BCSER: Examining inclusive science communication education as a tool to empower historically disadvantaged STEM students

从消除历史上被排斥群体的人获得成功的障碍的公平角度以及从增加STEM领域知识的角度来看，扩大STEM的参与在许多层面上都至关重要。人和科学工作都受益于日益增加的包容性。然而，有证据表明，由于其社会经济地位，第一代大学入学率或种族和民族而被边缘化的学生在STEM中的代表性不足，并面临着在STEM中保留和职业成功的挑战。已经探索了各种机制，以帮助留住不同的学生在干，包括在课堂上积极学习和教师辅导计划。这些机制是必要的，但不足以克服来自STEM边缘化群体的学生充分参与的障碍。该项目旨在研究包容性科学传播培训如何成为一种工具，使学生能够在科学身份和自我效能等因素中成长，这些因素与增加STEM保留相关。这个项目是新颖和重要的，因为它利用科学传播的跨学科主题作为吸引学生参与STEM的额外机制。包容性科学传播明确地以包容性、公平性和交叉性为中心。帮助学生将包容性科学传播视为解决社会问题的工具，并认识到自己具有为科学做出贡献的宝贵观点，这可能有助于学生有继续从事STEM的愿望和信心。此外，科学传播是一种能力，将为学生在STEM和STEM相邻领域的各种工作做好准备。首先，研究人员的目标是为生物科学和工程专业的学生开发和实施贯穿四年制课程的包容性科学传播培训。这一广泛的范围将使许多学生受益于包容性的科学传播培训。研究人员将分析这些培训如何改善学生因素，如与STEM保留相关的科学身份。其次，研究人员计划将更有经验的学生与一年级学生配对，共同构建科学传播交付成果。这将为学生提供近同行辅导的机会，并促进包容性科学传播培训的实际应用。研究人员将评估这种指导和应用程序编程如何影响两组学生的科学态度，科学沟通技能和职业抱负。通过这两个项目组成部分，研究人员将能够评估包容性科学传播培训，无论是在课堂上还是在小组应用活动中，如何影响不同的学生群体，并支持学生在STEM中取得成功。（ECR：BCSER）程序，该计划旨在培养调查人员的能力，该奖项反映了NSF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进行评估，被认为值得支持审查标准。

Broadening participation in STEM is critical on many levels, from the equity perspective of removing barriers for success for people from historically excluded groups and from the perspective of increasing knowledge in the field of STEM. Both people and scientific endeavors benefit from increasing inclusion. However, evidence indicates that students who experience marginalization due to their socioeconomic status, first generation college attendance, or race and ethnicity are underrepresented in STEM and face challenges for retention and career success in STEM. Various mechanisms have been explored to help retain diverse students in STEM, including active learning in the classroom and faculty mentoring programs. Such mechanisms are necessary but insufficient for overcoming barriers to full participation of students from groups that are marginalized in STEM. This project aims to examine how training in inclusive science communication may be a tool that empowers students to grow in factors like science identity and self-efficacy, which are correlated with increased STEM retention. This project is novel and significant in that it capitalizes on the interdisciplinary topic of science communication as an additional mechanism for engaging students in STEM. Inclusive science communication explicitly centers inclusion, equity, and intersectionality. Helping students to see inclusive science communication as a tool to solve societal problems and to recognize themselves as having valuable perspectives to contribute to science may help students have the desire and confidence to continue in STEM. Additionally, science communication is a competency that will prepare students for diverse jobs in STEM and STEM-adjacent fields.This project has two goals. First, the researchers aim to develop and implement inclusive science communication trainings scaffolded throughout the four-year curriculum for students in bioscience and engineering programs. This wide scope will enable many students to benefit from the inclusive science communication training. The researchers will analyze how these trainings improve student factors like science identity that are correlated with STEM retention. Second, the researchers plan to pair more experienced students with first year students to co-construct science communication deliverables. This will provide near-peer mentoring opportunities for the students as well as facilitate practical application of inclusive science communication trainings. The researchers will evaluate how this mentorship and application programming affects science attitude, science communication skills, and career aspirations of both groups of students. Through both of these project components, researchers will be able to assess how inclusive science communication trainings, whether in the classroom or in smaller group application activities, impact different groups of students and supports student success in STEM.The project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER) program, which is designed to build investigators’ capacity to carry out high-quality STEM education research.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.