to determine the impact of a combined faculty and peer mentoring on the outcomes of HEAT Scholars.4 Here, we will share the HEAT model, which will support a total of 30 students over the five-year funding period, with the Understanding Intervention community. As of today, HEAT robust recruitment strategy has been able to successfully meet its goal of selecting 10 scholars out of a large applicant pool for its first Cohort, 2019-2020. Additionally, seven applicants, who were not selected for direct funding, were invited to be part of the “associate cohort.” This cohort will have the opportunity to participate in all the extracurricular activities except for the combined faculty and peer mentorship program. A HEAT Club has also been formed to further facilitate the scholars and the associate cohort to interact, develop a sense of belonging and community, and bolster their STEM identity. All in all, the HEAT interventions and systematic investigation will extend our understanding of the impact of a combined faculty and peer mentorship approach with a population not yet studied – undergraduate STEM students at minority-serving community colleges. We expect the findings to be generalizable to other populations both inside and outside of HCC, and thus provide an opportunity to expand the HEAT Program to other STEM programs at a variety of institutions whose students could benefit from its implementation.

Combining Financial Support, Faculty and Peer Mentoring to Enhance Engineering Students' Academic and Professional Performance at a Minority-Serving Institution – The NSF S-STEM HEAT Program at Hostos Community College

Scientific societies aiming to foster inclusion of scientists from underrepresented (UR) backgrounds among their membership often delegate primary responsibility for this goal to a diversity-focused committee. The National Science Foundation has funded the creation of the Alliance to Catalyze Change for Equity in STEM Success (ACCESS), a meta-organization bringing together representatives from several such STEM society committees to serve as a hub for a growing Community of Practice. Its goal is to coordinate efforts to advance inclusive practices by sharing experiences and making synergistic discoveries about what works. As examples of our work, we compare and contrast the ways in which scientific societies implement/assess their travel award programs for UR scientists as well as approaches by which member societies have sought to ensure inclusivity through selection of annual meeting speakers. We discuss how inclusive practices in these two areas foster better scientific environments for all. We also identify challenges and promising practices for societies striving to maximize inclusivity of their travel award programming and diverse speaker representation at their annual meetings.

Scientific societies join forces to amplify effectiveness of STEM diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts

Training Programming Impact on Career Intent and Related Social Cognitive Constructs

Training programs throughout the United States are recognizing the rich contributions resulting from prioritizing diversity in research environments. The purpose of this study was to identify program admission related variables that are not associated with first semester PhD GPA of racially underrepresented (UR) minority trainees. A sample of 37 trainees within the NIGMS-funded Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) was examined. Descriptive statistics and correlations were used to examine potential indicator variables such as GPA, GRE scores, undergraduate training, and to examine academic performance during the first semester of a doctoral program in biomedical sciences. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare UR PhD trainee performance by demographic variable (i.e. HBCUs vs. PWIs). We found weak associations between GRE scores and undergraduate GPA in estimating UR trainee GPA during the first semester of a doctoral program in biomedical sciences. UR trainees from HBCU undergraduate institutions had lower first semester PhD GPAs and GRE scores than UR trainees from PWIs. Yet, the student groups performed equally in long term outcomes. Therefore, this study supported the Admission Committee decision to no longer use GRE scores to make admission decisions.

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