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CRESE Seminars

Join Us For Our Spring 2025 Seminars!

This seminar series explores findings from discipline-based STEM education research that can help advance equity, academic success, and social mobility for all students. Distinguished speakers will present their research, followed by interactive Q&A sessions focused on translating these findings into practical teaching strategies for undergraduate STEM classrooms. Through these discussions, we will examine strategies to address barriers, foster inclusivity, and enhance student achievement within a diverse academic community. This series will showcase the significance of discipline-based STEM education research in undergraduate STEM programs, foster meaningful discussions, and inspire actionable change in teaching.

Seminars are noon-1 in Markstein 101 on the following Thursdays:

Spring 2025 Abstracts

Thursday, February 20, 2025

Brean Prefontaine, Duke University 

Abstract: Despite global demand for computing expertise, Black, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander people remain significantly underrepresented among students, faculty, and industry professionals in the field. Additionally, developed technologies continue to include elements of discrimination while appearing neutral. Our research focuses on how undergraduate computing students perceive race and how their perceptions may influence their recognition of racial bias in computing contexts. Using a mixed-methods approach, we surveyed and interviewed undergraduate computing students across the country to further understand their race socialization before and during college, their understanding of race, and how they view racial bias in the context of academic and professional computing environments. In this talk, I will describe several important findings from our study, implications for computing education, and some next steps that faculty can take to help students further their understanding of race. 

About the Speaker: Brean Prefontaine is a postdoctoral researcher at Duke University with The Alliance for Interdisciplinary Innovations in Computing Education (AiiCE). She earned her PhD in physics at Michigan State University and her BS in physics at Drexel University. Her dissertation focused on understanding how opportunities to facilitate informal physics programs can impact undergraduate students, particularly in their physics identity development. Her current research spans both computer science education and physics education and is focused on understanding the undergraduate student experience. Her physics education research continues to focus on the ways that undergraduate students facilitate in informal STEM spaces while her computer science education research is focused on how undergraduate computing students perceive and experience race and racism. 

Erin Shortlidge, Portland State University 

Abstract: In response to unwaveringly high attrition from STEM pathways, STEM Intervention Programs (SIPs) support STEM students in effort to increase retention. Using mixed methods (survey, focus groups, and interviews), we studied students at one university who were either supported or unsupported by SIPs to understand how students may differ in experiences believed to contribute to STEM persistence. We evaluated: sense of belonging, scientific self-efficacy, scientific community values, scientific identity, and STEM involvement, as well as the enrollment status of students two and a half years postsurvey.

Overall, being involved in a SIP at our institution trends positively with theoretical models that explain STEM student persistence. SIP students reported significantly higher science identity and sense of belonging, and were more involved in STEM-related activities than counterparts unsupported by SIPs. Notably, SIP students had higher odds of persisting in STEM than students not supported by SIPs. Focus group data provided additional meaning to the measured survey constructs and revealed nuanced qualitative differences between SIP and non-SIP student experiences.  

Identifying that sense of belonging can promote persistence in STEM, we further explored what it means to develop a sense of belonging. We conducted semi-structured interviews with a cohort of SIP students nearing graduation atour university.  We applied two theoretical frameworks to guide our understanding of factors that promoted the development of a sense of belonging. We conclude that there were similarIties among participants iin what contributesto belonging, as well as distinctions.  Being involved in a SIP was foundational to the student鈥檚 experiences.  We hope this work convinces institutions to consider expanding access to SIP-like supports, such that more students benefit. 

About the Author: Erin Shortlidge, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Biology and Biology Education in the Department of Biology at Portland State University and the Interim Vice Provost for Student Success. Shortlidge is dedicated to engaging in leadership, teaching and researching in responsive, evidence-based ways.  Shortlidge leads an active research group which aims to understand best practices in teaching and learning science and to democratize quality education for all students. She develops and hosts professional development for graduate students and faculty as they move towards integrating inclusive pedagogies and perspectives into their teaching and programming.  Shortlidge works across disciplines, departments, colleges and universities multiple NSF and HHMI funded-programs, which largely aim to build training and capacity for inclusive STEM education.

Previous seminars:

Fall 2024

Thursday Sept. 26, 2024
Eleanor Close, Texas State University San Marcos
Supporting equitable student success and inclusive STEM community through a Learning Assistant Program

Abstract:
The Learning Assistant (LA) Model is a structure for near-peer instructional support that has demonstrated benefits across a wide range of courses and institutions. At Texas State University we launched our LA Program in 2012 in physics and have recently expanded the program into biology and chemistry with a five-year NSF HSI project. Our implementation of the LA Model is informed by the theory of Communities of Practice and is structured specifically to create a shared culture of mutual support. Students in LA-supported courses have both higher success rates (lower percentage of students receiving grades of D or F, or withdrawing) and increased content learning. LAs change their ways of learning and of being students as a result of their LA experience, and physics LAs describe positive impacts on their physics identity and sense of belonging to a supportive and collaborative community. In this talk I will describe the LA Model, the specifics of the TXST LA Program, and some of the positive outcomes we have seen for our STEM students and faculty.

About the speaker:
Dr. Eleanor Close is a Professor of Physics at Texas State University and a physics education researcher. She co-directs the STEM Communities Learning Assistant Program at TXST, co-organizes regional and national workshops through the National Learning Assistant Alliance, and is currently PI of an NSF Noyce Scholarship project and Co-PI on two NSF HSI projects. Her research interests include situated learning and identity development through communities of practice, particularly for multiply marginalized students; Learning Assistant program impacts on students, LAs, and faculty; and physics teacher preparation and professional development. She received her Physics M.S. from the University of Washington in 2003 and her Ed.D. in Curriculum & Instruction from Seattle Pacific University in 2009. Between receiving her B.A. in Physics from Bryn Mawr College and starting graduate school, she taught high school physics and physical science for three years in rural North Carolina, where she became science department chair by seniority after five months. In her non-work life, she co-parents three teenagers and gardens with native plants for local wildlife.

Thursday Oct. 24, 2024
Natascha Trellinger Buswell, UC Irvine
The write answer for equitable and inclusive engineering classrooms

Abstract:
In this talk, Dr. Natascha Trellinger Buswell draws upon the breadth of her research to examine the questions where and how writing and other professional skills, such as writing, teaming, communication, and ethics, fit in to engineering classrooms. While these topics are often relegated to specialty courses, Dr. Buswell argues for inclusion of these topics in all engineering courses.

Next, Dr. Buswell shares her approaches to teaching in engineering classrooms. She explores research-based approaches and interventions that can support feelings of belonging in engineering classrooms, gives examples of assignments and discussion topics, and shares her beliefs for how to make engineering an equitable and inclusive field to all in the future.

About the speaker:
Natascha Trellinger Buswell is an Associate Professor of Teaching in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC Irvine. She earned her PhD in engineering education at Purdue University and her BS in aerospace engineering at Syracuse University. Her dissertation examined the pathways and experiences of early-career faculty at non-R1 institutions, and she is focused on understanding and supporting all students through her teaching and research. Her research explores faculty and graduate student teaching development, graduate student writing processes, the identity formation of undergraduates, and the workplace experiences early-career engineers. She is particularly interested in researching the stories of female and non-binary engineers and engineers of color.

 
Thursday Nov 21, 2024
Lalo Gonzalez, UC Santa Barbara

Scalable Success: Use of Near-Peer Mentors to Promote STEM Student Academic Performance

Abstract:
Mentorship is an effective strategy to promote postsecondary STEM studnt academic success and retention. However, as undergraduate STEM enrollment continues to increase, faculty-student mentorship at large, public universities is not a scalable approach. Here we describe the positive impacts of near-peer mentorship approaches which leverage upper-division biology students to provide support to first- and second-year majors at the University of California.  

About the Author:
Lalo Gonzalez Nino is the Vice Chair for Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A first-generation Latino, he holds a bachelor鈥檚 degree in chemistry from the Universidad Aut贸noma de Ciudad Ju谩rez in Mexico and a PhD in biology from New Mexico State University. In over a decade of experience in STEM education, Eduardo has led initiatives focused on mentoring and supporting underrepresented students. His work centers on improving student success and retention through innovative teaching practices, including peer mentorship models that empower upper-division students to mentor their first- and second- year peers. 

Spring 2024 

Thursday February 29, 2024
Mary Pilgrim, San Diego State University
 
Thursday March 14, 2024
Laird Kramer, Florida International University
 
Thursday April 4, 2024
Susan E. Shadle, Boise State University

Mary Pilgrim, San Diego State University

Mathematics Graduate Teaching Assistant Preparation for Teaching through the ELITE PD Program

Abstract: 

Mathematics graduate teaching assistants (MGTAs) make up part of both the current and future teaching force at the undergraduate level; however they are often not adequately prepared to teach in engaging, inclusive, and equitable ways. Without robust professional development (PD) for teaching that focuses on active, engaged teaching practices, MGTAs often replicate the lecture-based teaching practices that they have experienced and observed as students. The ELITE PD project aims to implement and study a PD program for MGTAs focused on engaged learning, inclusive teaching, and equity (ELITE PD). Spanning multiple semesters, the ELITE PD program is being implemented with cohorts of MGTAs across three institutions. In this presentation, I will share the ELITE PD program model, an overview of the research, contextual adaptations, and an example activity.

Establishing a new standard of care for calculus instruction

Laird Kramer, Florida International University

Abstract:

The Catalyzing Change in Calculus (C3) Project developed and rigorously tested the Modeling Practices in Calculus (MPC) curriculum and pedagogy for Introductory Calculus at Florida International University. MPC is a comprehensive instructional approach that promotes ambitious teaching practices, fosters students' use of the practices of mathematicians to learn calculus and embeds culturally responsive instruction into an active learning calculus course. A large-scale pragmatic trial with randomized student allocation was used to compare the MPC instructional approach to traditional, lecture-based instruction. A sample of 811 undergraduate students were studied across 32 sections taught by 19 instructors over three semesters. Large effect sizes were consistently measured for student learning outcomes in the MPC sections, demonstrating a new standard for calculus instruction and increased opportunities for completion of STEM degrees. The talk will summarize the MPC approach, share the experimental strategies and methods, and provide insights on potential future growth and opportunities.