Professional Development for Molecular Life Science Educators to Increase Retention and Success of Undergraduate STEM Students

Preparing faculty to teach the next generation of STEM students is as essential as ever. Indeed, the higher education STEM enterprise has seen decreasing student interest in science, due in no small part to the pandemic; and these circumstances have brought new challenges in the classroom related to student performance. Faculty must adapt and learn how to address students' changing learning patterns. After several years of working remotely, faculty are eager to network and learn exciting and effective methods to teach their students. They will have the opportunity to do this at a three day in-person conference, supported with funding from this project. An essential part of this project is to impart best practices to capture and retain student interest in science. Speakers will share approaches to help shape the next generation of science students through engagement in both the classroom and teaching laboratory. National experts at the conference will guide and develop up-and-coming faculty leaders on how to address the needs of a diverse generation. As a result of this project, a diverse group of faculty will have increased access to the experts and tools to help students succeed and persist in STEM. This project will support and promote the participation of faculty and post-doctoral fellows from marginalized groups and individuals from under-resourced institutions to attend a transformative educational conference organized by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. The conference seeks to 1) develop leaders in education, 2) introduce current and prospective faculty to ongoing NSF-funded projects to encourage broader participation, and 3) promote effective approaches to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that result in positive and impactful changes. There is a need to retain students from all backgrounds in the life sciences, and while the field of inclusive pedagogy has developed some best practices, the work has not been disseminated to all life science educators. At this meeting, faculty will hear from leaders in the field about growth mindset and discipline-specific education research. Secondly, for faculty to continue to grow professionally, they need to have leadership skills and develop their networks, and the conference will have a session on this topic. Faculty will also learn from seven NSF-funded high-impact projects supporting learning and engaging students. The intellectual merit and the general expected outcomes are an increase in faculty involvement in one or more of the high-impact practices, self-reflection on their personal and professional development, and support of their integration of DEI approaches to help engage and retain all students. The broader impacts of the project are the potential to drive institutional change in the context of STEM student and faculty support. The approaches presented by the NSF-funded groups will help disseminate their work and encourage further engagement with new participants. Each participant will have the opportunity to be an agent of change in their department and institution with the skills learned at the conference, bringing about an impact beyond a single classroom. The meeting will be evaluated with a pre- and post-survey and a long-term follow-up survey asking the faculty about the impact of the meeting. The results of the meeting have already been approved to be disseminated in the peer-reviewed journal, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.