Search for: All records

ABSTRACT Diversifying the STEM workforce is a national priority, yet white males continue to dominate the ranks of professional scientists and engineers in the United States. This is partly due to disparities in academic success for women and minoritized students in prerequisite introductory STEM courses, leading to higher attrition from B.S. degree programs. Past research has demonstrated that when social-psychological interventions targeting “stereotype threat” or “fixed” mindsets are implemented in STEM courses, equity gaps may be significantly reduced. We incorporated two such interventions into introductory biology courses for life science B.S. majors and Associate’s degree allied health students taught at a regional research university and a community college. We observed no significant effects of the values-affirmation interventions on grade outcomes for students in any of the courses, regardless of students' gender identity, race/ethnicity, or first-generation status, suggesting that students, on average, were not experiencing stereotype threat on either campus. We found a significant positive association between completing more weekly reflective journal entries and higher mean content-based grades for students in the university majors course overall, especially first-generation students, although the association was significantly negative for women. Our results confirm that context matters when implementing interventions aimed at reducing achievement gaps, and we propose that educators assess their students’ social-psychological characteristics and then select interventions accordingly. 

Abstract Dissolved calcium concentration [Ca²⁺] is thought to be a major factor limiting the establishment and thus the spread of invasive bivalves such as zebra (Dreissena polymorpha) and quagga (Dreissena bugensis) mussels. We measured [Ca²⁺] in 168 water samples collected along ~100 river‐km of the lower Columbia River, USA, between June 2018 and March 2020. We found [Ca²⁺] to range from 13 to 18 mg L⁻¹during summer/fall and 5 to 22 mg L⁻¹during the winter/spring. Previous research indicates that [Ca²⁺] < 12 mg L⁻¹are likely to limit the establishment and spread of invasive bivalves. Thus, our results indicate that there is sufficient Ca²⁺in most locations in the lower Columbia River to support the establishment of invasive dreissenid mussels, which could join the already widespread and abundant Asian clam (Corbicula fluminea) as the newest invader to an already heavily invaded Columbia River ecosystem. These new data provide important measurements from a heretofore undersampled region of the Columbia River and have important implications for the spread of invasive bivalves and, by extension, the conservation and management of native species and ecosystems.