Active learning narrows achievement gaps for underrepresented students in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and math

Visualizing Inequities: A Step Toward Equitable Student Outcomes

The underrepresentation and underperformance of low-income, first-generation, gender minoritized, Black, Latine, and Indigenous students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) occurs for a variety of reasons, including, that students in these groups experience opportunity gaps in STEM classes. A critical approach to disrupting persistent inequities is implementing policies and practices that no longer systematically disadvantage students from minoritized groups. To do this, instructors must use data-informed reflection to interrogate their course outcomes. However, these data can be hard to access, process, and visualize in ways that make patterns of inequities clear. To address this need, we developed an R-Shiny application that allows authenticated users to visualize inequities in student performance. An explorable example can be found here: https://theobaldlab.shinyapps.io/visualizinginequities/. In this essay, we use publicly retrieved data as an illustrative example to detail 1) how individual instructors, groups of instructors, and institutions might use this tool for guided self-reflection and 2) how to adapt the code to accommodate data retrieved from local sources. All of the code is freely available here: https://github.com/TheobaldLab/VisualizingInequities. We hope faculty, administrators, and higher-education policymakers will make visible the opportunity gaps in college courses, with the explicit goal of creating transformative, equitable education through self-reflection, group discussion, and structured support.

Is Support in the Anxiety of the Beholder? How Anxiety Interacts with Perceptions of Instructor Support in Introductory Biology Classes

High levels of student anxiety are negatively related to degree persistence, academic achievement, and student perceptions of instructor support. Anxiety levels vary along many axes-among classes, within students in the same class, and over time-creating a dynamic emotional landscape in classrooms. In this study, we examined the relationship between student anxiety levels and perceptions of instructor support within three introductory biology classes at two timepoints during a semester. Data on student anxiety levels and perceptions of instructor support were supplemented by open-ended student explanations of instructor support characteristics. We found a significant negative correlation between student anxiety level and instructor support ratings at wk 4 for all three classes. By wk 14, this correlation persisted in classes 1 and 3 but not class 2, where support ratings no longer significantly varied with anxiety levels. Analyses of open responses revealed that lower-anxiety students in classes 1 and 3 were more positive about how the instructors answered questions and higher-anxiety students in class 2 were more positive about their instructor's pedagogical practices. We suggest that these instructor practices should be investigated as potential factors to equalize perceptions of instructor support by students with different anxiety levels in introductory biology.

The importance of integrating phycological research, teaching, outreach, and engagement in a changing world

The ecological, evolutionary, economic, and cultural importance of algae necessitates a continued integration of phycological research, education, outreach, and engagement. Here, we comment on several topics discussed during a networking workshop-Algae and the Environment-that brought together phycological researchers from a variety of institutions and career stages. We share some of our perspectives on the state of phycology by examining gaps in teaching and research. We identify action areas where we urge the phycological community to prepare itself to embrace the rapidly changing world. We emphasize the need for more trained taxonomists as well as integration with molecular techniques, which may be expensive and complicated but are important. An essential benefit of these integrative studies is the creation of high-quality algal reference barcoding libraries augmented with morphological, physiological, and ecological data that are important for studies of systematics and crucial for the accuracy of the metabarcoding bioassessment. We highlight different teaching approaches for engaging undergraduate students in algal studies and the importance of algal field courses, forays, and professional phycological societies in supporting the algal training of students, professionals, and citizen scientists.

Integrating the Memory Support Intervention into the Transdiagnostic Intervention for Sleep and Circadian Dysfunction (TranS-C): can improving memory for treatment in midlife and older adults improve patient outcomes? Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND

Poor memory for treatment is associated with poorer treatment adherence and poorer patient outcomes. The memory support intervention (MSI) was developed to improve patient memory for treatment with the goal of improving patient outcomes. The aim of this study protocol is to conduct a confirmatory efficacy trial to test whether a new, streamlined, and potent version of the MSI improves outcomes for midlife and older adults. This streamlined MSI is comprised of constructive memory supports that will be applied to a broader range of treatment content. The platform for this study is the Transdiagnostic Intervention for Sleep and Circadian Dysfunction (TranS-C). We will focus on midlife and older adults who are low income and experiencing mobility impairments.

METHODS

Participants (N = 178) will be randomly allocated to TranS-C + MSI or TranS-C alone. Both intervention arms include eight 50-min weekly sessions. Assessments will be conducted at pre-treatment, post-treatment, 6-, and 12-month follow-up (6FU and 12FU). Aim 1 will compare the effects of TranS-C + MSI versus TranS-C alone on sleep and circadian functioning, daytime functioning, well-being, and patient memory. Aim 2 will test whether patient memory for treatment mediates the relationship between treatment condition and patient outcomes. Aim 3 will evaluate if previously reported poor treatment response subgroups will moderate the relationship between treatment condition and (a) patient memory for treatment and (b) treatment outcome. Exploratory analyses will compare treatment condition on (a) patient adherence, patient-rated treatment credibility, and patient utilization of treatment contents, and (b) provider-rated acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility.

DISCUSSION

This study has the potential to provide evidence for (a) the efficacy of a new simplified version of the MSI for maintaining health, well-being, and functioning, (b) the wider application of the MSI for midlife and older adults and to the treatment of sleep and circadian problems, and (c) the efficacy of the MSI for sub-groups who are likely to benefit from the intervention.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05986604. Registered on 2 August 2023.

Learning on a Limb: An outreach module to engage high school students in orthopaedics

Orthopaedic researchers need new strategies for engaging diverse students. Our field has demonstrated noticeable gaps in racial, ethnic, and gender diversity, which inhibit our ability to innovate and combat the severe socioeconomic burden of musculoskeletal disorders. Towards this goal, we designed, implemented, and evaluated Learning on a Limb, an orthopaedic research outreach module to teach diverse high school students about orthopaedic research. During the 4-hr module, students completed hands-on activities to learn how biomechanical testing, microcomputed tomography, cell culture, and histology are used in orthopaedic research. Over three years, we recruited 32 high school students from the Greater Philadelphia Area to participate in Learning on a Limb. Most participants identified as racial/ethnic or gender minorities in orthopaedic research. Using pre/post-tests, we found that students experienced significant learning gains of 51 percentage points from completing Learning on a Limb. In addition to teaching students about orthopaedic research, post-survey data demonstrated that participating in Learning on a Limb strongly influenced students' interest in orthopaedic research. Several students acted on this interest by completing summer research experiences in the McKay Orthopaedic Research Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania. Learning on a Limb instructors also benefited by having the opportunity to "pay it forward" to the next generation of students and build community within their department. Empowering institutions to host modules like Learning on a Limb would synergistically inspire diverse high school students and strengthen community within orthopaedic departments to ultimately enhance orthopaedic research innovations.

PULSE Ambassadors program: empowering departments to transform STEM education for inclusion and student success

The Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE) is a non-profit educational organization committed to promoting the transformation of undergraduate STEM education by supporting departments in removing barriers to access, equity, and inclusion and in adopting evidence-based teaching and learning practices. The PULSE Ambassadors Campus Workshop program enables faculty and staff members of host departments to 1) develop communication, shared leadership, and inclusion skills for effective team learning; 2) implement facilitative leadership skills (e.g., empathic listening and collaboration); 3) create a shared vision and departmental action plan; and 4) integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion practices in the department and curriculum. From the first workshop in 2014, teams of trained Ambassadors conducted workshops at 58 institutions, including associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral institutions. In their workshop requests, departments cited several motivations: desire to revise and align their curriculum with Vision and Change recommendations, need for assistance with ongoing curricular reform, and wish for external assistance with planning processes and communication. Formative assessments during and immediately following workshops indicated that key outcomes were met. Post-workshop interviews of four departments confirm progress achieved on action items and development of individual department members as agents of change. The PULSE Ambassadors program continues to engage departments to improve undergraduate STEM education and prepare departments for the challenges and uncertainties of the changing higher education landscape.

The use of role-play in the learning of medical terminology for online and face-to-face courses

Student engagement while learning a new, unfamiliar vocabulary is challenging in health science courses. A group role-play activity was created to teach students medical terminology and learn why its correct usage is important. This activity brought engagement and relevance to a topic traditionally taught through lecture and rote memorization and led to the development of an undergraduate and a stand-alone introductory course to teach students medical terminology. The undergraduate course was designed to be a fully online medical terminology course for health science students and a face-to-face course for first-year dental students founded in active learning and group work. The course's centerpiece learning activity focused on using published case studies with role-play. In this group activity, students are challenged to interpret a published patient case study as one of the members of a healthcare team. This course models the group work inherent in modern health care to practice building community and practicing professional skills. This approach gives students the capacity to work asynchronously in a team-based approach using our learning management system's wiki tool and requires students to take responsibility for their learning and group dynamics. Students practice identification, writing, analyzing, and speaking medical terms while rotating through the roles. Students in both classes self-reported a 92% to 99% strong or somewhat agreement using a five-point Likert scale that the course pedagogy was valued and helpful in their learning of medical terminology. Overall, this method has proven to be an engaging way for students to learn medical terminology.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Role-play can engage students and encourage learning in identification, pronouncing, writing, and understanding medical terminology in multiple course formats.

Instructional Influencers: Teaching Professors as Potential Departmental Change Agents in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

At many research-intensive universities in North America, there is a disproportionate loss of minoritized undergraduate students from Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) majors. Efforts to confront this diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) challenge, such as faculty adoption of evidenced-based instructional approaches that promote student success, have been slow. Instructional and pedagogical change efforts at the academic department level have been demonstrated to be effective at enacting reform. One potential strategy is to embed change agent individuals within STEM departments that can drive change efforts. This study seeks to assess whether tenure-track, teaching-focused faculty housed in STEM departments are perceived as influential on the instructional and pedagogical domains of their colleagues. To answer this, individuals across five STEM departments at large, research-intensive campuses identified faculty who were influential upon six domains of their instruction and pedagogy. Social network analysis of individuals in these departments revealed heterogeneity across the instructional domains. Some, like the teaching strategies network, are highly connected and involve the majority of the department; while others, like the DEI influence network, comprise a significantly smaller population of faculty. Importantly, we demonstrate that tenure-track, teaching-focused faculty are influential across all domains of instruction, but are disproportionately so in the sparsely populated DEI influence networks.

An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Analysis of Factors Contributing to Students' Perceptions of Inclusion in Introductory STEM Courses

In this exploratory mixed-methods analysis of students' perceptions of inclusion in introductory STEM courses for STEM majors, we asked students to rate inclusion in their class and to provide an open-text explanation of their rating. Analyzing 1930 qualitative responses resulted in a codebook containing academic, identity, and nonspecific categories. The majority of responses (>80%) cited academic factors such as interactions between students and instructors or course elements and policies. Most academic responses aligned with evidence-based teaching practices fostering inclusion, describing a range of strategies and policies instructors can implement to increase students' perceptions of inclusion. A small number of student responses indicated that their perception of the required knowledge background for the course impacted course inclusivity. Few differences in frequency distributions were found between subgroups examined (gender, race and ethnicity, self-reported inclusion score, and discipline). Additionally, tracking a subset of students (135) across three courses revealed that most (80%) cited different factors influencing their perception of inclusion in each course. This suggests students' perceptions of inclusive practices are complex, and most students recognize multiple factors that influence their inclusion. Overall, our findings suggest instructors can significantly influence students' perceptions of inclusion by using multiple inclusive teaching strategies and course policies.

Mind the Gap: Investigating Disaggregated Student Performance in an Upper-Division Biochemistry Course Following Team-Based Learning

Team-based learning (TBL) is a highly intense active learning pedagogy that uses a cycle of preclass preparation, formative assessment for readiness, mini-lectures, and complex team exercises. Consistent with the literature on active learning, prior research on TBL consistently shows its benefits for student outcomes as compared with previous lecture. However, little work has examined student outcomes disaggregated by demographic variable. We analyzed assessment and student demographic data (i.e., binary gender, racial/ethnic group, generational status) in three semesters of TBL in an upper-division biochemistry course to understand the degree to which performance could be predicted by student demographics. We use theoretical and empirical research from social psychology to hypothesize that the intense interpersonal interactions of TBL could activate psychological threats, the effects of which would be measurable as differences in student performance that correlate with demographic variables. Our regression analysis did not support this hypothesis. This null result invites a deeper discussion on how we measure the potential effects of active learning on student outcomes, particularly given how important it is to account for intersectional and invisible identities.

Diversifying laboratory assessment modes broadens engagement with practical competencies in life science students

Laboratory practicals in life science subjects are traditionally assessed by written reports that reflect disciplinary norms for documenting experimental activities. However, the exclusive application of this assessment has the potential to engage only a narrow range of competencies. In this study, we explored how multiple modes of laboratory assessment might affect student perceptions of learned skills in a life science module. We hypothesized that while a mixture of assessments may not impact student summative performance, it might positively influence student perceptions of different skills that varied assessments allowed them to practice. This was informed by universal design for learning and teaching for understanding frameworks. In our study, in a third-year Bioscience program, written reports were complemented with group presentations and online quizzes via Moodle. Anonymous surveys evaluated whether this expanded portfolio of assessments promoted awareness of, and engagement with, a broader range of practical competencies. Aspects that influenced student preferences in assessment mode included time limitations, time investment, ability to practice new skills, links with lecture material, and experience of assessment anxiety. In particular, presentations were highlighted as promoting collaboration and communication and the quiz as an effective means of diversifying assessment schedules. A key takeaway from students was that while reports were important, an overreliance on them was detrimental. This study suggests that undergraduate life science students can benefit significantly from a holistic assessment strategy that complements reports with performance-based approaches that incorporate broader competencies and allow for greater student engagement and expression in undergraduate modules.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study suggests that undergraduate life science students can benefit significantly from a holistic assessment strategy that complements reports with performance-based approaches that incorporate broader competencies and allow for greater student engagement and expression in undergraduate modules.

The Ungrading Learning Theory We Have Is Not the Ungrading Learning Theory We Need

Ungrading is an emancipatory pedagogy that focuses on evaluative assessment of learning. Self-regulated learning (SRL) has consistently been referred to as the learning theory that undergirds ungrading, but SRL-with its deficit frame in the literature and in practice-fails to uphold ungrading's emancipatory aims. An asset-framed learning theory-one that combines the cultural orientation of funds of knowledge with the power dynamics of community cultural wealth-is proposed as an alternative to SRL. The proposed learning theory aligns ungrading to its emancipatory aims and may provide an opportunity to better understand the learning that occurs in ungraded classrooms. Scholarly and practical impacts for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), and specifically biology, educational research and practice include investigating the plausibility of mixing learning theories, aligning learning theory to emancipatory aims and researching how faculty activate funds of knowledge and community cultural wealth, both individually and collectively, in ungraded STEM classrooms.

Sherlock Holmes and the Neurophysiologists: Unraveling the "Mystery" of Active Learning Success

The Sherlock Holmes (SH) Project is a collaborative problem-solving activity in the form of a murder mystery that is a great resource for upper-level undergraduate courses in neurophysiology that emphasize synaptic transmission and neuromuscular communication. This project, originally described by Adler and Schwartz (2006), has become a central focus of the Neurophysiology course at Allegheny College, along with many complementary activities that work to reinforce the neuroscience material and skills such as creative experimental design and analysis. Active Learning research in advanced levels of undergraduate courses is rare in the pedagogy literature, and this paper adds to that body of research. Formal assessment of the course generally and the SH Project specifically support the hypothesis that the active learning pedagogical strategies employed foster a positive and successful learning environment.

Use of Buzz Buttons to Illustrate Taste Perception Principles in a Sensation and Perception Laboratory Exercise

The buzz button is an edible flower that induces a tingling, electric sensation in the mouth and alters the perception of different flavors. The buzz button's taste-altering effect is thought to be caused by the bioactive compound spilanthol. The present article details a laboratory exercise that explores taste perception principles using the buzz button in an undergraduate Sensation and Perception course. A detailed step-by-step guide for the laboratory exercise is included along with analyzed student results. Students first sampled various food items that spanned the different taste sensations (i.e., salty, sweet, sour and bitter) and then rated their perceived taste intensity on a scale from one (not intense) to ten (very intense). Next, students consumed a buzz button and resampled each food item as well as re-rated their perceived taste intensities. It was found that students' perceived taste intensities for sour items and sweet items were decreased after consuming the buzz buttons. Additionally, students also completed a post-activity survey in which they indicated that this was an interesting and enjoyable exercise. This highlights the value of this particular hands-on demonstration in teaching about the connection between taste and tactile perception.

Using origami and Shrinky Dinks to create active learning activities to tackle two microbiology concepts: cell structure differences and operon regulation

This paper presents two low-cost hands-on activities designed to enhance student understanding and address the pedagogical challenges faced by microbiology professors in teaching concepts related to cell structure and gene regulation. In the first activity, we used Shrinky Dinks and Jeopardy-style game questions to explore the differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Students have to collect pieces and physically build their cell models. The second activity uses origami organelles sets from Edvotek to illustrate the regulation of gene expression in the lac and trp operons, incorporating mutation scenarios for analysis. The intended audience comprises undergraduate students in microbiology, including biology, pre-medical studies, and health profession majors. The activities were deployed in three microbiology lectures, and students were surveyed. Students' feedback highlights the efficacy of the hands-on approach and increased class participation, as two of the recurring words in the students' survey were "helpful" and "fun."

Nationally endorsed learning objectives to improve course design in introductory biology

Introductory biology for majors is one of the most consequential courses in STEM, with annual enrollments of several hundred thousand students in the United States alone. To support increased student success and meet current and projected needs for qualified STEM professionals, it will be crucial to redesign majors biology by using explicit learning objectives (LOs) that can be aligned with assessments and active learning exercises. When a course is designed in this way, students have opportunities for the practice and support they need to learn, and instructors can collect the evidence they need to evaluate whether students have mastered key concepts and skills. Following an iterative process of review, revision, and evaluation, which included input from over 800 biology instructors around the country, we produced a nationally endorsed set of lesson-level LOs for a year-long introductory biology for major's course. These LOs are granular enough to support individual class sessions and provide instructors with a framework for course design that is directly connected to the broad themes in Vision and Change and the general statements in the BioCore and BioSkills Guides. Instructors can implement backward course design by aligning these community endorsed LOs with daily and weekly learning activities and with formative and summative assessments.

The neuroscience of active learning and direct instruction

Throughout the educational system, students experiencing active learning pedagogy perform better and fail less than those taught through direct instruction. Can this be ascribed to differences in learning from a neuroscientific perspective? This review examines mechanistic, neuroscientific evidence that might explain differences in cognitive engagement contributing to learning outcomes between these instructional approaches. In classrooms, direct instruction comprehensively describes academic content, while active learning provides structured opportunities for learners to explore, apply, and manipulate content. Synaptic plasticity and its modulation by arousal or novelty are central to all learning and both approaches. As a form of social learning, direct instruction relies upon working memory. The reinforcement learning circuit, associated agency, curiosity, and peer-to-peer social interactions combine to enhance motivation, improve retention, and build higher-order-thinking skills in active learning environments. When working memory becomes overwhelmed, additionally engaging the reinforcement learning circuit improves retention, providing an explanation for the benefits of active learning. This analysis provides a mechanistic examination of how emerging neuroscience principles might inform pedagogical choices at all educational levels.

Promoting inclusivity in ecology, evolution, and behavioral biology education through course-based undergraduate research experiences

Access to independent research experiences is a persistent barrier that stifles the recruitment and retention of students from diverse backgrounds in ecology, evolution, and behavioral biology. The benefits of field experiences are not equitably available to historically excluded and minoritized students. In this article, we summarize evidence that indicates course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) provide a solution to ensure equitable access to independent research experiences in the life sciences. We draw from our own experiences of teaching CUREs in ecology, evolution, and behavioral biology and provide the complete curriculum for our effective and largely materials-free CURE in behavioral ecology (CURE-BxEco). We advocate for greater access to and synthesize the benefits of CUREs to promote inclusivity in education. The proliferation of such innovative pedagogical practices benefits science because these classroom methods are critical in recruiting and retaining historically excluded and minoritized students, who offer diverse perspectives in research.

Impact of an instructional team's feedback on an instructor's teaching practices in a Biology of Cancer course

The effective implementation of evidence-based teaching (EBT) in large college courses benefits from the successful use of instructional teams. An instructional team's feedback allows instructors to act based on evidence of student learning, addressing students' needs. This feedback may be particularly important for novice instructors or experienced instructors teaching a class for the first time. This study sought to characterize the nature of an instructional team's feedback as well as its influence on the decisions and actions of a seasoned instructor teaching a new class. Instructional team members provided feedback in the form of anticipations, noticings, and suggestions. Anticipations and suggestions seemed to have the largest impact on the instructor's decisions and actions, while noticings, despite providing insights into student thinking, had a smaller effect. Our findings indicate that an instructional team can provide valuable feedback to instructors when team members have an opportunity to meaningfully participate in the planning and teaching processes.

How Does Active Learning Pedagogy Shape Learner Curiosity? A Multi-Site Mediator Study of Learner Engagement among 45,972 Children

Curiosity is one of the most fundamental biological drives that stimulates individuals' intense desire to explore, learn, and create. Yet, mechanisms of how curiosity is influenced by instructional pedagogy remain unclear. To shed light on this gap, the present study sets out to investigate the underlying channels linking active learning pedagogy, learner engagement, and learner curiosity, employing a partial least-squares structural equation model leveraging the Social and Emotional Skills Survey dataset across ten sites (N = 45,972). Findings indicate that active learning pedagogy is positively associated with learner engagement (std. β = 0.016, p = 0.005), but there lacks a significant direct effect on learner curiosity (std. β = -0.001, p = 0.738). Structural mediation results show that learner engagement is a key mediating channel linking active learning pedagogy and learner curiosity (std. β = 0.013, p = 0.005).

Who is Represented in the Research on Undergraduate Research Experiences in the Natural Sciences? A Review of Literature

Positive outcomes from undergraduate research experiences (UREs) have resulted in calls to broaden and diversify participation in research. However, we have little understanding of what demographics are reported and considered in the analyses of student outcomes from UREs. Without this information, it is impossible to assess whether participation in UREs has been diversified and how outcomes may vary by participant identity. Through a comprehensive literature search, we systematically identified 147 peer-reviewed research articles on student participation in UREs in the natural sciences, published between 2014 and 2020. We coded each paper to document which student demographic variables are reported and considered in analyses. The majority (88%) of articles on UREs reported at least one demographic variable and 62% incorporate demographics into their analyses, but demographics beyond gender and race/ethnicity were infrequently considered. Articles on independent research apprenticeships included demographics in their analyses more frequently than studies on course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). Trends in reporting and analyzing demographics did not change from 2014 to 2020. Future efforts to collect these data will help assess whether goals to diversify UREs are being met and inform how to design UREs to meet the needs of diverse student groups.

The EMPOWER program: a history and guide for increasing diversity using integrated research and education

The prevalence and pervasive nature of emerging chemicals of concern have created widespread environmental injustice apprehensions in vulnerable communities. To alleviate and address these concerns, identifying, engaging, and training a diverse environmental health research workforce will be critical and necessary steps to combat and prevent the consequences of environmental injustice. While there is an obvious need to enhance diversity in environmental health research, this process is hampered by facets of systemic racism that reduce access to educational resources needed to build interest and knowledge in students and teachers. We present here a historical perspective to offer a guide for building programs and relationships with underserved schools to help overcome limiting factors that have plagued certain public school systems. With the proper training and mentorship, the untapped workforce present within these schools will be empowered to understand and address current and emerging environmental health and safety threats. Through this transformative 8-week high school research program, we will develop well-prepared, ethical researchers committed to scientific inquiry, intensive fieldwork, and collaborative problem solving to address environmental health challenges. Following the four-step risk assessment process, students, teachers, and faculty mentors will work collaboratively to identify toxicants, potential hazards and risks, and environmental disparities in urban neighborhoods, which provides the necessary training to formulate critical thinking skills for use in academic or nonacademic careers.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The Engaging Multidisciplinary Professional Opportunities for Women in Environmental Research (EMPOWER) program is a one-of-a-kind research summer experience for minority female high school students in the state of Georgia. In addition, this program provides high school teachers with hands-on experiences that can be adapted to use in the classrooms. This combination of lab and field research immerses participants in understanding urban environmental exposures and their health effects. The EMPOWER program was established to meet the critical need for increasing diversity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Beyond active learning: Using 3-Dimensional learning to create scientifically authentic, student-centered classrooms

In recent years, much of the emphasis for transformation of introductory STEM courses has focused on "active learning", and while this approach has been shown to produce more equitable outcomes for students, the construct of "active learning" is somewhat ill-defined and is often used as a "catch-all" that can encompass a wide range of pedagogical techniques. Here we present an alternative approach for how to think about the transformation of STEM courses that focuses instead on what students should know and what they can do with that knowledge. This approach, known as three-dimensional learning (3DL), emerged from the National Academy's "A Framework for K-12 Science Education", which describes a vision for science education that centers the role of constructing productive causal accounts for phenomena. Over the past 10 years, we have collected data from introductory biology, chemistry, and physics courses to assess the impact of such a transformation on higher education courses. Here we report on an analysis of video data of class sessions that allows us to characterize these sessions as active, 3D, neither, or both 3D and active. We find that 3D classes are likely to also involve student engagement (i.e. be active), but the reverse is not necessarily true. That is, focusing on transformations involving 3DL also tends to increase student engagement, whereas focusing solely on student engagement might result in courses where students are engaged in activities that do not involve meaningful engagement with core ideas of the discipline.

Increasing equity in science requires better ethics training: A course by trainees, for trainees

Despite the profound impacts of scientific research, few scientists have received the necessary training to productively discuss the ethical and societal implications of their work. To address this critical gap, we-a group of predominantly human genetics trainees-developed a course on genetics, ethics, and society. We intend for this course to serve as a template for other institutions and scientific disciplines. Our curriculum positions human genetics within its historical and societal context and encourages students to evaluate how societal norms and structures impact the conduct of scientific research. We demonstrate the utility of this course via surveys of enrolled students and provide resources and strategies for others hoping to teach a similar course. We conclude by arguing that if we are to work toward rectifying the inequities and injustices produced by our field, we must first learn to view our own research as impacting and being impacted by society.

Building conceptual and methodological bridges between SSE's diversity, equity, and inclusion statement and educational actions in evolutionary biology

The field of evolutionary biology must bridge the gap between its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments and data-driven educational actions in the nation's undergraduate classrooms and degree programs. In this article, we discuss the urgent need for the adoption of equity frameworks and why they are centrally important to data-driven DEI efforts in evolutionary biology. We describe why equity indicators (e.g., measures) must be anchored in and aligned with equity frameworks. We introduce a specific equity framework for learning (the enhanced educational debt framework) and illustrate how it may be leveraged to document, interpret, and improve outcomes in evolutionary biology. We apply the equity framework and associated indicators to >3,500 students' first college-level experience with evolutionary biology at a public, 4-year institution in the Northeastern United States to demonstrate how these conceptual tools and empirical perspectives may be used by faculty, departments, and degree programs to better understand their roles in mitigating or perpetuating inequities. We end by discussing how this framework may be applied to a range of evolution concepts and courses in the educational hierarchy and used to help evolutionary biologists better understand the extent to which a core aspect of SSE's diversity statement is being realized.

A concept for international societally relevant microbiology education and microbiology knowledge promulgation in society

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Microbes are all pervasive in their distribution and influence on the functioning and well-being of humans, life in general and the planet. Microbially-based technologies contribute hugely to the supply of important goods and services we depend upon, such as the provision of food, medicines and clean water. They also offer mechanisms and strategies to mitigate and solve a wide range of problems and crises facing humanity at all levels, including those encapsulated in the sustainable development goals (SDGs) formulated by the United Nations. For example, microbial technologies can contribute in multiple ways to decarbonisation and hence confronting global warming, provide sanitation and clean water to the billions of people lacking them, improve soil fertility and hence food production and develop vaccines and other medicines to reduce and in some cases eliminate deadly infections. They are the foundation of biotechnology, an increasingly important and growing business sector and source of employment, and the centre of the bioeconomy, Green Deal, etc. But, because microbes are largely invisible, they are not familiar to most people, so opportunities they offer to effectively prevent and solve problems are often missed by decision-makers, with the negative consequences this entrains. To correct this lack of vital knowledge, the International Microbiology Literacy Initiative-the IMiLI-is recruiting from the global microbiology community and making freely available, teaching resources for a curriculum in societally relevant microbiology that can be used at all levels of learning. Its goal is the development of a society that is literate in relevant microbiology and, as a consequence, able to take full advantage of the potential of microbes and minimise the consequences of their negative activities. In addition to teaching about microbes, almost every lesson discusses the influence they have on sustainability and the SDGs and their ability to solve pressing problems of societal inequalities. The curriculum thus teaches about sustainability, societal needs and global citizenship. The lessons also reveal the impacts microbes and their activities have on our daily lives at the personal, family, community, national and global levels and their relevance for decisions at all levels. And, because effective, evidence-based decisions require not only relevant information but also critical and systems thinking, the resources also teach about these key generic aspects of deliberation. The IMiLI teaching resources are learner-centric, not academic microbiology-centric and deal with the microbiology of everyday issues. These span topics as diverse as owning and caring for a companion animal, the vast range of everyday foods that are produced via microbial processes, impressive geological formations created by microbes, childhood illnesses and how they are managed and how to reduce waste and pollution. They also leverage the exceptional excitement of exploration and discovery that typifies much progress in microbiology to capture the interest, inspire and motivate educators and learners alike. The IMiLI is establishing Regional Centres to translate the teaching resources into regional languages and adapt them to regional cultures, and to promote their use and assist educators employing them. Two of these are now operational. The Regional Centres constitute the interface between resource creators and educators-learners. As such, they will collect and analyse feedback from the end-users and transmit this to the resource creators so that teaching materials can be improved and refined, and new resources added in response to demand: educators and learners will thereby be directly involved in evolution of the teaching resources. The interactions between educators-learners and resource creators mediated by the Regional Centres will establish dynamic and synergistic relationships-a global societally relevant microbiology education ecosystem-in which creators also become learners, teaching resources are optimised and all players/stakeholders are empowered and their motivation increased. The IMiLI concept thus embraces the principle of teaching societally relevant microbiology embedded in the wider context of societal, biosphere and planetary needs, inequalities, the range of crises that confront us and the need for improved decisioning, which should ultimately lead to better citizenship and a humanity that is more sustainable and resilient.

ABSTRACT

The biosphere of planet Earth is a microbial world: a vast reactor of countless microbially driven chemical transformations and energy transfers that push and pull many planetary geochemical processes, including the cycling of the elements of life, mitigate or amplify climate change (e.g., Nature Reviews Microbiology, 2019, 17, 569) and impact the well-being and activities of all organisms, including humans. Microbes are both our ancestors and creators of the planetary chemistry that allowed us to evolve (e.g., Life's engines: How microbes made earth habitable, 2023). To understand how the biosphere functions, how humans can influence its development and live more sustainably with the other organisms sharing it, we need to understand the microbes. In a recent editorial (Environmental Microbiology, 2019, 21, 1513), we advocated for improved microbiology literacy in society. Our concept of microbiology literacy is not based on knowledge of the academic subject of microbiology, with its multitude of component topics, plus the growing number of additional topics from other disciplines that become vitally important elements of current microbiology. Rather it is focused on microbial activities that impact us-individuals/communities/nations/the human world-and the biosphere and that are key to reaching informed decisions on a multitude of issues that regularly confront us, ranging from personal issues to crises of global importance. In other words, it is knowledge and understanding essential for adulthood and the transition to it, knowledge and understanding that must be acquired early in life in school. The 2019 Editorial marked the launch of the International Microbiology Literacy Initiative, the IMiLI. HERE, WE PRESENT: our concept of how microbiology literacy may be achieved and the rationale underpinning it; the type of teaching resources being created to realise the concept and the framing of microbial activities treated in these resources in the context of sustainability, societal needs and responsibilities and decision-making; and the key role of Regional Centres that will translate the teaching resources into local languages, adapt them according to local cultural needs, interface with regional educators and develop and serve as hubs of microbiology literacy education networks. The topics featuring in teaching resources are learner-centric and have been selected for their inherent relevance, interest and ability to excite and engage. Importantly, the resources coherently integrate and emphasise the overarching issues of sustainability, stewardship and critical thinking and the pervasive interdependencies of processes. More broadly, the concept emphasises how the multifarious applications of microbial activities can be leveraged to promote human/animal, plant, environmental and planetary health, improve social equity, alleviate humanitarian deficits and causes of conflicts among peoples and increase understanding between peoples (Microbial Biotechnology, 2023, 16(6), 1091-1111). Importantly, although the primary target of the freely available (CC BY-NC 4.0) IMiLI teaching resources is schoolchildren and their educators, they and the teaching philosophy are intended for all ages, abilities and cultural spectra of learners worldwide: in university education, lifelong learning, curiosity-driven, web-based knowledge acquisition and public outreach. The IMiLI teaching resources aim to promote development of a global microbiology education ecosystem that democratises microbiology knowledge.

An undergraduate service-learning project to teach immunology concepts while increasing healthcare equity by enhancing access to stem cell donors among underrepresented populations

Active learning has been shown to increase STEM student engagement and decrease the achievement gap among underrepresented students. As a parallel to the lack of equity in STEM education, BIPOC patients who require a life-saving hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) are much less likely-sometimes less than half as likely-than individuals of White-European descent to find a suitable donor when using the National Marrow Donation Program (NMDP). The Be the Match (BtM) Registry has made significant improvements in the likelihood of matching underrepresented patients, but the disparity persists. This activity uses a service-learning project to teach undergraduate students about stem cell donation and to add potential stem cell donors to the BtM Registry. A small data set of pre-/post-surveys from one cohort shows learning gains on the topic of HCT. The approach is flexible and scalable, and students overwhelmingly reported the project as a great use of class time and very rewarding.

How syllabi relate to outcomes in higher education: A study of syllabi learner-centeredness and grade inequities in STEM

Fostering equity in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs can be accomplished by incorporating learner-centered pedagogies, resulting in the closing of opportunity gaps (defined here as the difference in grades earned by minoritized and non-minoritized students). We assessed STEM courses that exhibit small and large opportunity gaps at a minority-serving, research-intensive university, and evaluated the degree to which their syllabi are learner-centered, according to a previously validated rubric. We specifically chose syllabi as they are often the first interaction students have with a course, establish expectations for course policies and practices, and serve as a proxy for the course environment. We found STEM courses with more learner-centered syllabi had smaller opportunity gaps. The syllabus rubric factor that most correlated with smaller gaps was Power and Control, which reflects Student's Role, Outside Resources, and Syllabus Focus. This work highlights the importance of course syllabi as a tool for instructors to create more inclusive classroom environments.

Designing and delivering bioinformatics project-based learning in East Africa

BACKGROUND

The Eastern Africa Network for Bioinformatics Training (EANBiT) has matured through continuous evaluation, feedback, and codesign. We highlight how the program has evolved to meet challenges and achieve its goals and how experiential learning through mini projects enhances the acquisition of skills and collaboration. We continued to learn and grow through honest feedback and evaluation of the program, trainers, and modules, enabling us to provide robust training even during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, when we had to redesign the program due to restricted travel and in person group meetings.

RESULTS

In response to the pandemic, we developed a program to maintain "residential" training experiences and benefits remotely. We had to answer the following questions: What must change to still achieve the RT goals? What optimal platforms should be used? How would we manage connectivity and data challenges? How could we avoid online fatigue? Going virtual presented an opportunity to reflect on the essence and uniqueness of the program and its ability to meet the objective of strengthening bioinformatics skills among the cohorts of students using different delivery approaches. It allowed an increase in the number of participants. Evaluating each program component is critical for improvement, primarily when feedback feeds into the program's continuous amendment. Initially, the participants noted that there were too many modules, insufficient time, and a lack of hands-on training as a result of too much focus on theory. In the subsequent iterations, we reduced the number of modules from 27 to five, created a harmonized repository for the materials on GitHub, and introduced project-based learning through the mini projects.

CONCLUSION

We demonstrate that implementing a program design through detailed monitoring and evaluation leads to success, especially when participants who are the best fit for the program are selected on an appropriate level of skills, motivation, and commitment.

A National Snapshot of Introductory Chemistry Instructors and Their Instructional Practices

The effectiveness of active learning on promoting students' academic outcomes and persistence has been established in the literature. However, despite the effort of purposeful change agents, the uptake of active learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is slow. While previous research from the chemistry education community has provided insights into the implementation of specific active learning strategies across the United States, the extent to which chemistry instructors leverage these strategies in general remains unknown. This article presents the results of a national survey aimed at exploring introductory chemistry instructors' knowledge and implementation of active learning, variations on this knowledge, and use across tenure statuses and institution types. This paper also aims to address the gap in the literature in our understanding of the characteristics of instructors of these courses. We thus provide a description of instructors' demographics, training, teaching experience, and teaching responsibilities. Our findings reveal that instructors in these courses are prominently males of European descent. Additionally, instructors come into their teaching position with minimal pedagogical training and participate mainly in short training once in their position. While the majority of instructors have knowledge of specific active learning strategies, their consistent implementation remains limited, with lecturing still being the instructional practice of choice. Variations were found between institution types and across tenure statuses within institutions in terms of pedagogical training, use of specific active learning strategies, and proportion of class time spent lecturing. The findings provide a baseline for future studies that aim to assess the effectiveness of interventions fostering the implementation of active learning in introductory chemistry courses and highlight the critical need for improved communication about teaching practices across institutions and tenure statuses.

Teaching Through the Student Lens: Qualitative Exploration of Student Evaluations of Teaching

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study is to use feedback from student evaluations of teaching (SETs) to define and describe themes associated with perceived teaching effectiveness.

METHODS

We retrospectively analyzed SETs for instructors in required didactic courses from one academic year using qualitative content analysis. The analysis included student responses to the following questions: "Describe the strongest aspect of the instructor's teaching." and "What could the instructor do to improve his/her teaching effectiveness?"

RESULTS

Five themes were developed from 4683 coded segments and are described with example quotations. These themes included clarity of instruction and learning activities, alignment of learning and assessment activities, examples that offer practice or demonstrate relevance, engaging learning environment, and concern for student learning and success. Aspects of each theme are described with example coded segments.

CONCLUSION

These themes and supportive quotes offer a deeper understanding of the student perspective on similar ideas that are present throughout the teaching and learning literature and represent broad aspects of teaching, such as material design, in-class practices, and interpersonal characteristics. These themes can provide guidance for specific domains of faculty development in teaching.

Content Coverage as a Persistent Exclusionary Practice: Investigating Perspectives of Health Professionals on the Influence of Undergraduate Coursework

STEM undergraduates navigate lengthy sequences of prerequisite courses covering volumes of science content. Given that these courses may contribute to attrition and equity gaps in STEM, research is needed to test the assumption that prerequisite content benefits students in their future studies and careers. We investigated the relevance of prerequisite course content for students' careers through semistructured interviews with practicing nurses regarding their undergraduate anatomy and physiology (A&P) courses. Nurses reported that A&P content does not align with the skills and knowledge needed in the nursing profession. Interviewees averaged 39% on a brief A&P assessment, suggesting A&P prerequisites failed to impart a high degree of long-term A&P knowledge among nurses. Further, practicing nurses perceived overcommitment to A&P content coverage as an exclusionary practice that eliminates capable individuals from the prenursing pathway. These findings challenge assumptions surrounding the justification for prerequisite course content and raise questions of whether content expectations actively exclude individuals from STEM or healthcare careers. We aspire for this study to stimulate conversation and research about the goals of prerequisite content, who is best positioned to articulate prerequisite content objectives, and the influence of content coverage on equity and justice in undergraduate STEM education.

Thinking and Learning in Nested Systems: The Classroom Level

Teaching and learning in college chemistry classrooms is affected by a variety of structural and psychosocial factors that influence classroom dynamics. In this second part of a two-part perspective [Talanquer et al. J. Chem. Educ.10.1021/acs.jchemed.3c00838], we review and discuss the results from research that has helped us understand the complex social and knowledge dynamics that emerge in interactive learning environments. We use this analysis to make explicit major insights about curriculum, instruction, assessment, teachers, and students gained in the past 25 years and to summarize their implications for chemistry education.

To participate or not to participate? A qualitative investigation of students' complex motivations for verbal classroom participation

Previous research has suggested that making classrooms more active and student centered improves learning, and this usually involves encouraging student talk in the classroom. However, the majority of students remain silent during whole-class discussions, and men's voices are more likely to be heard in science classrooms. Previous interview studies and quantitative studies have discussed the role instructors play in encouraging or discouraging participation, the weight students put into the fear of negative evaluation, and other factors. However, interview studies on the experiences of college students in the sciences, specifically, are lacking. Thus, we conducted a qualitative interview study to investigate students' experiences deciding whether to participate verbally in class, focusing on students recruited from science classrooms. We analyzed the data using an inductive approach and found three main themes: (1) A wide variety of external factors impact students' decision to participate, including instructor characteristics and choices, peer influences, and course material characteristics; (2) Students weigh these factors in complex ways, and this internal calculus varies by student; and (3) Women put greater emphasis on fearing peer judgment, and men may be more motivated by course material considerations. Most of the external factors we identified as important for student participation have been described previously, and we validate that previous literature. We add to the literature by a more complex discussion of how students weigh these different factors and how complex the classroom ecosystem can be. We end by framing our results within the Expectancy Value Theory of motivation, discussing limitations, and providing implications for science college instructors to promote broad and equitable participation.

Quality evaluation of fresh pistachios (Pistacia vera L.) cultivars coated with chitosan/TiO2 nanocomposite

Fresh pistachios are rich in dietary fiber, minerals and unsaturated fatty acids, but they have a short shelf life. This investigation examined the effect of pre-harvest foliar application with chitosan (500 and 1000 mg. L-1), nano-chitosan (250 and 500 mg. L-1), and chitosan/TiO2 nanocomposite (250 and 500 mg. L-1) coating films on the postharvest physiology and storage of fresh pistachios (Pistacia vera cvs. Akbari and Ahmad Aghaei) cultivar during storage at 4 ± 0.5 °C. It was found that, fresh pistachios' shelf life could by increased by up to 30 days by the use of chitosan/TiO2 nanocomposite coating for foliar application. The decay index of the composite coated fruits was 4-6 % lower than that of the control group, and after 50-60 days the bacterial contamination appeared in cultivars; respectively. The nanocomposite treatments reduced the fruits weight between 30 and 40 %, which was 15 % higher that of than uncoated fruits. The pre-harvest application of chitosan/TiO2 coating reduced microbial contamination, weight loss, phenylalanine ammonialyase (PAL) activity and saturated fatty acids, and increased unsaturated fatty acids, antioxidant properties, sensory properties, essential minerals, superoxide dismutase (SOD), quality indicators and shelf life. These results demonstrated that the chitosan/TiO2 (250 and 500 mg. L-1) coating film effectively preserved the nutrient composition, sensory quality, nutritional value, antioxidant capacity and shelf life of fresh pistachio.

Evolution of a self-renewing, participant-centered workshop series in BMB assessment

We present as a case study the evolution of a series of participant-centered workshops designed to meet a need in the life sciences education community-the incorporation of best practices in the assessment of student learning. Initially, the ICABL (Inclusive Community for the Assessment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology/BMB Learning) project arose from a grass-roots effort to develop material for a national exam in biochemistry and molecular biology. ICABL has since evolved into a community of practice in which participants themselves-through extensive peer review and reflection-become integral stakeholders in the workshops. To examine this evolution, this case study begins with a pilot workshop supported by seed funding and thoughtful programmatic assessment, the results of which informed evidence-based changes that, in turn, led to an improved experience for the community. Using participant response data, the case study also reveals critical features for successful workshops, including participant-centered activities and the value of frequent peer review of participants' products. Furthermore, we outline a train-the-trainer model for creating a self-renewing community by bringing new perspectives and voices into an existing core leadership team. This case study, then, offers a blueprint for building a thriving, evolving community of practice that not only serves the needs of individual scientist-educators as they seek to enhance student learning, but also provides a pathway for elevating members to positions of leadership.

The Evolution of Active Learning in Response to the Pandemic: The Role of Technology

Active learning has consistently played a significant role in education. Through interactive tasks, group projects, and a variety of engaging activities, students are encouraged to forge connections with the subject matter. However, the pandemic has necessitated that educators adapt and refine their active learning techniques to accommodate the online environment. This has resulted in stimulating innovations in the field, encompassing virtual simulations, online collaboration tools, and interactive multimedia. The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly transformed the landscape of teaching and learning, particularly in higher education. One of the most prominent shifts has been the widespread adoption of active learning techniques, which have increased student engagement and fostered deeper learning experiences. In this chapter, we examine the evolution of active learning during the pandemic, emphasizing its advantages and challenges. Furthermore, we delve into the role of advances in artificial intelligence and their potential to enhance the effectiveness of active learning approaches. As we once focused on leveraging the opportunities of remote teaching, we must now shift our attention to harnessing the power of AI responsibly and ethically to benefit our students. Drawing from our expertise in educational innovation, we provide insights and recommendations for educators aiming to maximize the benefits of active learning in the post-pandemic era.

Adjusting to Your Surroundings: An Inquiry-Based Learning Module to Teach Principles of Mechanobiology for Regenerative Medicine

Mechanobiology is an interdisciplinary field that aims to understand how physical forces impact biological systems. Enhancing our knowledge of mechanobiology has become increasingly important for understanding human disease and developing novel therapeutics. There is a societal need to teach diverse students principles of mechanobiology so that we may collectively expand our knowledge of this subject and apply new principles to improving human health. Toward this goal, we designed, implemented, and evaluated a hands-on, inquiry-based learning (IBL) module to teach students principles of cell-biomaterial interactions. This module was designed to be hosted in two 3-h sessions, over two consecutive days. During this time, students learned how to synthesize and mechanically test biomaterials, culture bacteria cells, and assess effects of matrix stiffness on bacteria cell proliferation. Among the 73 students who registered to participate in our IBL mechanobiology module, 40 students completed both days and participated in this study. A vast majority of the participants were considered underrepresented minority (URM) students based on race/ethnicity. Using pre/post-tests, we found that students experienced significant learning gains of 33 percentage points from completing our IBL mechanobiology module. In addition to gaining knowledge of mechanobiology, validated pre/post-surveys showed that students also experienced significant improvements in scientific literacy. Instructors may use this module as described, increase the complexity for an undergraduate classroom assignment, or make the module less complex for K-12 outreach. As presented, this IBL mechanobiology module effectively teaches diverse students principles of mechanobiology and scientific inquiry. Deploying this module, and similar IBL modules, may help advance the next generation of mechanobiologists.

Student perceptions of inclusive pedagogy in undergraduate STEM classrooms

In university STEM classrooms, the incorporation of inclusive practices improves student performance, decreases disparities in the academic success of underrepresented students, and increases student retention and persistence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programs. Inclusive pedagogical practices include effective instructional choices like active learning, providing rubrics, and other strategies that have been shown to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Additionally, explicitly inclusive practices such as addressing microaggressions and sharing pronouns can promote a sense of belonging for students. While a plethora of literature has shown these impacts and faculty have access to resources and training about inclusive pedagogy, we were interested in whether students are noticing these practices and how student identities impact their observations of instructional practices. We surveyed undergraduates (n = 74) from diverse STEM disciplines at a large land-grant university regarding their observation of 11 different inclusive pedagogical practices. Overall, students observed inclusive instructional practices more often than they observed explicitly diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)-related practices. For explicitly DEI-related practices, white students observed more practices than Students of Color. This suggests that more work needs to be done to train faculty in explicit DEI-related practices, especially with the goal of supporting Students of Color who have been historically excluded from STEM.

Gender Identity and Student Perceptions of Peer Research Aptitude in CUREs and Traditional Laboratory Courses in the Biological Sciences

While several studies have investigated gender inequities in the social learning environment of biology lecture courses, that same phenomenon remains largely unexplored in biology laboratory contexts. We conducted a mixed methods study to understand the influence of gender on student perceptions of their peers' research aptitude in introductory biology CUREs and traditional laboratory courses. Specifically, students (N = 125) were asked to complete a name generator survey at three time points across the semester. This survey asked students to list the names of peers whom they viewed as "most proficient" in the course investigations and to justify their choice via an open-ended response prompt. Using social network analysis, exponential random graph modeling (ERGM), and thematic analysis, we demonstrate that student gender identity did not influence nomination behaviors in CURE or traditional laboratory courses. However, the ERGMs reveal the presence of a popularity effect in CUREs and demonstrate that mutual nominations were more prevalent in traditional laboratory courses. Our qualitative data further provide insights into the reasons students nominated peers as proficient in CURE and traditional courses.

Assessing Community College Biology Student Perceptions of Being Called on in Class

Random call has been proposed as an inclusive and equitable practice that engages students in learning. However, this inclusion may come with a cost. In some contexts, students experience anxiety and distress when being called on. Recently, focus has shifted to critical components of random call that may mitigate this cost. We examined how community college (CC) students perceive being called on by addressing 1) benefits that help their learning and 2) characterizing the anxiety students experience through this practice. To do this, we surveyed students in six biology courses taught by six faculty members over six academic quarters. We analyzed survey responses from 383 unique students (520 total responses) using mixed methods. Qualitative responses were coded and consensus codes revealed that students saw benefits to being called on, including paying attention and coming prepared. Qualitative codes also revealed different types of anxiety, both distress and eustress. Analysis of Likert scale survey data revealed perceptions of increased student interaction with their peers in warm random call classes. Furthermore, warm random call may increase participation in class discussions, and it is not correlated with increased extreme anxiety. These data suggest warm random call used in smaller, community college classes, may contribute to students' positive perceptions of being called on.

Talent denied: Equity and excellence gaps in STEMM

In principle, there could be STEMM talent everywhere if there were sufficient and adequate opportunities and learning resources everywhere. The reality, however, is that the likelihood of developing one's talent in STEMM is tied to membership in social groups. In this contribution, we explore the implications of this statement with multiple examples for different social groups and for different stages of talent development. We propose an educational framework model for analyzing equity gaps in STEMM talent development that identifies and systematizes the unequal and inequitable distribution of resources and opportunities as the proximal cause of the emergence of such equity gaps. Furthermore, we discuss important aspects for closing equity gaps in STEMM talent development. We argue that-similar to public health approaches-the focus in establishing equity in STEMM talent development should be on prevention rather than intervention. We discuss the importance of the cooperation of societal subsystems and argue for the use of adequate methods of disparity detection for creating equal opportunities. We also outline why preventive strategies are crucial for the creation of resource parity and explain why outcome standards should be considered obligatory.

Students explain evolution by natural selection differently for humans versus nonhuman animals

Evolution is foundational to understanding biology, yet learners at all stages have incomplete and incorrect ideas that persist beyond graduation. Contextual features of prompts (e.g., taxon of organism, acquisition vs. loss of traits, etc.) have been shown to influence both the learning process and the ideas students express in explanations of evolutionary processes. In this study, we compare students' explanations of natural selection for humans versus a nonhuman animal (cheetah) at different times during biology instruction. We found "taxon" to be a significant predictor of the content of students' explanations. Responses to "cheetah" prompts contained a larger number and diversity of key concepts (e.g., variation, heritability, differential reproduction) and fewer naïve ideas (e.g., need, adapt) when compared with responses to an isomorphic prompt containing "human" as the organism. Overall, instruction increased the prevalence of key concepts, reduced naïve ideas, and caused a modest reduction in differences due to taxon. Our findings suggest that the students are reasoning differently about evolutionary processes in humans as compared with nonhuman animals, and that targeted instruction may both increase students' facility with key concepts while reducing their susceptibility to contextual influences.

Gendered Performance Gaps in an Upper-Division Biology Course: Academic, Demographic, Environmental, and Affective Factors

Despite the existent gender parity in undergraduate biology degree attainment, gendered differences in outcomes are prevalent in introductory biology courses. Less is known about whether these disparities persist at the upper-division level, after most attrition is assumed to have occurred. Here, we report the consistent presence of gender equity gaps across 35 offerings (10 years) of a large-enrollment upper-division biology course at a research-intensive public university. Multilevel modeling showed that women's grades were lower than men's, regardless of prior GPA. These gender gaps were present even when controlling for students' race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, first-generation college-going status, international status, and transfer status. Class size, gender representation in the classroom, and instructor gender did not significantly relate to course grades. Student questionnaires in a subset of offerings indicated gendered differences in course anxiety, science identity, and science self-efficacy, which correlated with grade outcomes. These results suggest that women experience differential outcomes in upper-division biology, which may negatively influence their persistence in STEM fields postgraduation. Our findings suggest that gender disparities are a systemic problem throughout the undergraduate biology degree and underscore the need for further examination and transformation of upper-division courses to support all students, even at late stages of their degrees.

Boosting student performance with inclusive writing-to-learn assignments through graphic organizers in large enrollment undergraduate biology courses

Logistical challenges in large enrollment classes are often mentioned as obstacles to active learning. Writing is an integral part of being a scientist and is often one of the first tools considered by STEM instructors to increase student engagement, but iterative writing assignments in large classes require creativity on the part of the instructor. We found an association between writing-to-learn assignments designed to be consistent with inclusive learning pedagogies and student performance measures in a large enrollment undergraduate biology course. They provide ample opportunity for deliberate practice and inclusive engagement, components of the "heads and hearts" hypothesis posed to explain the variation in active learning impacts on the performance of minoritized students.

A Digital Single-Session Intervention (Project Engage) to Address Fear of Negative Evaluation Among College Students: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND

Increasingly, college science courses are transitioning from a traditional lecture format to active learning because students learn more and fail less frequently when they engage in their learning through activities and discussions in class. Fear of negative evaluation (FNE), defined as a student's sense of dread associated with being unfavorably evaluated while participating in a social situation, discourages undergraduates from participating in small group discussions, whole class discussions, and conversing one-on-one with instructors.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to evaluate the acceptability of a novel digital single-session intervention and to assess the feasibility of implementing it in a large enrollment college science course taught in an active learning way.

METHODS

To equip undergraduates with skills to cope with FNE and bolster their confidence, clinical psychologists and biology education researchers developed Project Engage, a digital, self-guided single-session intervention for college students. It teaches students strategies for coping with FNE to bolster their confidence. Project Engage provides biologically informed psychoeducation, uses interactive elements for engagement, and helps generate a personalized action plan. We conducted a 2-armed randomized controlled trial to evaluate the acceptability and the preliminary effectiveness of Project Engage compared with an active control condition that provides information on available resources on the college campus.

RESULTS

In a study of 282 upper-level physiology students, participants randomized to complete Project Engage reported a greater increase in overall confidence in engaging in small group discussions (P=.01) and whole class discussions (P<.001), but not in one-on-one interactions with instructors (P=.05), from baseline to immediately after intervention outcomes, compared with participants in an active control condition. Project Engage received a good acceptability rating (1.22 on a scale of -2 to +2) and had a high completion rate (>97%).

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides a foundation for a freely available, easily accessible intervention to bolster student confidence for contributing in class.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

OSF Registries osf.io/4ca68 http://osf.io/4ca68.

"They Have Shown Me It Is Possible to Thrive within STEM": Incorporating Learning Assistants in General Chemistry Enhances Student Belonging and Confidence

Students often experience social and psychological barriers to success in General Chemistry, which is a key gateway to many students' science pathways. Learning assistants (LAs) have the potential to reduce these barriers and to strengthen students' sense of belonging in General Chemistry and STEM more broadly. Here, we used a 17-item Likert scale to determine whether incorporating LAs into General Chemistry I and II enhances students' sense of belonging in these courses. The incorporation of LAs into General Chemistry I had a significant positive effect and a medium to large effect size for students in all student groups examined: women and men; students in both racially and ethnically underrepresented and well-represented groups; first- and continuing-generation students. In General Chemistry II, similar results were observed for women and men; students in well-represented racial and ethnic groups; continuing-generation students. Further, we asked students to reflect on the impact that working with LAs had on their sense of belonging in STEM and confidence in talking about science. Sixty percent of students indicated that working with LAs had a positive impact on their STEM belonging, with five themes describing LA impacts: reducing isolation, serving as inspirational role models, providing mentoring, increasing opportunities for engagement and confidence building, and serving as accessible and approachable sources of support. Sixty-one percent of students also indicated that working with LAs increased their confidence in talking about science, with three themes emerging: fostering an environment with a lower risk of negative judgment, providing increased opportunities for feedback, and supporting students as they practiced their growing skills. Together, these results indicate that LAs can be an important means to reduce social and psychological barriers for students in gateway science courses, increasing their sense that they belong to the class and STEM more broadly.

Let Students Work: Analysis of the Role of Differing Facilitation on Student Engagement in a Large Stadium-Style Lecture Hall

The classroom environment is shaped by factors such as facilitation style, curricular design, and classroom layout. These factors are all inputs into student framing of the classroom environment and affect a student's comfort interacting within it. Promoting student discourse in active learning environments provides students the opportunity to explain their thinking and develop their understanding of natural phenomena. However, successfully implementing these practices in large lecture environments is often difficult. Undergraduate introductory chemistry lectures were investigated to identify the effects that instructional practices had on student engagement. Instructor facilitation, question level, and student interactions were analyzed and compared to provide insights into what instructional practices may promote or hinder student engagement in a large enrollment course. Overall instructors were positioning themselves as an authority on knowledge in the classroom by leading questions authoritatively like instructor-focused didactic lecturing that led to a decrease in student engagement. These results highlight the complexity of the classroom ecosystem related to student interactions and the role that facilitation plays in social and cognitive engagement.

Addressing Equity Asymmetries in General Chemistry Outcomes Through an Asset-Based Supplemental Course

Undergraduate first-semester general chemistry (GC1) functions as a gatekeeper to STEM degrees, asymmetrically impacting students who are nonwhite, from lower socioeconomic groups, non-native English speakers, two-year college transfers, and first-generation in college. Nationally, just under 30% of students earn grades of D, F, or withdraw (termed DFW) in GC1; however, DFW rates are much higher for subgroups underrepresented in STEM occupations. Socioeconomic inequalities tend to increase over an individual's lifetime due to the magnification of cumulative disadvantage. Because undergraduate degrees correlate with higher employment and STEM occupations correlate with higher earnings, GC1 represents a critical path point where disparities can be interrupted. The most common strategy employed for GC1 is deficit remediation for students determined to be at risk of DFW. Unfortunately, extensive evidence demonstrates that the use of remediation strategies for GC1 does not sustain benefits for students. In this work, an asset-based approach, less prevalent in higher education than preuniversity, was employed to stress test theories about interrupting disparities in STEM education. This causal-comparative study involving 1,807 observations reports on a 1-credit asset-based supplemental course in which DFW-potential students at a minority-serving institution coenrolled during six semesters. The study outlines this intervention, its impact on GC1 outcomes, and its potential residual impact on progression to the next course in the general chemistry sequence (GC2). Descriptive and hierarchical inferential analysis of the data revealed socially important patterns. The asset-based intervention successfully attracted students with greater cumulative disadvantage. The intervention closed asymmetries between students identified as DFW-potential and ABC-potential in GC1 when a nontraditional curriculum was used but not when a traditional curriculum was used. Mixed results and contingent effects were found for the intervention's impact on subsequent course outcomes. Taking at least 11 credits in the semester of taking GC1 provided an inoculate for participants in the asset-based intervention, increasing the likelihood of passing GC2.