Growing Project BioEYES: A Reflection on 20 Years of Developing and Replicating a K-12 Science Outreach Program.

Project BioEYES celebrated 20 years in K12 schools during the 2022-2023 school year. Using live zebrafish (Danio rerio) during week-long science experiments, sparks the interest of students and teachers from school districts, locally and globally. Over the past two decades, BioEYES has been replicated in different ways based on the interest and capacity of our partners. This article discusses several of the successful models, the common challenges, and how each BioEYES site has adopted guiding principles to help foster their success. The core principles of (a) reinforcing content that students are expected to learn in schools, while focusing on the students BECOMING scientists through hands-on experimentation and (b) establishing trust and buy-in from collaborating teachers and partners are what has led to BioEYES being sustained and replicated over the past two decades.

Family Helps Transform the STEM Pathways of Community College Women of Color STEM Majors.

A "critical access point in the STEM pipeline for Latinx students and other students of color" (Herrera et al., 2018), community colleges provide a seminal breeding ground for academic pursuits (Bahr et al., 2017). However, how personal networks influence STEM pathways of two-year college students remains largely unexplored. This mixed methods case study explores influence of personal networks on pursuing STEM fields via social network analysis and qualitative narratives. 36 women of color STEM majors at a two-year urban Hispanic-Serving Institution were interviewed via social network questionnaire. Participants nominated anyone who has influenced their STEM trajectory, which signifies influence to their reason for pursuing a STEM path; they also had an option to qualitatively elaborate on any nomination but this was not required. Nominations were counted towards degree centrality and categorized into social relationships. Participants nominated diverse relationship influences, with family as the most influential relationship group, followed by college faculty/staff. Qualitative narratives revealed that family influenced participants, regardless of relatives' educational attainment level at the high school or lower level. In alignment with community cultural wealth, family members provided the impetus for pursuing STEM pathways through influence on participants' (1) aspirational capital, (2) familial capital, and (3) resistant capital.

A workshop to showcase the diversity of scientists to middle school students.

Identity matters in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) because it can affect an individual's long-term sense of belonging, which may in turn affect their persistence in STEMM. Early K-12 science classes often teach students about the foundational discoveries of the field, which have been predominately made, or at least published, by White men. This homogeneity can leave underrepresented individuals in STEMM feeling isolated, and underrepresented K-12 students may feel as though they cannot enter STEMM fields. This study aimed to examine these feelings of inclusivity in STEMM through an interactive workshop that asked middle schoolers to identify scientists from images of individuals with various racial and gender identities. We found that a plurality of students had a positive experience discussing diversity in science and recognizing underrepresented individuals as scientists.NEW & NOTEWORTHY We observed positive sentiments from middle school students following a workshop that showcased diversity in science. This workshop uniquely encourages students to recognize that physiologists and scientists today are much more diverse than textbooks typically demonstrate and can be adapted for middle schoolers, high schoolers, and college students.

AI is transforming how science is done. Science education must reflect this change.

There is growing interest in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in science education. Many issues and questions raised about the role of AI in science education target primarily science learning objectives. They relate to AI's capacity to generate tools for teaching, learning, and assessment, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of using such tools. But another important discussion receiving far too little attention in science education concerns how AI is transforming the nature of science (NOS) itself and what such transformation implies for the education of young children. For education, it is critical to ask what AI-informed NOS is, what skills it demands of learners, and how schools can aim to achieve them.

The power of storytelling in STEM.

Elea-Maria Abisamra is an honors undergraduate student and research fellow at Virginia Tech. She is majoring in Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience and has passions for STEM, writing, and entrepreneurship. In June 2022, Elea acted on her dream and founded Kids Can Write, becoming a CEO of a global nonprofit organization helping turn kids into published authors while teaching them STEM in an innovative and unique way. This is her story.

Early career Latinas in STEM: Challenges and solutions.

Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Central American Ancestry (MPRCA) individuals represent 82% of US Latinos. An intergenerational group of MPRCA women and allies met to discuss persistent underrepresentation of MPRCA women in STEM, identifying multi-level challenges and solutions. Implementation of these solutions is important and will benefit MPRCA women and the entire academic community.

Talent denied: Equity and excellence gaps in STEMM.

In principle, there could be STEMM talent everywhere if there were sufficient and adequate opportunities and learning resources everywhere. The reality, however, is that the likelihood of developing one's talent in STEMM is tied to membership in social groups. In this contribution, we explore the implications of this statement with multiple examples for different social groups and for different stages of talent development. We propose an educational framework model for analyzing equity gaps in STEMM talent development that identifies and systematizes the unequal and inequitable distribution of resources and opportunities as the proximal cause of the emergence of such equity gaps. Furthermore, we discuss important aspects for closing equity gaps in STEMM talent development. We argue that-similar to public health approaches-the focus in establishing equity in STEMM talent development should be on prevention rather than intervention. We discuss the importance of the cooperation of societal subsystems and argue for the use of adequate methods of disparity detection for creating equal opportunities. We also outline why preventive strategies are crucial for the creation of resource parity and explain why outcome standards should be considered obligatory.

High school science fair: School location trends in student participation and experience.

The findings reported in this paper are based on surveys of U.S. high school students who registered and managed their science and engineering fair (SEF) projects through the online Scienteer website over the three years 2019/20, 2020/21, and 2021/22. Almost 2500 students completed surveys after finishing all their SEF competitions. We added a new question in 2019/20 to our on-going surveys asking the students whether their high school location was urban, suburban, or rural. We learned that overall, 74% of students participating in SEFs indicated that they were from suburban schools. Unexpectedly, very few SEF participants, less than 4%, indicated that they were from rural schools, even though national data show that more than 20% of high school students attend rural schools. Consistent with previous findings, Asian and Hispanic students indicated more successful SEF outcomes than Black and White students. However, whereas Asian students had the highest percentage of SEF participants from suburban vs. urban schools- 81% vs. 18%, Hispanic students had the most balanced representation of participants from suburban vs. urban schools- 55% vs. 39%. Differences in students' SEF experiences based on gender and ethnicity showed the same patterns regardless of school location. In the few items where we observed statistically significant (probability < .05) differences based on school location, students from suburban schools were marginally favored by only a few percentage points compared to students from urban schools. In conclusion, based on our surveys results most students participating in SEFs come from suburban schools, but students participating in SEFs and coming from urban schools have equivalent SEF experiences, and very few students participating in SEFs come from rural schools.

Faculty as catalysts for training new inventors: Differential outcomes for male and female PhD students.

STEM PhDs are a critical source of human capital in the economy, contributing to commercial as well as academic science. We examine whether STEM PhD students become new inventors (file their first patent) during their doctoral training at the top 25 U.S. universities (by patenting). We find that 4% of PhDs become new inventors. However, among PhDs of faculty who are themselves top (prolific) inventors, this figure rises to 23%. These faculty train 44% of all the new inventor PhDs by copatenting with their advisees. We also explore whether new inventor PhDs are equally distributed by gender. In our university sample, the female share of new inventors is 9% points (pp) lower than the female share of PhDs. Several channels contribute to this: First, female PhDs are less likely to be trained by top inventor advisors (TIs) than male PhDs. Second, they are less likely to be trained by (the larger number of) male top inventors: The estimated gap in the female % of PhDs between female and male TIs is 7 to 9 pp. Third, female PhDs (supervised by top inventors and especially by other faculty) have a lower probability of becoming new inventors relative to their male counterparts. Notably, we find that male and female top inventors have similar rates of transforming their female advisees into new inventors at 4 to 8 pp lower (17 to 26% lower rate) than for male advisees. The gap remains at 4 pp comparing students of the same advisor and controlling for thesis topic.

I am a scientist: Overcoming biased assumptions around diversity in science through explicit representation of scientists in lectures.

The lack of diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) is a significant issue for the sector. Many organisations and educators have identified lack of representation of historically marginalised groups within teaching materials as a potential barrier to students feeling that a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) career is something that they can aspire to. A key barrier to addressing the issue is providing accessible and effective evidence-based approaches for educators to implement. In this study, we explore the potential for adapting presentation slides within lectures to 'humanise' the scientists involved, presenting their full names and photographs alongside a Harvard style reference. The intervention stems from an initial assumption that many formal scientific referencing systems are demographic-neutral and exacerbate prevailing perceptions that STEM is not diverse. We adopt a questionnaire based methodology surveying 161 bioscience undergraduates and postgraduates at a UK civic university. We first establish that students project assumptions about the gender, location, and ethnicity of the author of a hypothetical reference, with over 50% of students assuming they are male and Western. We then explore what students think of the humanised slide design, concluding that many students see it as good pedagogical practice with some students positively changing their perceptions about diversity in science. We were unable to compare responses by participant ethnic group, but find preliminary evidence that female and non-binary students are more likely to see this as good pedagogical practice, perhaps reflecting white male fragility in being exposed to initiatives designed to highlight diversity. We conclude that humanised powerpoint slides are a potentially effective tool to highlight diversity of scientists within existing research-led teaching, but highlight that this is only a small intervention that needs to sit alongside more substantive work to address the lack of diversity in STEM.

Co-creating Research Integrity Education Guidelines for Research Institutions.

To foster research integrity (RI), research institutions should develop a continuous RI education approach, addressing various target groups. To support institutions to achieve this, we developed RI education guidelines together with RI experts and research administrators, exploring similarities and differences in recommendations across target groups, as well as recommendations about RI education using approaches other than formal RI training. We used an iterative co-creative process. We conducted four half-day online co-creation workshops with 16 participants in total, which were informed by the RI education evidence-base. In the first two workshops, participants generated ideas for guidelines' content, focusing on different target groups and various approaches to RI education. Based on this content we developed first drafts of the guidelines. Participants in the third and fourth workshop refined those drafts. We next organized a working group which further prioritized, reorganized, and optimized the content of the guidelines. We developed four guidelines on RI education focusing on (a) bachelor, master and PhD students; (b) post-doctorate and senior researchers; (c) other RI stakeholders; as well as (d) continuous RI education. Across guidelines, we recommend mandatory RI training; follow-up refresher training; informal discussions about RI; appropriate rewards and incentives for active participation in RI education; and evaluation of RI educational events. Our work provides experience-based co-created guidance to research institutions on what to consider when developing a successful RI education strategy. Each guideline is offered as a distinct, publicly available tool in our toolbox ( www.sops4ri.eu/toolbox ) which institutions can access, adapt and implement to meet their institution-specific RI education needs.Trial registration https://osf.io/zej5b .

Propuesta de modificaciones a la tecnología para la determinación de problemas y potencialidades / A Proposal of Modifications to the Technology for Determining Problems and Potentialities

Introducción: Para el desarrollo de la investigación científica, la educación médica ha asumido supuestos que conforman la Teoría de la Educación Avanzada, entre los que se encuentran la Tecnología para la determinación de problemas y potencialidades, descrita por reconocidos pedagogos cubanos. Objetivo: Proponer modificaciones a la Tecnología para la determinación de problemas y potencialidades. Métodos: Se utilizaron métodos teóricos: sistematización, histórico-lógico, sistémico estructural, funcional, análisis documental, concreción-abstracción y modelación. Resultados: Los autores realizaron modificaciones a la Tecnología para la determinación de problemas y potencialidades en el primer, quinto, sexto y séptimo pasos, con dos acercamientos al objeto de estudio desde lo genérico y holístico a lo particular, de la aproximación al análisis profundo. Se introdujo en la práctica mediante su utilización en una tesis, defendida en 2021, para optar por el título de Doctor en Ciencias de la Educación Médica. Conclusiones: La Tecnología para la determinación de problemas y potencialidades con modificaciones demuestra la flexibilidad y posibilidad de aplicación de la tecnología inicial en otras ciencias, a partir de modificaciones que pudieran introducirse de acuerdo con sus particularidades y complejidades. Esta innovación tecnológica se propone para el desarrollo de la investigación científica en las ciencias de la educación médica con vista a abordar, con un enfoque holístico, sus objetos de estudio y campos de acción(AU)

Introduction: For the development of scientific research, medical education has taken assumptions that make up the theory of advanced education, among which is the technology for determining problems and potentialities, described by renowned Cuban pedagogues. Objective: To propose modifications to the technology for determining problems and potentialities. Methods: Theoretical methods were used: systematization, historical-logical, structural-systemic, functional, documentary analysis, concretion-abstraction, and modeling. Results: The authors made modifications to the technology for determining problems and potentialities in the first, fifth, sixth and seventh steps, with two approaches to the object of study from the generic and holistic to the particular, from approximation to profound analysis. It was introduced into practice through its use in a thesis, defended in 2021, to opt for the degree of doctor of Medical Education Sciences. Conclusions: The technology for determining problems and potentialities with modifications shows the flexibility and possibility of application of the initial technology into other sciences, from modifications that could be introduced according to their particularities and complexities. This technological innovation is proposed for the development of scientific research in the sciences of medical education, in view of approaching, with a holistic perspective, its objects of study and fields of action(AU)

Scientist Spotlights in Secondary Schools: Student Shifts in Multiple Measures Related to Science Identity after Receiving Written Assignments.

Based on theoretical frameworks of scientist stereotypes, possible selves, and science identity, written assignments were developed to teach science content through biographies and research of counter-stereotypical scientists-Scientist Spotlights (www.scientistspotlights.org). Previous studies on Scientist Spotlight assignments showed significant shifts in how college-level biology students relate to and describe scientists and in their performance in biology courses. However, the outcomes of Scientist Spotlight assignments in secondary schools were yet to be explored. In collaboration with 18 science teachers from 12 schools, this study assessed the impacts of Scientist Spotlight assignments for secondary school students. We used published assessment tools: Relatability prompt; Stereotypes prompt; and Performance/Competence, Interest, and Recognition (PCIR) instrument. Statistical analyses compared students' responses before and after receiving at least three Scientist Spotlight assignments. We observed significant shifts in students' relatability to and descriptions of scientists as well as other science identity measures. Importantly, disaggregating classes by implementation strategies revealed that students' relatability shifts were significant for teachers reporting in-class discussions and not significant for teachers reporting no discussions. Our findings raise questions about contextual and pedagogical influences shaping student outcomes with Scientist Spotlight assignments, like how noncontent Instructor Talk might foster student shifts in aspects of science identity.

A theoretically based STEM talent development program that bridges excellence gaps.

The pipeline of highly trained STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) professionals has narrowed in recent decades, forcing society to re-examine how schools are discovering and developing STEM talent. Of particular concern is the finding that rural students attend post-secondary schools at lower rates than their urban counterparts, and when they do attend, they are less likely to graduate from STEM programs. One reason may be that they are not prepared for advanced STEM coursework because they lack access to essential STEM talent-development programs in middle or high school. This creates excellence gaps, which exacerbate the narrowing STEM pipeline to the workforce. To address this, we formed a university-school partnership to develop an outside-of-school STEM talent development program, called STEM Excellence, for rural middle-school students who attend under-resourced schools. The aim of STEM Excellence was to increase students' achievement and aspirations while empowering their teachers to develop local STEM programs grounded in developmental psychology theories. STEM Excellence integrated the Talent Development Megamodel Principles of ability, domains of talent, opportunity, and psychosocial variables. STEM Excellence also recognized the interplay of multiple person-environment systems as presented in the Bioecological Systems Model.