The Disruptor

Promoting research on inclusive STEM ecosystems for faculty, students, and the greater undergraduate community. Below, you will find our latest blog entry and a complete archive of our posts. Enjoy!

Our Latest Blog

 

  • How Kindness is Part of an Excellent STEM Education

    In 2017 I set my fingers to the keyboard and, in collaboration with my colleagues, wrote a review article titled “The Influence of Affirming Kindness and Commu…

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Our Archive

 

  • Why Won’t STEM Faculty Just Adopt Evidence-Based Teaching Practices Already?: Exploring a Weaver’s Approach to Graduate Teacher Training

    Learn how to support future faculty in their knowledge of evidence-based teaching practices and provide them ongoing and multifaceted opportunities to explore …

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  • How Do We Mitigate the Impact of Systemic Bias on Faculty from Underrepresented Groups?

    Last year, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that as of Fall 2019, only 2.1 percent of tenured professors at non-profit four-year colleges in the U.S.…

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  • How Can We Make STEM An Inclusive Space for All?

    Throughout my entire career, I have lived at the intersections of race and gender, science, and society.

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  • Omwana Ni Wa Bhone … It Takes a Village

    To address a problem, we first need to understand that it exists.

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  • Integrating Technology with Best Practices Paves the Way

    We live in an era of change teeming with technology and environmental enhancements. Students are eager to use virtual, immersive, and interactive digital tools…

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  • Addressing Systemic Issues in STEM Education: Potential and Perils of XR Technologies

    Caption: Authors Michele McColgan, Ph.D. and Jason Morphew, Ph.D. provide an overview of the MARVLS app, an augmented reality app, which helps students develop…

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  • Want More Women in Geoscience? Consider Their Math Attitudes

    Geoscience has made concerted efforts to increase the number of women entering and graduating from undergraduate geoscience programs, but despite these efforts…

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  • Synergies, Not Silos: Why Isolated Initiatives Won’t Disrupt the Status Quo

    STEM departments have struggled, as has much of higher education, to advance student success while achieving racial equity.1 The continually-low numbers of Bla…

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  • How Can the Underrepresentation Curriculum Increase Representation in Our Communities?

    Caption: Jalisa Ferguson, Ph.D., and Izzy Berry '22 in their James Center lab. Photos by Angelique Herring '19 and Penh Alicandro '22.Why We Need The Underrepr…

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  • Inclusive Learning with Embedded Digital Bioskills

    Embed Digital Bioskills as an Educational Approach to Unlock Inclusive Learning in Undergraduate EducationMany authentic data sets and tools are readily availa…

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  • College as a Hero’s Journey: Faculty and Student Self-Reflection Grounds Intervention Research

    VSU Peer-mentors and mentees from Petersburg High School pose for a photo while visiting the Musem of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC (I…

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  • Community Colleges: Catalysts for Building and Diversifying the STEM Ecosystem

    Video Caption: Expanding access to our community.In the last two decades, the United States has grappled with the challenge of preparing, diversifying, and exp…

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  • The Value of Community Colleges: Bridging Gaps and Building Pathways to Increase Student Success

    (Video credit: CCC Marcom)Innovative Evidence-based Strategies to Disrupt the Current Community College NarrativeI was honored to be invited to talk at a confe…

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  • Levers for Change 2023: Enacting a National Agenda for Undergraduate STEM Education

    View the full report here: Levers for Change: Enacting a National Agenda for Undergraduate STEM EducationFrom July 30 to August 1, 2023, the American Associati…

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  • Making Systemic Changes: Questioning Meritocracy at the Faculty Level

    (Image Caption: When thinking about a healthy ecosystem, the research team created this tree for inspiration. The roots show practices we hoped became norms an…

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  • Creating Courses that Integrate Science and Culture: Facilitating Learning Across Three Knowledge Domains

    (Caption: Image from the Florentine Codex depicting the importance and knowledge of agriculture in 16th century Aztec culture.)In this blog, a historian of sci…

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  • Change Strategies and Tools to Support STEM Faculty’s Enactment of Equitable, Student-Centered Instruction

    (Caption: BETTER in STEM Cohort 1 Faculty at the Summer 2023 Workshop)IntroductionThere is a shortage of highly qualified STEM professionals in the United Stat…

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  • Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining STEM Pedagogies

    Additional Authors: John L. Pecore, Ph.D. (Professor, University of West Florida); Melissa K. Demetrikopoulos, Ph.D. (Director, Institute for Biomedical Philos…

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  • A Place Where I Can Belong: Investment in a Learning Community for Community College Transfer Students in the Marine Geosciences

    Community college students are untapped human and research capital.

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  • Characterizing Student Perspectives on Departmental Culture: The Student DELTA Survey

    Traditional Student Experience MetricsNational reports have revealed that although undergraduate education has undergone significant reform, students are not g…

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  • Accelerating Progress Towards Asset-based Mathematics Teacher Preparation Through a Networked Improvement Community: It’s All About Partnerships

    Preparing secondary mathematics teachers who are committed to using asset-based pedagogical practices requires a network of partnerships among stakeholders.1 A…

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  • Course Withdrawal Dates at Community Colleges

    Caption: Students in a Geology course work collaboratively on lab exercises. Students benefit from policies that give them every opportunity to be successful i…

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