Collaborative Research: Sharing Scientist Role Model Stories to Improve Equity and Success in Undergraduate STEM Education

IUSE 3级参与学生学习项目旨在通过开发和测试课堂材料来最大限度地发挥科学家在本科生物学中的积极作用，从而为国家利益服务。这个项目解决了这样一个问题：“榜样成功故事的哪些元素有效地改善了本科STEM教育的公平性和成功？”在今天的本科课堂上，大多数的科学家并没有反映出科学界的多样性，他们也不符合这些资源所达到的学生的身份。解决这种不匹配的一种方法是创造新的材料，突出具有不同背景和身份的科学家角色模型。在课程中以科学家为榜样是一种可扩展的方式，可以促进在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域具有边缘化身份的学生取得成功。先前的研究发现，榜样的影响可能取决于他们的故事在课堂上被讲述和分享的方式。这项工作验证了一个理论，即为了产生积极的影响，科学家榜样的成功必须让学生感到触手可及。该项目将开发和评估将科学家成功故事与数据素养课堂练习相结合的材料。这项工作的最终目标是深入了解如何有效地将科学家角色模型纳入教学材料。它还将为本科生物学课堂提供一套新的、免费的、基于证据的教育资源。这项以学科为基础的教育研究的目标是了解科学家角色模型如何在课程中呈现的影响。该项目将采用一种创新的方法，将数据素养活动与科学家简介相结合，向学生介绍科学家榜样的成功故事。项目人员将设计新的教材，解决适合本科生物学入门课程的科学内容和数据素养目标，并以研究具有性别、种族/民族或历史上在生物学中被排除的能力的科学家角色模型为特色。这些新资源将基于先前建立的两个科学教育项目——数据掘金和生物多样性项目——的结合。通过在全国范围内建立一个生物学入门课堂网络，该项目将让学生们接触到具有相同数据素养指导的活动，但在关于榜样成功的可达性的信息上有不同的处理方法（例如，强调科学家的著名成就或强调科学家如何克服他们在追求科学时遇到的障碍）。李克特量表和开放式回答调查项目将用于衡量不同处理对以下方面的影响：1)科学职业的感知可达性，2)追求科学职业的动机，3)对定量生物学的兴趣，4)作为科学家的身份，5)科学自我效能感，以及6)参与全国范围内入门生物学课堂的活动。这项研究还将导致开发和测试公开可用的本科生物学入门课程资源，突出科学家的故事，同时链接到生物学和数据素养的核心内容。NSF IUSE: EDU项目支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This IUSE Level 3 Engaged Student Learning project aims to serve the national interest by developing and testing classroom materials that maximize the positive effects of scientist role models in undergraduate biology. This project addresses the question, “Which elements of role model success stories are effective in improving equity and success in undergraduate STEM education?” In undergraduate classrooms today, most of the scientists featured do not reflect the diverse scientific community, nor do they match the identities of students reached by these resources. One way to combat this mismatch is to create new materials that highlight scientist role models with diverse backgrounds and identities. Featuring scientist role models in courses is a scalable way to promote the success of students with marginalized identities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Previous research has found that the impact of role models can depend on the ways their stories are told and shared in classroom materials. This work tests the theory that the success of scientist role models must feel within reach for students in order to create positive impacts. This project will develop and evaluate materials that combine scientist success stories with data literacy classroom exercises. The ultimate goal of this work is to give insight into how to effectively include scientist role models in instructional materials. It will also result in a new set of freely available, evidence-based, educational resources for undergraduate biology classrooms. The goal of this discipline-based education research study is to understand the impacts of how scientist role models are represented in curricula. This project will introduce students to scientist role model success stories using an innovative approach that combines data literacy activities with scientist profiles. Project personnel will design new teaching materials that address scientific content and data literacy objectives appropriate for introductory undergraduate biology courses and feature the research of scientist role models who identify with genders, race/ethnicities, or abilities that are historically excluded in biology. These new resources will be based on a combination of two previously established science education programs, Data Nuggets and Project Biodiversify. Using a network of introductory biology classrooms across the country, this project will expose students to activities featuring the same data literacy instruction but to different treatments that vary in information about the attainability of the role model’s success (e.g., an emphasis on prestigious accomplishments of the scientist or an emphasis on how scientists overcame barriers encountered in their pursuit of science). Likert-scale and open-response survey items will be used to measure the effects of different treatments on 1) perceived attainability of a science career, 2) motivation to pursue a career in science, 3) interest in quantitative biology, 4) identity as scientists, 5) science self-efficacy, and 6) engagement with activities across a national sample of introductory biology classrooms. This research will also result in the development and testing of publicly available curricular resources for introductory undergraduate biology courses that highlight scientists’ stories, while simultaneously linking to core content in biology and data literacy. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students.Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.