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1. Fly-CURE, a multi-institutional CURE using Drosophila , increases students' confidence, sense of belonging, and persistence in research

   https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00245-22  

   Merkle, Julie A. ; Devergne, Olivier ; Kelly, Seth M. ; Croonquist, Paula A. ; Evans, Cory J. ; Hwalek, Melanie A. ; Straub, Victoria L. ; Hamill, Danielle R. ; Peister, Alexandra ; Puthoff, David P. ; et al ( September 2023 , Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education)

   Wang, Jack (Ed.)

   The Fly-CURE is a genetics-focused multi-institutional Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) that provides undergraduate students with hands-on research experiences within a course. Through the Fly-CURE, undergraduate students at diverse types of higher education institutions across the United States map and characterize novel mutants isolated from a genetic screen in Drosophila melanogaster . To date, more than 20 mutants have been studied across 20 institutions, and our scientific data have led to eleven publications with more than 500 students as authors. To evaluate the impact of the Fly-CURE experience on students, we developed and validated assessment tools to identify students’ perceived research self-efficacy, sense of belonging in science, and intent to pursue additional research opportunities. Our data, collected over three academic years and involving 14 institutions and 480 students, show gains in these metrics after completion of the Fly-CURE across all student subgroups analyzed, including comparisons of gender, academic status, racial and ethnic groups, and parents’ educational background. Importantly, our data also show differential gains in the areas of self-efficacy and interest in seeking additional research opportunities between Fly-CURE students with and without prior research experience, illustrating the positive impact of research exposure (dosage) on student outcomes. Altogether, our data indicate that the Fly-CURE experience has a significant impact on students’ efficacy with research methods, sense of belonging to the scientific research community, and interest in pursuing additional research experiences. 

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2. Negotiating identity as a response to shame: A study of shame within an experience as a woman in engineering

   Beckmon, Mackenzie C. ; Huff, James L. ; Sochacka, Nicola W. ; Walther, Joachim ; Okai, Benjamin ( July 2019 , ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   This research paper presents the findings of an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) case study of the experience of shame in a woman engineering student. Our overarching research question that framed this study was: How do woman students with multiple salient identities psychologically experience shame in the context of engineering education? We present findings derived from in-depth analysis of an interview with a single case: A White, female student-athlete who majored in mechanical engineering at a private, liberal arts university (pseudonym: Nicole). We selected Nicole as a case in order to critically examine the tensions experienced among multiple salient identities in women engineering students. The findings demonstrate how the study participant internally negotiated the expectations of others with her own self-concept. That is to say, in reaction to a shame experience, the participant evaluated and often adjusted the value she ascribed to the expectations of others and the ways in which those expectations fit into her core identity. Overall, the findings provide a sensitive description with which connections can be forged between broader discussions of engineering education and how cultural expectations manifest within the lived experience of the individual student. 

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3. A qualitative study of marginalized students’ academic, physical, and social self-efficacy in a multiweek geoscience field program

   https://doi.org/10.1080/10899995.2023.2215673  

   Fairchild, Ennea ; Sexton, Julie ; Newman, Harmony ; Hinerman, Krystal ; McKay, Jessica ; Riggs, Eric ( July 2023 , Journal of Geoscience Education)

   Undergraduate summer field programs are valuable experiences that can foster or reduce students’ self-efficacy, an important factor in students’ success and retention in geoscience. Growing research findings show that science field experiences can be hostile and unwelcoming to students with marginalized identities, which may negatively impact their self-efficacy in geoscience, a discipline with a dearth of students from underrepresented, marginalized identities. We conducted an interpretive qualitative study examining how summer geoscience field programs affected two undergraduate, marginalized students’ self-efficacy. Adding to existing theoretical explanations of self-efficacy, we identified three types of self-efficacy impacted positively and negatively by geoscience field experiences: academic, physical, and social self-efficacy. We developed a nuanced understanding of the specific field experiences that influenced the ‘ups and downs’ of students’ self-efficacy and, ultimately, their intent in continuing to pursue a geoscience education or career. Despite negative experiences, including gender discrimination, crude sexual jokes, and a lack of belonging, the students described their intent to persist in geoscience. Our findings can assist geoscience educators (and others in field-based sciences) to consider experiences that support and hinder marginalized students’ self-efficacy. Also, our findings can guide efforts to improve geoscience field programs to create more inclusive environments. 

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4. IMPROVING SELF-EFFICACY OF FINANCIALLY DISADVANTAGED STUDENTS VIA AUTONOMOUS DESIGN AND BUILD PROJECT

   Chumley, Maxwell ; Choudhuri, Shabbir ; Plotkowski, Paul ; Manoharan, Sanjivan ( October 2022 , Paper American Society of Mechanical Engineers)

   The attrition rate at the undergraduate level for STEM fields is a disappointing 48%, and this is even higher for low-income students. Approximately only 11% of students who identify as low-income earn an undergraduate degree within six years, while 58% of students from higher income backgrounds earn their undergraduate degree within the same timeframe. The high attrition rates coupled with the already existing low enrollment is adversely affecting the country’s economy as the supply of degreed professionals is not keeping up with demand. The academic persistence of a student is a critical factor in determining if a student decides to remain in a certain major or not. Researchers have concluded that enhancing the self-efficacy of a student results improves academic persistence which may positively influence retention. This study investigates the effect of autonomous, project-based learning on self-efficacy for 15 financially disadvantaged students. The learning experience was constructed such that all four sources of self-efficacy viz. mastery experience, vicarious experience, social persuasions, and physiological states were incorporated. Results indicate that the experience had a positive effect on the students’ perceived self-efficacy. Each student believed that these played a major role in the success of the project and that their success was very much deserved. 

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5. Retaining Black Women in Computing: A Comparative Analysis of Interventions for Computing Persistence

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3635313  

   Fisk, Susan R ; Watts, Brittany ; Dress, Courtney ; Lee, Charlotte ; Rorrer, Audrey ; McKlin, Tom ; Barnes, Tiffany ; Payton, Jamie ( June 2024 , ACM Transactions on Computing Education)

   Black women remain severely underrepresented in computing despite ongoing efforts to diversify the field. Given that Black women exist at the intersection of both racial and gendered identities, tailored approaches are necessary to address the unique barriers Black women face in computing. However, it is difficult to quantitatively evaluate the efficacy of interventions designed to retain Black women in computing, since samples of computing students typically contain too few Black women for robust statistical analysis. Using about a decade of student survey responses from an National Science Foundation–funded Broadening Participation in Computing alliance, we use regression analyses to quantitatively examine the connection between different types of interventions and Black women’s intentions to persist in computing and how this compares to other students (specifically, Black men, white women, and white men). This comparison allows us to quantitatively explore how Black women’s needs are both distinct from—and similar to—other students. We find that career awareness and faculty mentorship are the two interventions that have a statistically significant, positive correlation with Black women’s computing persistence intentions. No evidence was found that increasing confidence or developing skills/knowledge was correlated with Black women’s computing persistence intentions, which we posit is because Black women must be highly committed and confident to pursue computing in college. Last, our results suggest that many efforts to increase the number of women in computing are focused on meeting the needs of white women. While further analyses are needed to fully understand the impact of complex intersectional identities in computing, this large-scale quantitative analysis contributes to our understanding of the nuances of Black women’s needs in computing.

    

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