Workshops and an Attitudes Survey for Broadening Participation in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; January, 2017 and March, 2017; New Orleans, LA

研究人员将探索为什么美国黑人很少从事生态学和进化生物学的职业，尽管州和联邦机构几十年来一直在投资，以促进他们在这些领域和其他科学领域的参与。该项目包括两个讲习班和一次调查。首先，生态学家、进化生物学家和社会科学家将开会制定一项调查，并将发送给大量学生，目的是了解他们如何决定不同的职业道路。在分析了调查结果后，更多的科学家和专业组织的代表将会面，就学生从事生态学和进化生物学职业最重要的障碍达成共识，并提出帮助这些学生的新方法。这项工作很重要，因为科学的进步依赖于多样化的劳动力来提供新的想法，如果所有科学家都有相似的背景，这些想法将仍然没有被发现。之前关于理解黑人在生态学和进化生物学中的低参与度的研究表明，他们比其他代表不足的群体具有更高水平的宗教信仰，他们的不情愿也可能取决于对进化论的误解。该项目的主要研究人员(PI)假设，缺乏榜样、缺乏户外工作经验以及文化因素(如宗教信仰、价值观)是包容的障碍，降低了黑人在生态学和进化生物学领域的认同感和归属感。为了验证这一假设，PIs开发了一项调查，以评估这些因素在塑造本科生对不同科学学科职业的态度方面所起的作用。在一个小型的初始研讨会上，参与者将严格审查和评估调查的效果。在进行修订后，将对大量和不同的学生样本进行调查。第二期讲习班的参与者将审查调查结果，并考虑其对扩大科学职业参与的影响，重点是黑人以及生态学和进化生物学学科。

Researchers will explore reasons why black Americans ("blacks") rarely pursue careers in ecology and evolutionary biology, despite decades of investment by state and federal agencies to boost their participation in those and other fields of science. This project consists of two workshops and a survey. First, ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and social scientists will meet to develop a survey that will be sent to a large number of students, with the goal of understanding how they decide on various career paths. After analysis of the survey's results, a larger group of scientists and representatives from professional organizations will meet to reach consensus on the most important obstacles to students pursuing careers in ecology and evolutionary biology, and to propose new ways of assisting those students. This work is important because advancement of science depends on a diverse workforce to provide novel ideas that would remain undiscovered if all scientists had similar backgrounds.Previous research to understand the low participation of blacks in ecology and evolutionary biology suggests they have higher levels of religiosity than other underrepresented groups and that their reluctance may also hinge on misconceptions about evolution. The principal investigators (PIs) of this project hypothesize that lack of role models, lack of experience working in the outdoors, and cultural factors (e.g., religious beliefs, values) are barriers to inclusion, lowering blacks' sense of identity and belonging in the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology. To test this hypothesis, the PIs have developed a survey to assess the roles these factors play in shaping attitudes of undergraduate students to careers in different disciplines of science. Participants at a small initial workshop will rigorously review and assess the efficacy of the survey. After revisions are made, the survey will be administered to a large and diverse sample of students. Participants at a second workshop will review the results of survey and consider their implications for broadening participation in careers of science, with an emphasis on blacks and the disciplines of ecology and evolutionary biology.