Opportunities to Engage with

the SEISMIC Collaboration

Nita Tarchinski, SEISMIC Project Manager

A Little About Me

• Organizational support for research projects and collaboration-wide programs, like the Speaker Events Bureau
• SEISMIC-wide communications and information, including the monthly newsletter and website
• Collaboration events, like the Annual Summer Meeting and upcoming Weeks of SEISMIC
• Changing your involvement in SEISMIC
• Bringing new members into SEISMIC, including student researchers

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Apr. 2018

B.S. Physics Education

May 2018

Physics Education Research Assistant

Nov. 2018

SEISMIC Project Manager

Apr. 2021

M.A. Educational Leadership and Policy

Contact Me About…

Why SEISMIC?

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• Large intro STEM courses are important for students and institutions, but often disappoint
• Students struggle to achieve goals & obtain support
• Faculty find them hard to teach & are disappointed with learning outcomes
• Problems with equity & inclusion are widespread, well-known, and long-standing
• There is plenty of knowledge about education research siloed by discipline
• Individuals with different institutional roles have different perspectives and expertise
• Working at single institutions has limited impact
• Hard to know how context-specific the results are
• Potentially few colleagues working on the same problems
• Individual voices for change are not as strong as a collaborative voice and institutional pressure

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Sloan Equity and Inclusion in STEM Introductory Courses

SEISMIC: Background

• Multidisciplinary collaboration of 10 institutions
• We believe a course cannot be successful unless it is equitable and inclusive
• Collaborative activities include 4 Working Groups, our Speaker Exchange Program, and our Annual Meetings

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Sloan Equity and Inclusion in STEM Introductory Courses

Nov. 2018

Founded, funding from Sloan Foundation

Feb. 2019

10 member institutions, launch visits begin

Summer 2019

Summer Meeting - Launch of Working Groups and projects

Sept. 2019

Speaker Exchange

Program begins

Feb. 2020

Launch of Constructs Working Group

Mar. 2020

COVID-19

Summer 2020

Summer Meeting #2

Fall 2020

Launch of Themes, Speaker Events Bureau

Summer 2021

SEISMIC Scholars, Measurement Fellows, Summer of SEISMIC,

Summer Meeting #3

Fall 2021

Launch of Task Force, SEISMIC Conversations

Spring 2022

Launch Weeks of SEISMIC

Our Four Working Groups

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Measurement Working Group

Experiments Working Group

Implementing Change Working Group

Constructs Working Group

Establish metrics for measuring equity and inclusion in foundational STEM courses, conduct the measurements, and identify actionable data to promote change.

Use experiments to understand disparities and foster equity in the classroom and across multiple disciplines and universities, with an emphasis on replication and context.

Present analyses on student outcomes to campus stakeholders and leverage institutional knowledge and tools to promote policy changes toward creating equitable and inclusive introductory STEM courses.

Integrate critical frameworks and histories into STEM education research and bring in perspectives, expertise, and experiences from marginalized communities in STEM.

Key Projects and Activities

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Measurement Working Group

Experiments Working Group

Implementing Change Working Group

Constructs Working Group

1. Exploring Demographic Effects In Introductory Stem Courses
2. Mapping Paths Of Students Who Fail Foundational Stem Classes
3. Impact Of Classroom Composition On Student Outcomes
4. Examining The Impact Of Advanced Placement Course Credit Policies On Student Performance In Science Gateway Courses
5. Identifying Components Of Active Learning That Increase Equity And Inclusion In Introductory Stem Courses
6. Persistent Equity Gaps In Upper Division Science Courses

1. Office Hours – explore wide range of practices associated with office hours and inform recommendations to campuses on best practices.
2. Backchannel – explore to what degree the establishment of a backchannel in foundational STEM courses increases student participation in class inquiry.
3. Access to Practice – faculty design peer-reviewed, low-stakes writing assignments for students to improve their learning
4. CLUE: Contextual Linkaging – design, build, and test a new technology that promotes elaboration and reflection for learners while providing feedback to instructors.

1. Bright Spots Grant Proposal
2. Building awareness and empathy for introductory STEM students to improve STEM instruction at faculty and administrator levels
3. Tools Inventory – identify and inventory software used by faculty when teaching introductory STEM courses
4. Teaching and Learning Community

1. Content Analysis of Constructs in STEM Education Literature
2. Framework Analysis for Advancing Higher Education Toward Social Justice
3. Mapping Institutional Resources / Characterizing Institutional Practice for Diversity & Equity in STEM

More Info

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Papers

Fischer, C., Witherspoon, E., Nguyen, H., Feng, Y., Fiorini, S., Vincent-Ruz, P., Mead, C., Bork Rodriguez, W. N., Matz, R. L., & Schunn, C. (2022). Advanced placement course credit and undergraduate student success in gateway science courses. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21799

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Hammarlund, S. P., Scott, C., Binning, K. R., & Cotner, S. (2022). Context Matters: How an Ecological-Belonging Intervention Can Reduce Inequities in STEM. BioScience. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biab146

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Hammond, J. W., Brownell, S. E., Byrd, W. C., Cheng, S. J., McKay, T. A., & Tarchinski, N. A. (2022, August 25). Infrastructuring to scale multi-institutional equity and inclusion innovations. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 54(5), 37–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.2022.2101866

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Pearson, M. I., Castle, S. D., Matz, R. L., Koester, B. P., & Byrd, W. C. (2022). Integrating Critical Approaches into Quantitative STEM Equity Work. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 21(1), es1. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.21-06-0158

New SEISMIC Grant #1: SELC

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• Creating STEM Equity Learning Communities (SELCs) on each SEISMIC campus in 2022-2023
• Year-long cohort for STEM faculty and students to examine course equity data from their courses, supported by teaching centers
• Summer Institute in May 2023 for all SELC teams to meet in-person and launch the program
• Local presentations to campus leadership in summer 2024 with action plans for the departments and institutions
• We’ll be reaching out this fall with more information on the opportunity

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Implementing Change Working Group

New SEISMIC Grant #2: S-STEM

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• S-STEM is an NSF program to provide scholarships to domestic low-income students in STEM fields
• Collaborative planning grant for 2022-2023
• Goal: Write an inter-institutional S-STEM proposal for February 2024
• Will be building a grant-writing team this fall
• Looking for individuals involved in financial aid, scholarships, and student support

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Scholarships for Students

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Other Collaborative Activities

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Speaker Exchange Program

Annual Meetings

SEISMIC Scholars Program

SEISMIC Conversations

Other Summer Activities

Measurement Fellows Program

Weeks of SEISMIC

Theme Activity

Each SEISMIC institution hosts 6 or more speakers each year on SEISMIC-related topics. These are open to the whole local community and sometimes the whole collaboration.

Opportunities for members to gather together to share progress, establish new collaborative projects, and improve the collaboration.

Last year we had a Summer of SEISMIC, which included book groups, panel discussions, and more.

In-person activity at each SEISMIC campus to engage the local community, advance SEISMIC projects and generate new energy.

Intentional activity to facilitate connections across Working Groups.

Fellowship for graduate students and postdocs to accelerate Measurement Working Group projects.

Paid undergraduate research program for students to work on SEISMIC projects.

Discussion series for Working Group members to share updates and get feedback from members across SEISMIC.

Summary

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• Attend local UMN SEISMIC events, get in touch with Jesse Lewis for updates
• Join Working Group research teams to advance research progress
• Implement SEISMIC classroom innovations in your STEM courses
• Attend our 2023 Summer Meeting
• Sign up for our monthly newsletters (through our website) to stay informed of upcoming opportunities (including how to register for our Summer Meeting)
• Join our Slack community to easily connect with SEISMIC members at different universities and to share and find resources (email nitaked@umich.edu for Slack invite)

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Opportunities to engage with SEISMIC

SEISMIC Trivia

How well do you know your SEISMIC stuff?

Answer correctly and win prizes!

Category 1:

SEISMIC History

What year was SEISMIC established?

Q1

2019

We came together in early 2019 because we needed to improve student experiences in our introductory STEM courses. Building equitable and inclusive campuses must begin with admitting that our universities and fields need to change. Our collaboration represents members from 10 public research universities in the United States that educate over 350,000 students each year.

True or False:

The initial inspiration for SEISMIC came from a professor noticing gendered performance differences in his class.

Q2

True

This professor teamed up with people at other Big 10 universities and found a pattern of gendered performance differences in STEM. This project allowed people to see how coming together across institutions around data can be valuable. A few years later, that UM physics professor, Tim McKay, proposed the SEISMIC project. Funding for the SEISMIC project has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and our SEISMIC Institutions.

Category 2:

Fast Facts

Which SEISMIC Institutions Are Missing?

Which SEISMIC Institutions Are Missing?

There are 248 active members in SEISMIC (involved in Working Groups and/or attend our Annual Meetings). What percentage of SEISMIC members are affiliated with UMN?

Q2

7%

There are 18 UMN members listed in our Participants Database.

Which SEISMIC members have been featured on the SEISMIC podcast?

Q3

SEISMIC PODCAST

Office Hours with Sabrina Solanki

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Hosts: Sabrina Solanki and Anna James

Guests (so far): Vanessa Woods, Mike Wilton, Katelyn Cooper, and Nikeetha Farfan D’Souza

Category 3:

Who Said It?

Who Said It?

“I became involved with SEISMIC after joining a biology education research journal club at the University of Minnesota and hearing about a project that Sehoya Cotner and Cheryl Scott were working on in collaboration with Kevin Binning at the University of Pittsburgh.”

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Jesse Lewis

Sarah Hammarlund

Abdi Warfa

Michelle Driessen

Sarah Hammarlund

Category 4:

Your Activity

Collaborative Activities

How many have you participated in?

Thank you!!

By Nita Tarchinski (SEISMIC Project Manager) and Ashley Atkinson (SEISMIC Program Assistant)

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