2020 Inclusive Teaching  Symposium

Thursday, November 12, 2020
4:00PM - 6:00PM ET
Free Online Event

Presentations for the inaugural NABT Inclusive Teaching Symposium were accepted through a double-blind peer-review process that was open to biology educators and researchers at all levels.

We extend a special thank you to our reviewers for their time and detailed feedback.

A recording of the symposium is available at 2020 NABT Inclusive Teaching Symposium.

2020 Presentations

Two Imaginary Warrior Cats: Case study on science identity development through imaginary play in two girls

Michele J. Mann, Adams State University, Alamosa, CO

ABSTRACT: I have found that science identity development happens outside the structured classroom but still around the school environment such as at recess, lunchtime, and field trips. In my ethnographic type research, I found that the students having time to play (and therefore practice), work collaboratively with other students, and participate in field trips provided opportunities for science identity growth. Students that don’t have the opportunities to participate in science extracurricular experiences need to have those opportunities through their school classes. School need to provide space and time for science identity development and opportunities where students can experience and explore science. I will talk about how to design a classroom environment that will support science identity development and why developing a science identity is important for future of science. Case studies on the process of student science identity work will be discussed with practical suggestions that can be implemented in every school.

Exploring Inclusive Curricula in the Life Sciences: Scientist Spotlight Assignments

Dax Ovid, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA; Jeff Schinske, Foothill College, Los Altos Hills CA; Kimberly Tanner, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA

ABSTRACT: What examples of scientists can we remember from high school and college classes, if any? What about examples of scientists in the media? As we consider these examples, one may wonder, what are the impacts of these messages on students and what, if anything, might instructors do in response to this messaging? This interactive session explores the intentional integration of Scientist Spotlights that highlight scientists’ research and biographies as assignments to introduce course content in high schools, community colleges, and universities. We will explore how this research-based intervention has been shown to shift college students' stereotypes about scientists. We will elaborate on our next steps in collaboration with teachers to explore how Scientist Spotlights can foster high school students’ relatability to scientists. Developed by student authors, peer-reviewed by our research team, and shared to be easily adaptable for online teaching and learning, the Scientist Spotlights searchable online database will be shared as a resource to transform curriculum in the life sciences to be more inclusive

Assessing Motivation and Utilizing Motivational Interviewing in Introductory College Biology for Improved Student Success

William Martin, Aurora University, Aurora, IL

ABSTRACT: Student motivation, metacognition, and engagement are strong predictors of academic success in the undergraduate biology classroom. Implementation of diverse active learning strategies results in increased student engagement and improved student performance. Instructors direct students on behaviors aimed to promote self-reflection and self-efficacy towards academic success yet see varying follow-through from students. Behavioral engagement through motivation is targeted since academic activities have been shown to offset lack of college preparedness for those with low academic ability but few studies address if student motivation is aligned with pedagogical activities. This research study assesses motivation in students in two separate but parallel, introductory biology courses required for majors. Students in one course, with usually high attrition and serving students from diverse majors, will be compared to a second with low historical attrition and serving a single pre-professional program at a single upper Midwestern HSI. Measures of motivation will be reassessed midterm and correlated to midterm course grades as well as final course grades and attrition when the semester is complete. A planned intervention in the high attrition rate course involves Motivational Interviewing, MI, with those biology students within the semester. The MI intervention will be overlaid onto already established active learning and metacognition pedagogies. 

Informal Learning: Cultivating Curiosity Strengthens Scientific Inquiry 

Cheryl Lindeman, Randolph College, Lynchburg, VA

ABSTRACT: Children who miss opportunities to expand their curiosity about the world around them become marginalized learners. After school tutoring programs provide unique avenues for learning, play, cooperation, leadership, and communication if there are intentional programming goals allowing children opportunities to grow intellectually exercising their curiosity. The purpose of this action research was to understand how elementary children in an after-school family development center cultivate their curiosity by given choice of science activities, problems, and challenges. An informal partnership was established with a local family development center because their desire to increase opportunities for children to experience special science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning experiences. The researcher, as the tutor, developed an action research design to identify best practices that spark and amplify elementary children’s curiosity using STEM knowledge and skills initiated by their own questions. The Curiosity Club’s mission is to observe and investigate, to ask questions, and to share curiosity with others. The Curiosity Club model can be implemented with after school programs or during online choice activities. Creating informal programs help strengthen children’s self-efficacy while exploring everyday science.

Supporting Inclusion and Persistence in STEM through Active Learning and Civic Engagement

Michelle Withers, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY; Eliza Reilly, SENCER, Saugerties, NY; Suann Yang, SUNY Geneseo, Geneseo, NY; Peter Gergen, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY David Parfitt, SUNY Geneseo, Geneseo, NY 

ABSTRACT: Two national STEM reform efforts, Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities (SENCER) and Mobile Summer Institutes on Scientific Teaching (MoSI), have blended their signature professional development programs to advance inclusive teaching and civic engagement. These programs were founded nearly two decades ago with the aim of both improving learning and broadening participation and persistence in STEM, with special attention to Persons Excluded based on Ethnicity or Race (PEERs), and both employ distinctive, evidence-based, but complementary, approaches. MoSI’s focuses on the “how” of effective teaching by providing training in active, inclusive pedagogy that measurably improves STEM learning, while fostering critical thinking and meta-cognitive skills that reduce performance gaps for PEERs. SENCER  focuses on the “why” of learning by connecting abstract disciplinary content to concrete, unsolved, complex public challenges (like infectious disease, climate change, food insecurity) of immediate relevance to students and their communities. This context-based approach has been shown to measurably improve interest and persistence in STEM, particularly among PEERS, while also advancing systems-thinking, and civic engagement for all students.  This presentation will describe how a formal collaboration blending these complementary approaches has strengthened our faculty development programming.