Oregon State University has been awarded a five-year, $1 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Inclusive Excellence Initiative to improve instruction in the STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and math — and better meet needs of undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds.
Oregon State will use the grant to establish Inclusive Excellence @ Oregon State (IE@OSU), a sustainable model for faculty development that will strengthen teaching for instructors of STEM classes both at OSU and at nearby community colleges. The project is a collaboration of the Center for Research on Lifelong STEM Learning, the College of Science and the Division of Undergraduate Education.
“Faculty teaching foundational STEM courses at OSU and nearby community colleges play a critical role in shaping these students’ early college experiences and success,” says Martin Storksdieck, director of the Center for Research on Lifelong STEM Learning and the project’s principal investigator (PI). “Embedding issues of diversity and inclusion into everyday learning experiences in STEM will expand current efforts to make OSU a welcoming and nurturing learning environment.”
Changing how STEM classes are taught.
Data trends indicate the need. In 2015, about 41 percent of Oregon State students in Corvallis and Ecampus were Pell-eligible, and 27 percent were first-generation students. Fall term 2017 enrollment data show that 25 percent of science majors are the first in their family to attend college, 23 percent are students of color and 35 percent are both minorities and first-generation students.
However, longer term data reveal that the gap in graduation rates for underrepresented and Pelleligible students ranges from six to 18 percent across various science disciplines and that science is not retaining students of color at the same rate as they are students from majority groups.
In response, IE@OSU aims to develop a more inclusive science education. This includes replacing the traditional lecture format with a combination of active learning strategies and culturally responsive teaching practices to create classrooms where all students, but particularly students of color and first-generation students, feel welcome and can succeed.
“In biology courses, culturally responsive teaching practices will potentially include the use of diverse representations of scientists, having a diverse teaching team, using a variety of assessments as opposed to just exam-based evaluations and incorporating social justice ideas related to biology in the classroom discussions,” says Lori Kayes, a senior instructor in integrative biology and a project Co-PI.
Mathematics and science faculty from OSU and community colleges will participate in a 40-hour training to develop teaching practices for inclusive STEM pedagogies and individual course redesigns that will be then implemented in their classrooms. By the end of the five-year grant period, IE@OSU aims to have a community of 100 faculty committed to the success of students of color in STEM courses.