What We Do

BRinging Student Perspectives to the forefront

We study how multiple aspects of the science classroom, including instructional practices, climate, and content, collectively impact student experiences.

We combine qualitative and quantitative methods to understand patterns across classrooms and the mechanisms by which classroom teaching leads to those outcomes.

Major themes in our work:

Messages about Sex and Gender in Biology

We explore the messages about sex, gender, sexual behavior, and orientation present in life science courses and their impacts on trans-spectrum students and their cisgender peers. We also seek to understand the factors influencing instructors’ decisions to teach sex and gender the way they do.
Undergraduates as science communicators

Undergraduates life science majors are more diverse than the population of current scientists and thus have connections to more communities. We explore strategies undergraduates use to communicate about science in their communities and how they make decisions about who & what to talk about.
Course Climate and Student Engagement

Classroom relationships, values, and norms influence student experiences in the classroom. We explore how these aspects interact with the design of classroom activities to influence motivation, engagement, and ultimately student performance in STEM classes.

Featured Projects

Fostering More Accurate and Identity-Affirming Science Teaching and Learning at Hispanic Serving Institutions

Many STEM contexts emphasize a norm of neutrality, where educators seem to value remaining apolitical and do not acknowledge the relevance and influence of human bias on how science is carried out. Broadly, this neutrality erases identities and hides histories of discrimination in STEM that still impact the field today.

For students, this erasure harms the career preparation of all STEM students and the motivation and persistence of students with marginalized identities in STEM.

Through interviews and surveys with instructors and students, we explore what it takes, what it looks like, and what it impacts to teach in ways that breaks away from the norm of neutrality in STEM. Our first step in this work focuses on decisions and impact of the way people teach sex and gender in biology.

Stay posted for the results of this work!

Gender/sex narratives in undergraduate biology and their impacts on transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming students

This project examines how a more accurate curriculum about the diversity of sexes found across species and the complex relationship between sex and gender can create a more inclusive environment for trans-spectrum (transgender, non-binary, gender fluid, etc.) students in undergraduate biology courses.

The goals of this project are to: 1) explore how sex and gender are currently represented in the undergraduate biology content, 2) describe the impact this content has on classroom climate and belonging for trans-spectrum students, and 3) characterize the current efforts of biology instructors to create a more inclusive climate for these students.

We've found that how sex and gender are discussed in the classrooms impacts trans-spectrum students in many ways including their interest in biology, sense of belonging, and ability to form relationships with peers and instructors.

Check out our infographic on this project >

Characterizing the Practices of Instructors who Have Reduced Performance Disparities in Undergraduate Student Achievement in Introductory STEM Courses

Students with marginalized backgrounds enter STEM degree programs at the same rate as their peers from majority backgrounds, yet fewer of these students complete STEM degrees.

This difference in retention suggests that the STEM college experience is not supporting marginalized students in the way their majority peers are supported.

Introductory STEM courses likely play a role in this. For example, instructors decisions to incorporate active learning methods in introductory STEM courses can increase student achievement and lower performance disparities on exams. Thus, it is important to understand how instructors can influence the success of students and what practices support marginalized students.

Through interviews with instructors and students, we will identify salient aspects of course environments that influence student experiences. We will evaluate the importance of these elements for performance by generating an explanatory model of how these instructional practices and aspects of climate impact performance disparities across multiple STEM courses.

Read Our Paper on Class Climate and Engagement >