March 19, 2025 • 24 mins
Prof. Kelly Knight and Dr. Christine Rosenfeld chat with us about how we might increase access to courses, even those in STEM like labs and field experiences.
Resources: https://phet.colorado.edu Disability Services: https://ds.gmu.edu Office of Access, Compliance, and Community: https://oacc.gmu.edu
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Episode Transcript
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Rachel (00:08):
Hello and welcome to the Keystone Concepts in Teaching
podcast.
My name is Rachel Yoho and I'myour host for this podcast where
we share impactful and evidencebased teaching practices to
support all students andfaculty.
In this episode, we're going tostart exploring the STEM fields
and we'll talk about what welearn from the STEM fields and
how some of those principles andideas can also apply to other
(00:30):
disciplines as well.
So in this episode, we're joinedby Professor Kelly Knight, who's
a faculty member with the GeorgeMason University Forensic
Science Program and STEMAccelerator.
She teaches undergraduate andgraduate courses in forensic DNA
and forensic chemistry, and isalso the principal investigator
of the Forensic DNA Laboratory.
We are also joined by, Dr.
(00:52):
Christine Rosenfeld.
Dr.
Rosenfeld is an AssociateProfessor in the Geography and
Geoinformation ScienceDepartment at George Mason
University.
So welcome, both of you.
I'm very excited to have youboth here.
Christine (01:04):
Thank you so much for including us.
Kelly (01:05):
Thanks for having us.
Rachel (01:07):
So let's jump right in.
So when we're talking about theSTEM fields, let's get started
with talking about, what does itmean to teach to support all
students in the STEM fields?
You know, often we hear aboutthings like gateway courses or
weed out courses, really,especially coming from these
areas.
So with this, what does it meanbroadly?
What do we want to be talkingabout today?
Kelly (01:29):
Yeah, I think it's really important when you are a
professor to acknowledge whenyou're teaching your courses
that every single student inyour class is different, right?
They have different backgrounds,they have different needs.
And so for me as a STEMprofessor, I think when I am
planning a course, a key thingfor me when I'm thinking about
(01:52):
success for all of my studentsis designing my course with
intentionality.
And that's really what we wantto do because everyone is coming
in with different things.
One example that I think aboutis when we think about our
multilingual learners in STEM.
STEM specifically is a veryhighly technical type of
knowledge and language, right?
(02:12):
And so when we have studentscome into the classroom,
everyone is essentially learninga new language.
But when we have multilinguallearners, they're actually
learning two different things atthe same time.
They're having to translate thatSTEM knowledge into their first
languages.
And so this is something that wereally need to think about when
we're considering theintentionality behind designing
(02:34):
courses for all students so theycan all be successful.
Christine (02:38):
Yeah, for me when I think of teaching STEM for all,
including all, it's somethingall good pedagogical practice
should do, as my colleague Dr.
Knight said, and then thinkingwhat are the STEM specific
considerations that make senseto pay extra attention to and be
intentional with removingbarriers that prohibit full
substantive and continuedparticipation.
So that might look like if youhave a field work component of
(03:01):
your course.
So coming from geography, we dohave some field mapping courses
going to the field, engagingwith different tools like drones
or GPS holders.
What are some things that arespecific to those tools and
equipment that might not be asimmediately available to a set
of students.
Formulas, right?
STEM has a ton of formulas.
For students coming fromdifferent experiences with
(03:22):
neurodiversity, formulas canpose a really significant hurdle
to inclusion, and invite, reallyalmost require immediate
shutdown, and prevent the buy inand maybe even push folks away
from a discipline.
So that oftentimes warrants alot of conversation between co
facilitators and teachers andinterfacing with your department
to see what would be a moreequitable approach or what could
(03:44):
be.
Kelly (03:45):
Yeah, and I think what Christine said was really
important because one of thepoints I want to emphasize for
all faculty, especially in thisclimate, a lot of times when we
think about teaching for allstudents or inclusive teaching,
a lot of faculty willautomatically think that we're
focusing on race or gender, butI think it's really important to
remember that when we're lookingat inclusive teaching for
(04:09):
students, we're thinking aboutall of our different types of
students.
So that can include studentswith disabilities.
I mentioned multilinguallearners earlier, but even our
military students or ourstudents who may be pregnant.
And so I think that when weapproach our inclusive teaching
methods in that way,understanding that it is broadly
(04:30):
covering all of the differencesof our students, then we can
better design courses that willthat will help all of them to
succeed instead of just onegroup or another.
Rachel (04:42):
Yeah, I think that's such a great point, we're not
privileging a certain group,let's say, or, you know, how
things might be seen, but reallywe're looking at how do we make
spaces that work for everyone,or consider that, and it's
really a mindset shift, if youwill, and I think that really
leads us well into our nextquestion.
And so with that mindset shift,how do or maybe how can faculty
(05:05):
move to a space of feeling readyto engage in this space?
Kelly (05:10):
I think it's important to acknowledge that we may never
reach that point of feelingready.
I feel like I have activelyengaged with inclusive teaching
pedagogy for at least a decadenow, and I still have a point
every year where I'm reflectingback on my teaching practice and
thinking about something elsethat I need to do.
(05:32):
If I waited until I wasofficially ready, I would never,
ever reach that destination andI would never incorporate
anything that would benefit mystudents.
So I think As faculty,especially we lean towards
perfectionism, right?
We want everything to beorganized and listed and ready
before we go for it.
But I think if we push past thatand just start small and think
(05:58):
about just one small thing thatyou can change at a time, one
step.
one workshop, one training, itwill get to get you to a point
where you feel increasinglycomfortable, more comfortable.
You will probably never feellike you have it all together,
but that's completely normal tofeel that way.
Christine (06:17):
Totally agree with Kelly, and to your point, you
should never feel that youtotally get it, because indeed
how could we possibly interfacewith the multiplicity of diverse
experiences and students wehave, and we are changing
ourselves as professors, asscholars.
To add to that point, one thingthat I would recommend I've done
myself when I'm ready to startreally any type of pedagogical
(06:38):
change is take a semester toobserve.
Now, I'm a qualitativeresearcher.
I tend to do this somewhatnaturally anyway, but if you're
having the intention of movingtowards a teaching for all
inclusive teaching in STEM, Ireally think you could take one
semester, keep yourself a log,put it on your calendar every
week to put five minutes.
What students am I losing?
(06:58):
What are the students who aren'tengaging fully in the lab space,
who are really knocking it outof the park in another setting?
Observe if there are anypatterns that emerge across sets
of students to get yourself somedata.
Right?
We love data.
And we can start to build thatown data set kind of about our
discipline and how we teach, andtrying to increase the breadth
of students that we're reaching.
(07:19):
That's kind of my always overallgoal, and I think that's one way
that you can start observingabout it before kind of diving
in to get some confidence up tomake the moves.
Rachel (07:30):
Yeah, and to even build on that, Christine, I mean,
these are some of the thingsthat some of our departments and
program directors might alreadybe building.
There may be existing data onthings like DFW, the drop fail
withdrawal rates or anythinglike that.
There may even be existing datathat we can tap into to inform
our practices.
So as we think a little bit moreabout the STEM fields in
(07:54):
particular, you know, we'retalking about very interesting
and very diverse audiencesacross departments and programs
and even colleges for the STEMfields.
But we also have some uniquespaces, and so one of those
unique spaces that I want totalk about are lab courses.
And so when we have labs, wehave chemistry or biology or
(08:14):
forensic types of labs, lots ofdifferent types and lots of
different things going on.
So how could we start to thinkabout how we make lab courses
more available and moreaccessible to all students?
Christine (08:29):
When it comes to lab spaces, I think the obvious way
to start is like, what are thevisual impediments that learners
might have?
I think that you can think of itin two layers.
You kind of, what are the visualneeds of the cohort of learners
and what are maybe the invisibleneeds?
Sometimes it's easier to startwith the visible.
So thinking about navigabilityof space is one thing for sure.
And navigability of space in away that allows collaboration of
(08:52):
lab partners and such, asopposed to isolation.
If somebody's using a wheelchairor some type of mobility device
that may preclude them frombeing at the same lab table with
other partners, what is the waythat that can be intervened in
that doesn't result inisolation?
I think that's one thing.
So physical obstacles can be agood way to start.
(09:12):
Some of the invisible concernsto think about are things that
we've encountered in our collegein terms of how do we take into
consideration conditions thatpeople may have such as
pregnancy that are not visibleand cannot be asked about, or
can they?
Right?
These are all pretty scary, orthey can be pretty scary from
the faculty standpoint.
They're really important to knowto preserve the safety of our
(09:34):
students, but we're afraid tokind of approach that sometimes.
So being proactive about gettinginformation from the top down in
terms of policies that arealready in place of how to ask
what syllabus statements can Iput on to encourage, for
instance, pregnant students areexperiencing pregnancy loss to
integrate and interface with theprofessor, and to come up with
alternatives, of course, to anygraded work that requires
(09:56):
exposure to particularchemicals, or whatnot.
There is potentially theopportunity to gather some
feedback from students as well.
You may consider doing some typeof an anonymous survey after
particular lab work or halfwaythrough the semester, right?
Asking or proposing and thendoing a set of open ended and
closed questions.
What are some potential again,barriers to full participation,
(10:20):
things that are potentiallydiscouraging unintentionally,
full engagement with that spaceor in that space.
Kelly (10:27):
Yeah, I would agree with all of that.
And I think a lot of this startswith the culture that we develop
within our laboratory space andwithin our courses.
Because one thing I have noticedwith students is oftentimes,
they are experiencing barriersthat they are hesitant to bring
(10:48):
to their instructors becausethere is this culture,
especially within STEM, that ifyou can't do it, you shouldn't
be here, or I'm not going tomake any exceptions to the rule.
And I think that as faculty, weneed to be very clear from the
first day of class that, youknow, we're here to support you.
(11:09):
Please feel free to come anddiscuss any barriers with me.
I know for myself, I always do apre course survey and I give
students the space to tell meabout any barriers they may be
facing this semester that theywant to share with me or how I
can better support them becausethey If we want to provide this
(11:30):
space where all students cansucceed in an equitable way, we
have to put them on a levelplaying field and in some way.
And I think establishing thatinclusive culture is really
important and thinking aboutdifferent ways that we can
engage students in lab coursesthat maybe does not always
(11:51):
involve them actually puttinghands on things.
So I think about the manyresources that are available for
virtual lab simulations as well.
I know in some of my onlinecourses, I definitely go to
YouTube first because that'sfree.
Also, PHET dot colorado dot edu.
That's PHET.
(12:13):
Colorado.
edu.
They have a ton of virtual labsimulations available for all
different types of STEMdisciplines.
And there's other companiesonline as well that have a cost
associated.
But there are ways to engagestudents that does not involve
them physically touching a testtube if that's a barrier for
them.
(12:33):
Also thinking about some of the,you know, more simple ways to
offer accommodations and reducebarriers is when you think about
the lab protocols and theinstructions that we're
providing.
How many different ways are youoffering this information?
Are you just providing it in awritten form?
Are you also including videos?
(12:54):
Do your videos have captions?
All of those things matter inhelping students to be able to
evaluate this lab material andto engage with it equally.
Rachel (13:07):
These are such great points.
I think, you know, when we'removing into a space of how do we
make things more accessible froma teaching approach, right?
You know, obviously we want tobe considering, of course, the
legal bare minimumaccommodations we have to make,
but also we want to take thenext step or hopefully a few
next steps of what does thismean to include everyone in the
(13:28):
space a little bit moreactively.
Kelly (13:31):
Some modifications may be easier than others.
So I think you don't want toallow yourself to become too
overwhelmed by it all.
So I think the best thing to dois to kind of do an inventory of
your syllabus and just take alook at it and think about, you
know, what's the easiest thingyou could probably do is adjust
(13:54):
the language in your syllabus,maybe.
Maybe your syllabus is reallyoverwhelming to read.
There's a lot of information.
There's no language about, youknow, being inclusive or
providing resources for theOffice of Disability Services or
assistive technology.
So that's a simple fix, but thenyou can also think about maybe
(14:15):
just one assignment that youwant to change.
The key is to just picksomething that you feel very
confident with in terms of thematerial and then choose
something within that to kind oftake that and modify.
I also think one of the, well,it may or may not be easier to
some people, but the first stepto all of this is really
(14:38):
reflecting on yourself as aneducator.
And that may be where youliterally start.
You may just spend an entiresemester thinking about your
identity because I know there'sresearch out there that shows
that a lot of STEM facultyactually identify more as
scientists as opposed toeducators.
(14:58):
And that can be a little bit ofa barrier when we're teaching
because we're teaching just asscientists, as opposed to
thinking of ourselves as facultywho are educators and, you know,
are taking on this role in theclassroom.
And so I think taking that timeto just really reflect on who
you are as a scientist and aneducator.
(15:19):
But then also thinking aboutyour own assumptions and your
own biases that may be affectingthe way you're teaching in the
classroom.
So I would probably start thereand then go on to pick that one
thing that you want to modify.
Rachel (15:35):
I think that's a great point.
And just to add to that, Kelly,you know, even if we don't have
faculty seeing themselvesnecessarily as educators, even
if we see ourselves asscientists, if we try to take a
mindset of, I want to experimentwith how I can improve my
course, we can take thatresearch based approach that we
have in our lab research orwhatever type of practice we
(15:55):
have or even for faculty fromother areas if you're a
performer, if you're an artist,you know, whatever that might be
taking that next step of, how doI improve this?
How do I see what's workinghere?
How do I see what else I can dohere and that may turn into
seeing yourself as an educatoras well.
So I think that's such a greatpoint.
And so, as we continue ourconversation, you know, one of
(16:15):
the things I wanted to talkabout specifically was how do we
make the course content or evendata sets, I know that's a
particular interest of yours,Christine, more representative
of the student population, oreven the general population.
You know, we have some data setsor some content that is just
very specific in our fields,doesn't really reflect the world
(16:36):
around us.
What are we thinking about here?
What might we think about here?
Christine (16:41):
Yeah, I love this question.
I feel like for me, this answersa little bit of some previous
conversation about where tostart.
I think it also could be a bitof a low hanging fruit to get at
this goal and this vision ofdiversifying your data sets.
I think a lot of times in STEM,the focus is teaching a skill or
a technique or how to use apiece of equipment or a tool,
(17:02):
but there's an opportunity thereto layer in some data sets that
show a diversity of things,right?
Whatever that may be.
So, if you're teaching acartography or a GIS class, and
the goal is to teach a certaintechnique or a model, you have
an opportunity there to getcreative with the data.
Pick a data set that'sinteresting to you.
Maybe that has to do with groundcover types and change over
(17:25):
time.
Maybe it has to do with historicredlining.
There's an opportunity there.
And if that's scary, just makeit available to students.
Maybe it's not something youshowcase, but building in
opportunities to choose andmodeling to students kind of a
multiplicity of different datasets, where to find them, is a
way to show students too this isjust as valuable and worthy of
investigation as it is lookingat something that potentially
(17:47):
seems less controversial, likeground cover.
No, no, no hard feelings toground cover either.
But I think that's also a way tobuild in inclusivity is through
modeling research questions thatspeak to interests in the room.
And building assignments alsothat might allow for different
modalities, I think is anotherthing that is often done when
(18:11):
we're trying to teach for all,we're trying to reach that
breadth of the studentcommunity.
Maybe it's too scary at first tosay you could, you know, do me a
podcast or you could write me apaper.
Maybe there's one small pointassignment that you could
challenge yourself as aprofessor and as an educator and
a scientist to say, what wouldthis look like if we switched up
the format?
See what students give you.
(18:33):
And that not only gives you apoint of reflection for
yourself, if that was, you know,kind of scary to do at first.
Was it a hit?
Was it a miss?
Ask students why they chose thismodality over another.
And you're going to get anotherlayer of information to kind of
evaluate.
So switching up yourdeliverables, diversifying your
datasets, modeling an array ofdatasets.
I think it's something you cando to overcome what can be a
(18:55):
rigid mindset within STEM,particularly when we're teaching
about skillsets and mastery overtechniques.
I think something else thatcould be done is to adjust your
content to be more intentionalin profiling particular
scientists that maybe align withLatino Heritage Month, maybe get
a data set that relates tosomething enjoyable and
celebratory about that.
Kelly (19:17):
Yeah, I would agree with that.
And I would also add thatsomething practical faculty may
want to explore, and I know,again, as STEM faculty, we don't
always think of doing this typeof research, but community based
participatory research, servicelearning, where students can
really pursue local communitiesthat either they're a part of or
(19:40):
that are a part of the Masoncommunity that reflects, you
know, a diverse population andthey can really engage with the
community as partners and learnmore about a specific issue that
is related to them.
And I think when you bring inthat real world component and
also show this reflection ofthese diverse populations, it
(20:03):
really is a profound learningexperience for students and
George Mason actually has reallyinteresting opportunities for
students and faculty to createcommunity based participatory
research courses where that'swhat they center around service
learning courses.
Or you may just want to includethat as one small component.
(20:23):
Maybe that's your final project.
You spend the entire semesterlearning about these different
concepts, and then you choose topartner with a community.
So I think that's another avenuefor faculty to follow if they're
trying to look into expandingtheir population data sets and
really making it relevant forstudents.
Rachel (20:45):
These are excellent points, especially when we're
talking about basically two ofour, what I see, as two of our
keystone concepts.
You know, we see a little bitmore in the autonomy space, you
know, having a little bit moreability, a little bit more space
in whether it's assignments oractivities or in the course for
our students to choose topics ordata sets or something that
(21:06):
might be of interest to them.
Obviously we want all the boundson those or, you know, having,
specific guidelines oninstructions, you know, page
length or whatever those mightbe, but a little bit more
autonomy to bring in thatexperience.
But also the other keystoneconcept that I think we, we
often talk about kind of relatesto whose voices are being heard
(21:28):
and whose voices are not beingheard.
That's not just of our studentscertainly asking them for
feedback is, is great and can beways that we can learn more
about our courses andactivities, but also even
thinking about the course notjust in the readings, but also
whose voices are being heard inthose data sets.
I'm seeing those two as our kindof key takeaways from that big
(21:48):
picture if we take a step back.
But what else, Kelly orChristine, other thoughts that
you have to perhaps wrap up ourconversation for today?
Christine (21:59):
One of my big takeaways I'd like to leave and
be a point of further discussionis, you know, when you're making
any type of pedagogicaldecision, I like to keep in
mind, and I always benefit fromkeeping in mind, does this help
me reach that fuller spectrum ofstudents, or does it hinder it
in some way?
And that's the question that I'dlike to leave the podcast with,
(22:19):
alongside that Bloom's Taxonomywhen we're course planning: is
any tweak I'm making to thecourse content, to the
procedures, to the enactment, ofcourse to grading, am I reaching
that full spectrum or am I doingsomething to hinder it?
Kelly (22:31):
And I think I would add, you know, don't aim for
perfection.
Aim for progress, because evenif you take just one small step,
that is better than doingnothing at all.
So I think if you just take onestep, do what is within your
abilities.
I know as faculty, we are alloverworked and exhausted and
(22:52):
cannot even fathom adding aprofessional development seminar
or workshop, but there are lotsof smaller options to engage
with.
Don't be afraid to I know I'mgoing to say the naughty word
don't be afraid to lean intoartificial intelligence, um
Rachel (23:11):
It's okay! We've had a whole episode on that, you can
say that.
Kelly (23:15):
I know! You know, just as an example, if you use the
universal design for learningframework, which is a great
learning framework for designinginclusive curriculum, you can
ask AI to help you think of aUDL framework for teaching,
maybe you're talking aboutpolymerase chain reaction, and
(23:36):
of course, you're going to auditit on your own.
But when you want to make thosesmall changes, sometimes leaning
into these resources that areavailable are not a bad thing.
And I think that is a great wayto start.
Just start small.
Don't aim for perfection.
Just do what you can and knowthat, you know, you're helping
your students along the way.
Rachel (23:57):
Well, thank you so much to both of you for your time,
for your contributions, also forall the work that you do for
your students as well.
But thank you for the insightsthat you shared.
And to our listeners, thank youfor listening, and we look
forward to sharing our nextepisode with you on Keystone
Concepts in Teaching in anothertwo weeks.
Hello and welcome to the Keystone Concepts in Teaching
podcast.
My name is Rachel Yoho and I'myour host for this podcast where
we share impactful and evidencebased teaching practices to
support all students andfaculty.
In this episode, we're going tostart exploring the STEM fields
and we'll talk about what welearn from the STEM fields and
how some of those principles andideas can also apply to other
(00:30):
disciplines as well.
So in this episode, we're joinedby Professor Kelly Knight, who's
a faculty member with the GeorgeMason University Forensic
Science Program and STEMAccelerator.
She teaches undergraduate andgraduate courses in forensic DNA
and forensic chemistry, and isalso the principal investigator
of the Forensic DNA Laboratory.
We are also joined by, Dr.
(00:52):
Christine Rosenfeld.
Dr.
Rosenfeld is an AssociateProfessor in the Geography and
Geoinformation ScienceDepartment at George Mason
University.
So welcome, both of you.
I'm very excited to have youboth here.
Christine (01:04):
Thank you so much for including us.
Kelly (01:05):
Thanks for having us.
Rachel (01:07):
So let's jump right in.
So when we're talking about theSTEM fields, let's get started
with talking about, what does itmean to teach to support all
students in the STEM fields?
You know, often we hear aboutthings like gateway courses or
weed out courses, really,especially coming from these
areas.
So with this, what does it meanbroadly?
What do we want to be talkingabout today?
Kelly (01:29):
Yeah, I think it's really important when you are a
professor to acknowledge whenyou're teaching your courses
that every single student inyour class is different, right?
They have different backgrounds,they have different needs.
And so for me as a STEMprofessor, I think when I am
planning a course, a key thingfor me when I'm thinking about
(01:52):
success for all of my studentsis designing my course with
intentionality.
And that's really what we wantto do because everyone is coming
in with different things.
One example that I think aboutis when we think about our
multilingual learners in STEM.
STEM specifically is a veryhighly technical type of
knowledge and language, right?
(02:12):
And so when we have studentscome into the classroom,
everyone is essentially learninga new language.
But when we have multilinguallearners, they're actually
learning two different things atthe same time.
They're having to translate thatSTEM knowledge into their first
languages.
And so this is something that wereally need to think about when
we're considering theintentionality behind designing
(02:34):
courses for all students so theycan all be successful.
Christine (02:38):
Yeah, for me when I think of teaching STEM for all,
including all, it's somethingall good pedagogical practice
should do, as my colleague Dr.
Knight said, and then thinkingwhat are the STEM specific
considerations that make senseto pay extra attention to and be
intentional with removingbarriers that prohibit full
substantive and continuedparticipation.
So that might look like if youhave a field work component of
(03:01):
your course.
So coming from geography, we dohave some field mapping courses
going to the field, engagingwith different tools like drones
or GPS holders.
What are some things that arespecific to those tools and
equipment that might not be asimmediately available to a set
of students.
Formulas, right?
STEM has a ton of formulas.
For students coming fromdifferent experiences with
(03:22):
neurodiversity, formulas canpose a really significant hurdle
to inclusion, and invite, reallyalmost require immediate
shutdown, and prevent the buy inand maybe even push folks away
from a discipline.
So that oftentimes warrants alot of conversation between co
facilitators and teachers andinterfacing with your department
to see what would be a moreequitable approach or what could
(03:44):
be.
Kelly (03:45):
Yeah, and I think what Christine said was really
important because one of thepoints I want to emphasize for
all faculty, especially in thisclimate, a lot of times when we
think about teaching for allstudents or inclusive teaching,
a lot of faculty willautomatically think that we're
focusing on race or gender, butI think it's really important to
remember that when we're lookingat inclusive teaching for
(04:09):
students, we're thinking aboutall of our different types of
students.
So that can include studentswith disabilities.
I mentioned multilinguallearners earlier, but even our
military students or ourstudents who may be pregnant.
And so I think that when weapproach our inclusive teaching
methods in that way,understanding that it is broadly
(04:30):
covering all of the differencesof our students, then we can
better design courses that willthat will help all of them to
succeed instead of just onegroup or another.
Rachel (04:42):
Yeah, I think that's such a great point, we're not
privileging a certain group,let's say, or, you know, how
things might be seen, but reallywe're looking at how do we make
spaces that work for everyone,or consider that, and it's
really a mindset shift, if youwill, and I think that really
leads us well into our nextquestion.
And so with that mindset shift,how do or maybe how can faculty
(05:05):
move to a space of feeling readyto engage in this space?
Kelly (05:10):
I think it's important to acknowledge that we may never
reach that point of feelingready.
I feel like I have activelyengaged with inclusive teaching
pedagogy for at least a decadenow, and I still have a point
every year where I'm reflectingback on my teaching practice and
thinking about something elsethat I need to do.
(05:32):
If I waited until I wasofficially ready, I would never,
ever reach that destination andI would never incorporate
anything that would benefit mystudents.
So I think As faculty,especially we lean towards
perfectionism, right?
We want everything to beorganized and listed and ready
before we go for it.
But I think if we push past thatand just start small and think
(05:58):
about just one small thing thatyou can change at a time, one
step.
one workshop, one training, itwill get to get you to a point
where you feel increasinglycomfortable, more comfortable.
You will probably never feellike you have it all together,
but that's completely normal tofeel that way.
Christine (06:17):
Totally agree with Kelly, and to your point, you
should never feel that youtotally get it, because indeed
how could we possibly interfacewith the multiplicity of diverse
experiences and students wehave, and we are changing
ourselves as professors, asscholars.
To add to that point, one thingthat I would recommend I've done
myself when I'm ready to startreally any type of pedagogical
(06:38):
change is take a semester toobserve.
Now, I'm a qualitativeresearcher.
I tend to do this somewhatnaturally anyway, but if you're
having the intention of movingtowards a teaching for all
inclusive teaching in STEM, Ireally think you could take one
semester, keep yourself a log,put it on your calendar every
week to put five minutes.
What students am I losing?
(06:58):
What are the students who aren'tengaging fully in the lab space,
who are really knocking it outof the park in another setting?
Observe if there are anypatterns that emerge across sets
of students to get yourself somedata.
Right?
We love data.
And we can start to build thatown data set kind of about our
discipline and how we teach, andtrying to increase the breadth
of students that we're reaching.
(07:19):
That's kind of my always overallgoal, and I think that's one way
that you can start observingabout it before kind of diving
in to get some confidence up tomake the moves.
Rachel (07:30):
Yeah, and to even build on that, Christine, I mean,
these are some of the thingsthat some of our departments and
program directors might alreadybe building.
There may be existing data onthings like DFW, the drop fail
withdrawal rates or anythinglike that.
There may even be existing datathat we can tap into to inform
our practices.
So as we think a little bit moreabout the STEM fields in
(07:54):
particular, you know, we'retalking about very interesting
and very diverse audiencesacross departments and programs
and even colleges for the STEMfields.
But we also have some uniquespaces, and so one of those
unique spaces that I want totalk about are lab courses.
And so when we have labs, wehave chemistry or biology or
(08:14):
forensic types of labs, lots ofdifferent types and lots of
different things going on.
So how could we start to thinkabout how we make lab courses
more available and moreaccessible to all students?
Christine (08:29):
When it comes to lab spaces, I think the obvious way
to start is like, what are thevisual impediments that learners
might have?
I think that you can think of itin two layers.
You kind of, what are the visualneeds of the cohort of learners
and what are maybe the invisibleneeds?
Sometimes it's easier to startwith the visible.
So thinking about navigabilityof space is one thing for sure.
And navigability of space in away that allows collaboration of
(08:52):
lab partners and such, asopposed to isolation.
If somebody's using a wheelchairor some type of mobility device
that may preclude them frombeing at the same lab table with
other partners, what is the waythat that can be intervened in
that doesn't result inisolation?
I think that's one thing.
So physical obstacles can be agood way to start.
(09:12):
Some of the invisible concernsto think about are things that
we've encountered in our collegein terms of how do we take into
consideration conditions thatpeople may have such as
pregnancy that are not visibleand cannot be asked about, or
can they?
Right?
These are all pretty scary, orthey can be pretty scary from
the faculty standpoint.
They're really important to knowto preserve the safety of our
(09:34):
students, but we're afraid tokind of approach that sometimes.
So being proactive about gettinginformation from the top down in
terms of policies that arealready in place of how to ask
what syllabus statements can Iput on to encourage, for
instance, pregnant students areexperiencing pregnancy loss to
integrate and interface with theprofessor, and to come up with
alternatives, of course, to anygraded work that requires
(09:56):
exposure to particularchemicals, or whatnot.
There is potentially theopportunity to gather some
feedback from students as well.
You may consider doing some typeof an anonymous survey after
particular lab work or halfwaythrough the semester, right?
Asking or proposing and thendoing a set of open ended and
closed questions.
What are some potential again,barriers to full participation,
(10:20):
things that are potentiallydiscouraging unintentionally,
full engagement with that spaceor in that space.
Kelly (10:27):
Yeah, I would agree with all of that.
And I think a lot of this startswith the culture that we develop
within our laboratory space andwithin our courses.
Because one thing I have noticedwith students is oftentimes,
they are experiencing barriersthat they are hesitant to bring
(10:48):
to their instructors becausethere is this culture,
especially within STEM, that ifyou can't do it, you shouldn't
be here, or I'm not going tomake any exceptions to the rule.
And I think that as faculty, weneed to be very clear from the
first day of class that, youknow, we're here to support you.
(11:09):
Please feel free to come anddiscuss any barriers with me.
I know for myself, I always do apre course survey and I give
students the space to tell meabout any barriers they may be
facing this semester that theywant to share with me or how I
can better support them becausethey If we want to provide this
(11:30):
space where all students cansucceed in an equitable way, we
have to put them on a levelplaying field and in some way.
And I think establishing thatinclusive culture is really
important and thinking aboutdifferent ways that we can
engage students in lab coursesthat maybe does not always
(11:51):
involve them actually puttinghands on things.
So I think about the manyresources that are available for
virtual lab simulations as well.
I know in some of my onlinecourses, I definitely go to
YouTube first because that'sfree.
Also, PHET dot colorado dot edu.
That's PHET.
(12:13):
Colorado.
edu.
They have a ton of virtual labsimulations available for all
different types of STEMdisciplines.
And there's other companiesonline as well that have a cost
associated.
But there are ways to engagestudents that does not involve
them physically touching a testtube if that's a barrier for
them.
(12:33):
Also thinking about some of the,you know, more simple ways to
offer accommodations and reducebarriers is when you think about
the lab protocols and theinstructions that we're
providing.
How many different ways are youoffering this information?
Are you just providing it in awritten form?
Are you also including videos?
(12:54):
Do your videos have captions?
All of those things matter inhelping students to be able to
evaluate this lab material andto engage with it equally.
Rachel (13:07):
These are such great points.
I think, you know, when we'removing into a space of how do we
make things more accessible froma teaching approach, right?
You know, obviously we want tobe considering, of course, the
legal bare minimumaccommodations we have to make,
but also we want to take thenext step or hopefully a few
next steps of what does thismean to include everyone in the
(13:28):
space a little bit moreactively.
Kelly (13:31):
Some modifications may be easier than others.
So I think you don't want toallow yourself to become too
overwhelmed by it all.
So I think the best thing to dois to kind of do an inventory of
your syllabus and just take alook at it and think about, you
know, what's the easiest thingyou could probably do is adjust
(13:54):
the language in your syllabus,maybe.
Maybe your syllabus is reallyoverwhelming to read.
There's a lot of information.
There's no language about, youknow, being inclusive or
providing resources for theOffice of Disability Services or
assistive technology.
So that's a simple fix, but thenyou can also think about maybe
(14:15):
just one assignment that youwant to change.
The key is to just picksomething that you feel very
confident with in terms of thematerial and then choose
something within that to kind oftake that and modify.
I also think one of the, well,it may or may not be easier to
some people, but the first stepto all of this is really
(14:38):
reflecting on yourself as aneducator.
And that may be where youliterally start.
You may just spend an entiresemester thinking about your
identity because I know there'sresearch out there that shows
that a lot of STEM facultyactually identify more as
scientists as opposed toeducators.
(14:58):
And that can be a little bit ofa barrier when we're teaching
because we're teaching just asscientists, as opposed to
thinking of ourselves as facultywho are educators and, you know,
are taking on this role in theclassroom.
And so I think taking that timeto just really reflect on who
you are as a scientist and aneducator.
(15:19):
But then also thinking aboutyour own assumptions and your
own biases that may be affectingthe way you're teaching in the
classroom.
So I would probably start thereand then go on to pick that one
thing that you want to modify.
Rachel (15:35):
I think that's a great point.
And just to add to that, Kelly,you know, even if we don't have
faculty seeing themselvesnecessarily as educators, even
if we see ourselves asscientists, if we try to take a
mindset of, I want to experimentwith how I can improve my
course, we can take thatresearch based approach that we
have in our lab research orwhatever type of practice we
(15:55):
have or even for faculty fromother areas if you're a
performer, if you're an artist,you know, whatever that might be
taking that next step of, how doI improve this?
How do I see what's workinghere?
How do I see what else I can dohere and that may turn into
seeing yourself as an educatoras well.
So I think that's such a greatpoint.
And so, as we continue ourconversation, you know, one of
(16:15):
the things I wanted to talkabout specifically was how do we
make the course content or evendata sets, I know that's a
particular interest of yours,Christine, more representative
of the student population, oreven the general population.
You know, we have some data setsor some content that is just
very specific in our fields,doesn't really reflect the world
(16:36):
around us.
What are we thinking about here?
What might we think about here?
Christine (16:41):
Yeah, I love this question.
I feel like for me, this answersa little bit of some previous
conversation about where tostart.
I think it also could be a bitof a low hanging fruit to get at
this goal and this vision ofdiversifying your data sets.
I think a lot of times in STEM,the focus is teaching a skill or
a technique or how to use apiece of equipment or a tool,
(17:02):
but there's an opportunity thereto layer in some data sets that
show a diversity of things,right?
Whatever that may be.
So, if you're teaching acartography or a GIS class, and
the goal is to teach a certaintechnique or a model, you have
an opportunity there to getcreative with the data.
Pick a data set that'sinteresting to you.
Maybe that has to do with groundcover types and change over
(17:25):
time.
Maybe it has to do with historicredlining.
There's an opportunity there.
And if that's scary, just makeit available to students.
Maybe it's not something youshowcase, but building in
opportunities to choose andmodeling to students kind of a
multiplicity of different datasets, where to find them, is a
way to show students too this isjust as valuable and worthy of
investigation as it is lookingat something that potentially
(17:47):
seems less controversial, likeground cover.
No, no, no hard feelings toground cover either.
But I think that's also a way tobuild in inclusivity is through
modeling research questions thatspeak to interests in the room.
And building assignments alsothat might allow for different
modalities, I think is anotherthing that is often done when
(18:11):
we're trying to teach for all,we're trying to reach that
breadth of the studentcommunity.
Maybe it's too scary at first tosay you could, you know, do me a
podcast or you could write me apaper.
Maybe there's one small pointassignment that you could
challenge yourself as aprofessor and as an educator and
a scientist to say, what wouldthis look like if we switched up
the format?
See what students give you.
(18:33):
And that not only gives you apoint of reflection for
yourself, if that was, you know,kind of scary to do at first.
Was it a hit?
Was it a miss?
Ask students why they chose thismodality over another.
And you're going to get anotherlayer of information to kind of
evaluate.
So switching up yourdeliverables, diversifying your
datasets, modeling an array ofdatasets.
I think it's something you cando to overcome what can be a
(18:55):
rigid mindset within STEM,particularly when we're teaching
about skillsets and mastery overtechniques.
I think something else thatcould be done is to adjust your
content to be more intentionalin profiling particular
scientists that maybe align withLatino Heritage Month, maybe get
a data set that relates tosomething enjoyable and
celebratory about that.
Kelly (19:17):
Yeah, I would agree with that.
And I would also add thatsomething practical faculty may
want to explore, and I know,again, as STEM faculty, we don't
always think of doing this typeof research, but community based
participatory research, servicelearning, where students can
really pursue local communitiesthat either they're a part of or
(19:40):
that are a part of the Masoncommunity that reflects, you
know, a diverse population andthey can really engage with the
community as partners and learnmore about a specific issue that
is related to them.
And I think when you bring inthat real world component and
also show this reflection ofthese diverse populations, it
(20:03):
really is a profound learningexperience for students and
George Mason actually has reallyinteresting opportunities for
students and faculty to createcommunity based participatory
research courses where that'swhat they center around service
learning courses.
Or you may just want to includethat as one small component.
(20:23):
Maybe that's your final project.
You spend the entire semesterlearning about these different
concepts, and then you choose topartner with a community.
So I think that's another avenuefor faculty to follow if they're
trying to look into expandingtheir population data sets and
really making it relevant forstudents.
Rachel (20:45):
These are excellent points, especially when we're
talking about basically two ofour, what I see, as two of our
keystone concepts.
You know, we see a little bitmore in the autonomy space, you
know, having a little bit moreability, a little bit more space
in whether it's assignments oractivities or in the course for
our students to choose topics ordata sets or something that
(21:06):
might be of interest to them.
Obviously we want all the boundson those or, you know, having,
specific guidelines oninstructions, you know, page
length or whatever those mightbe, but a little bit more
autonomy to bring in thatexperience.
But also the other keystoneconcept that I think we, we
often talk about kind of relatesto whose voices are being heard
(21:28):
and whose voices are not beingheard.
That's not just of our studentscertainly asking them for
feedback is, is great and can beways that we can learn more
about our courses andactivities, but also even
thinking about the course notjust in the readings, but also
whose voices are being heard inthose data sets.
I'm seeing those two as our kindof key takeaways from that big
(21:48):
picture if we take a step back.
But what else, Kelly orChristine, other thoughts that
you have to perhaps wrap up ourconversation for today?
Christine (21:59):
One of my big takeaways I'd like to leave and
be a point of further discussionis, you know, when you're making
any type of pedagogicaldecision, I like to keep in
mind, and I always benefit fromkeeping in mind, does this help
me reach that fuller spectrum ofstudents, or does it hinder it
in some way?
And that's the question that I'dlike to leave the podcast with,
(22:19):
alongside that Bloom's Taxonomywhen we're course planning: is
any tweak I'm making to thecourse content, to the
procedures, to the enactment, ofcourse to grading, am I reaching
that full spectrum or am I doingsomething to hinder it?
Kelly (22:31):
And I think I would add, you know, don't aim for
perfection.
Aim for progress, because evenif you take just one small step,
that is better than doingnothing at all.
So I think if you just take onestep, do what is within your
abilities.
I know as faculty, we are alloverworked and exhausted and
(22:52):
cannot even fathom adding aprofessional development seminar
or workshop, but there are lotsof smaller options to engage
with.
Don't be afraid to I know I'mgoing to say the naughty word
don't be afraid to lean intoartificial intelligence, um
Rachel (23:11):
It's okay! We've had a whole episode on that, you can
say that.
Kelly (23:15):
I know! You know, just as an example, if you use the
universal design for learningframework, which is a great
learning framework for designinginclusive curriculum, you can
ask AI to help you think of aUDL framework for teaching,
maybe you're talking aboutpolymerase chain reaction, and
(23:36):
of course, you're going to auditit on your own.
But when you want to make thosesmall changes, sometimes leaning
into these resources that areavailable are not a bad thing.
And I think that is a great wayto start.
Just start small.
Don't aim for perfection.
Just do what you can and knowthat, you know, you're helping
your students along the way.
Rachel (23:57):
Well, thank you so much to both of you for your time,
for your contributions, also forall the work that you do for
your students as well.
But thank you for the insightsthat you shared.
And to our listeners, thank youfor listening, and we look
forward to sharing our nextepisode with you on Keystone
Concepts in Teaching in anothertwo weeks.
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