minorityand female students. According to National Center for Education Statistics [2], [3] of the share ofUS Citizens who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering in 2019 and 2020,56% were white males and only 14% were female. There is a need for more diversity in thespace industry and overall, more degrees in aerospace and related fields. SpaceLab* (SLI) wascreated to address these issues. The hope is that by creating accessible and interestingcoursework, students who would not otherwise be interested, learn about the opportunities andbenefits that exist in space-related careers. Literature suggests that engaging students in design-based science learning activities can help them develop problem-solving and science inquiryskills
strategies to approach new challenges.[3] Our WritingSySTEM seeks to address these challenges through an innovative, multifaceted, sustainablewriting structure for graduate students in engineering that encourages them to develop self-efficacy in writing. It is anticipated that self-efficacy will lead to improved confidence in writingabilities and higher success rates for students. Further, as STEM fields seek to further diversifyacademic and professional communities, graduate programs need to implement research-basedwriting instruction and interventions to reduce writing-related barriers that keepunderrepresented minority and international student populations from feeling connected to theirprofessional and institutional communities, publishing, and
, Emily, Tawney, Jacqueline, and Weaver, Jennifer, “A Model for Student-led Development and Implementation of a Required Graduate-level Course on History, Ethics, and Identity in Aerospace Engineering,” presented at the ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN: ASEE, Aug. 2022. doi: https://peer.asee.org/40748.[11] D. G. Wareham, T. P. Elefsiniotis, and D. G. Elms, “Introducing ethics using structured controversies,” Eur. J. Eng. Educ., vol. 31, no. 6, pp. 651–660, 2006, doi: 10.1080/03043790600911712.[12] “We Indigenous Peoples are Rights-Holders, not Stakeholders,” Inter Press Service, Dec. 08, 2022. https://www.ipsnews.net/2022/12/indigenous-peoples-rights-holders-not-stakeholders/ (accessed May 01, 2023