Associate Professor, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University

To what extent do students experience college biology classrooms differently because of their social identities? How has transitioning traditional lecture courses to active learning spaces impacted students? What can instructors do to create more inclusive college biology classrooms?

While there are well-established inequities in the representation of certain social identities in college biology courses, relatively little attention has been paid to possible inequities in the experiences of students in college biology courses.  This talk will highlight a collection of studies that document novel, hidden inequities in college biology classrooms.  It will focus on how the increased number of social interactions between students and instructors and among students in active learning classrooms can have both positive and negative impacts on students. Additionally, it will address possible underlying mechanisms for these inequities and highlight how mitigating these inequities can lead to a more diverse and inclusive scientific community.
 

Sara Brownell is a neuroscientist turned discipline-based education researcher. She received her Ph.D. in Biology and her M.A. in Education, both from Stanford.  She is currently an Associate Professor at Arizona State University and her research aims to improve undergraduate biology education with a emphasis on promoting diversity and inclusion.  Sara investigates the impact of undergraduate research experiences on students. She is also developing assessments for biology majors that focus on the core concepts of biology. Finally, Sara explores how student social identities and characteristics (e.g. gender, religious identity, LGBTQ+ identity, mental health) influence their experiences in undergraduate biology. Sara is currently participating in numerous national efforts to improve biology education, including serving on the AP Biology Development Committee. Her research has been featured in a variety of news outlets, including the New York Times, CNN, BBC, and Scientific American.