Board 156: Concrete Tools to Practice Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in the STEM Classroom

Geniene K. Minkus; Meagan C. Pollock

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE) Poster Session
Tagged Division: Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 12
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--42498
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/42498
Download Count: 201

Paper Authors

biography

Geniene K. Minkus Geniene Minkus Consulting

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Geniene Minkus is passionate about science education and expanding every student's life opportunities. She is an experienced teacher, leader, lecturer, and curriculum specialist. Geniene is passionate about finding ways to create culturally sustaining science classrooms that engage students in developing language to critique systems of inequality. She is a fellow of the University of Illinois's IPASS program, where she works with teachers across the state to develop a college-ready curriculum for high school students. She also recently completed an Action Research Project regarding current classroom events and a STEM-ed democratizing education fellowship. During the summer, she is the academic director of Northwestern University's 9-12 Center for Talent Development program. Prior to Wolcott, she was the team lead of Physics at Chicago Bulls College Prep. Her Physics classroom achieved top-of-network growth, and her team achieved network-leading results similar to hers. She also created the Noble Network's baseline curriculum for Physics, led the Science and Physics collaboration rooms, and was a founding instructional professional development provider. Before Noble, Geniene graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and joined Teach for America. While earning her Masters of Education from Dominican University, Geniene worked at CPS's Bronzeville Scholastic Institute, where she contributed to the school becoming an IB World School.

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Meagan C. Pollock Engineer Inclusion

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As an engineer turned educator, through her company, Engineer Inclusion, Dr. Meagan Pollock focuses on helping others intentionally engineer inclusion™ in education and the workforce.

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Abstract

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) courses are central to producing a highly skilled 21st-century workforce. However, many of these courses are missing the diversity, equity inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) tools and curricular frameworks that build diverse, strong, and capable learners. The primary author is a science teacher who has worked with diverse urban populations for almost ten years. They want to ensure their students experience the classroom and STEM teaching in a way that increases their capacity and potential as students, learners, and individuals. As such, the primary author participated in countless hours of researching, discussing, attending fellowships and professional developments, and looking for an answer to what DEIB looks like in a high school science classroom. Unfortunately, many of the available resources devoted to helping teachers create environments that foster these skills are solely theoretical or geared directly toward the humanities. In this paper, the primary author offers a framework developed through action research(1) of how STEM educators can ensure their students can access these critical skills to be agile problem solvers in all their coursework and careers. The science teacher's framework for a DEIB-aware classroom consists of five elements: intentional grouping, student-driven labs, project-based assessments, presentations, and reflections. Part 1 is intentional grouping: Almost every career-oriented role requires collaboration skills; setting students up for success using homogeneous student-selected groups is an essential start to any culturally aware STEM classroom(2). Part 2 is student-driven labs, which allow these groups to make conclusions driven by experiments driven by their curiosity, and design respects each student's intellectual and problem-solving process(3). Part 3 is project-based assessments that transform lab experiences into elevating tools that can impact their communities, in which every student can find multiple unique avenues to success and can elevate practice to be culturally sustaining(4). Part 4 is presentations that allow students to practice communicating results to create arguments and provide feedback, which is a powerful way to restart the scientific process(5). Finally, Part 5 is reflections which ensure students have the space to do the metacognition necessary for the experiences to impact their trajectories by allowing purposeful reflection time is critical to success. In collaboration with CISTEME365, an NSF-funded ITEST grant with the University of Illinois, the primary author completed an Action Research for Equity Project that informed and validated the framework. While the paper primarily focuses on introducing the framework, we will include some student data that informed its development. Using a combination of case study and autoethnography as methodologies, this paper seeks to outline a practical five-element solution for building resilient, flexible, and affirmed STEM students. 1. Hunter, W. J. (2007). Action research as a framework for science education research. Theoretical Frameworks for Research in Chemistry/Science Education, 146-164. 2. Briggs, M. (2020). Comparing academically homogeneous and heterogeneous groups in an active learning physics class. NSTA. 3. Yusiran, Siswanto, Hartono, Subali, B., Ellianawati, Gumilar, S., & Sartika, D. (2019). Whats wrong with cookbook experiment? A case study of its impacts toward learning outcomes of pre-service physics teachers. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1280(5), 052047. 4. Brown, M., Thompson, J., & Pollock, M. (2017). Ensuring Equity in Problem-Based Learning. NAPE. Gap, PA. 5. Brown, M., Tucker, C., & Pollock, M. (2017). Inspiring Courage to Excel through Self-Efficacy. NAPE. Gap, PA.

Citation
Format

Minkus, G. K., & Pollock, M. C. (2023, June), Board 156: Concrete Tools to Practice Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in the STEM Classroom Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42498

TY - CPAPER
AB - Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) courses are central to producing a highly skilled 21st-century workforce. However, many of these courses are missing the diversity, equity inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) tools and curricular frameworks that build diverse, strong, and capable learners. The primary author is a science teacher who has worked with diverse urban populations for almost ten years. They want to ensure their students experience the classroom and STEM teaching in a way that increases their capacity and potential as students, learners, and individuals. As such, the primary author participated in countless hours of researching, discussing, attending fellowships and professional developments, and looking for an answer to what DEIB looks like in a high school science classroom. Unfortunately, many of the available resources devoted to helping teachers create environments that foster these skills are solely theoretical or geared directly toward the humanities. In this paper, the primary author offers a framework developed through action research(1) of how STEM educators can ensure their students can access these critical skills to be agile problem solvers in all their coursework and careers.

The science teacher&#39;s framework for a DEIB-aware classroom consists of five elements: intentional grouping, student-driven labs, project-based assessments, presentations, and reflections. Part 1 is intentional grouping: Almost every career-oriented role requires collaboration skills; setting students up for success using homogeneous student-selected groups is an essential start to any culturally aware STEM classroom(2). Part 2 is student-driven labs, which allow these groups to make conclusions driven by experiments driven by their curiosity, and design respects each student&#39;s intellectual and problem-solving process(3). Part 3 is project-based assessments that transform lab experiences into elevating tools that can impact their communities, in which every student can find multiple unique avenues to success and can elevate practice to be culturally sustaining(4). Part 4 is presentations that allow students to practice communicating results to create arguments and provide feedback, which is a powerful way to restart the scientific process(5). Finally, Part 5 is reflections which ensure students have the space to do the metacognition necessary for the experiences to impact their trajectories by allowing purposeful reflection time is critical to success.

In collaboration with CISTEME365, an NSF-funded ITEST grant with the University of Illinois, the primary author completed an Action Research for Equity Project that informed and validated the framework. While the paper primarily focuses on introducing the framework, we will include some student data that informed its development. Using a combination of case study and autoethnography as methodologies, this paper seeks to outline a practical five-element solution for building resilient, flexible, and affirmed STEM students.

1. Hunter, W. J. (2007). Action research as a framework for science education research. Theoretical Frameworks for Research in Chemistry/Science Education, 146-164.
2. Briggs, M. (2020). Comparing academically homogeneous and heterogeneous groups in an active learning physics class. NSTA.
3. Yusiran, Siswanto, Hartono, Subali, B., Ellianawati, Gumilar, S., &amp;amp; Sartika, D. (2019). Whats wrong with cookbook experiment? A case study of its impacts toward learning outcomes of pre-service physics teachers. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1280(5), 052047.
4. Brown, M., Thompson, J., &amp;amp; Pollock, M. (2017). Ensuring Equity in Problem-Based Learning. NAPE. Gap, PA.
5. Brown, M., Tucker, C., &amp;amp; Pollock, M. (2017). Inspiring Courage to Excel through Self-Efficacy. NAPE. Gap, PA.

AU - Geniene K. Minkus
AU - Meagan C. Pollock
CY - Baltimore , Maryland
DA - 2023/06/25
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Board 156: Concrete Tools to Practice Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in the STEM Classroom
UR - https://peer.asee.org/42498
DO - 10.18260/1-2--42498
ER -