"Oh, it didn't explode," Megan shouted, her undergraduate tutor at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology supervising her to pour the liquid into a beaker.
"It didn't explode." This is not so much a statement of facts as a sigh of relief. But in 2020, everything seems to be exploding, and there is no sign of relief. Not only COVID-19, but also hateful political speech. Police brutality, racial injustice, and inequality have increased. Record the level of anxiety, depression, and stress. Just as our eight-person research team was about to launch our multi-year classroom intervention to improve scientific results, the pandemic changed everything.
Megan is one of seven high school students that we collaborated with in a multi-year project called "My STEM Stories", which was developed by media, education and psychology scholars from the University of Oregon and the University of Kentucky and An interdisciplinary collaborative project led by Inflexion's educational research non-profit organization. This project is funded by the National Science Foundation and uses documentary storytelling videos to capture unscripted interactions and real stories of high school students and undergraduate tutors to inspire Students of color and other underrepresented young people pursue science careers. We plan to study how the highlights of these obstacles overcoming stories affect how high school students perceive their potential as scientists. However, unexpected obstacles have tested our own determination-giving us our own experience of struggling in science. This motivates us to have more sympathy for the students we aim to inspire, and to think more creatively about our research methods.
To make these videos, we shot a pair of students who were identified as black, Latino/a, South Asian, and Persian. They shared lunch and laboratories while studying materials science, chemistry, microbiology, and neuro-brain functions. The two discussed their personal and professional interests, from favorite foods to physics. The tutors shared stories of obstacles and opportunities they faced in undergraduate education. Mentors seek advice and feedback from mentors who are close to peers who also stood on their side not long ago. In exploring what science means to them and their future, the instructor provides personal, authentic guidance to the students who ask the question.
These scenarios place our subjects in a small space with shared equipment. Fortunately, most of the guidance was conducted before the 2019 summer pandemic. The next stage of our research requires showing the video highlights of these coaching experiences to local high school students and involving them in self-reflection exercises to improve their scientific motivation and achievement. In fact, just a few days before COVID-19 stopped our data collection, subverted our intervention implementation and asked us to rethink how to proceed, we have completed face-to-face training with enthusiastic and excited partner teachers.
When our university ceases face-to-face research activities in March 2020, we believe that the closure will be temporary. Initially, we focused on changing the schedule and making minor adjustments to our classroom pilot tests. However, with the closure of campuses and communities for several weeks, it is clear that we will not return to normal anytime soon. Our team has keenly felt the pressure of the inherent productivity drivers instilled by academia through increasing reliance on profit maximization and austerity measures. Competitive national funding requires publications and scalable intervention materials to obtain a return on investment. Professors and graduate tutors will spend more energy on emotional labor with struggling undergraduates, and they are also expected to "continue as usual." Although these stressors are always hidden under the surface in higher education, the pandemic highlights them.
One impact of COVID-19 exposure is that despite the need to take care of oneself and each other's morals as humans "after", there is still a need to continue to work hard to meet the "before" institutional goals and expectations. This has become more apparent as our team tackles individual challenges such as undergoing medical procedures, facing mental health issues, losing loved ones, balancing childcare, managing lockouts, and fighting constant screen fatigue. Despite our efforts to maintain cooperation and support, because team members disagree on how to proceed, at what speed, and how to proceed, we feel an inherent antagonism between advancing and withdrawing our research plan. Tenured professors worry about productivity. Graduate students worry about reaching project milestones. Researchers worry about the exhaustion of funds. Tenured professors are forced to assume leadership roles and have to make impossible decisions.
In this tension, we have witnessed and participated in the grassroots, global equality and racial justice movement that will flourish in 2020. As researchers and educators dedicated to developing STEM identities and fairness methods among racially diverse and historically marginalized youth, we reflect on the collision of the dual epidemics of COVID-19 and systemic racism. We have seen that the people we seek to support through research are those most negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the least-represented population in the STEM field working to stop the virus. Our research is more urgent.
Our digital storytelling videos show undergraduate tutors how to overcome difficult modeling methods with high school students. But these tutors also have lessons they taught us during this time. They told students about the personal and academic challenges they faced: unsupportive teachers, mental illnesses of parents, destructive health diagnoses. They also shared the strategies they used to overcome these problems, such as establishing routines and identifying family and friends who support them. They revealed their experiences of self-doubt and uncertainty, and explained how to find internal and external motivation to move them towards their goals. In the rich stories of our mentors who are close to peers, we have transformed from experts to learners. We adjusted and tried to respond to each other with support and kindness. Faced with a system that requires productivity at all costs, we have created a space to consciously and purposefully pay attention to our humanity. In the process of slowing down, we once again found opportunities.
By reflecting on the challenges we face in life, we began to ask how living within the limits of COVID-19 might affect the students we planned to study a few months ago. We asked ourselves: Can experiencing the world during COVID-19 lead students to participate in science in a new and immersive way? Does watching a video of a tutor about how their motivation to give back to society shapes their science career choices has any major impact on the 10th grade audience?
We clarified our hypothesis in a formal request for additional funding, and the National Science Foundation granted our team a rapid response research grant to explore issues related to COVID-19. We produced a new digital storytelling video about science in the pandemic, in which we also expanded the underrepresented population, including a queer marine biologist tutor and Megan, a native of America High school students with traditional residents. In accordance with the pandemic guidelines, we filmed the coaching experience of the new couple on the Oregon Coast. This allows us to challenge mainstream narratives about who can be a scientist and advance dialogue about the role of science in the public interest.
On the day we were shooting, we experienced the typical Oregon winter weather-cloudy, cold, and drizzle. But Megan's words-"It didn't explode!"-were bigger than the chemical reaction in the glass beaker. This is an optimistic statement. Although we face challenges in 2020 and continue to face challenges in 2021, we have found an opportunity to reimagine academic life in the pandemic and advance meaningful work.
Although COVID-19 has hindered our plan to evaluate student responses to classroom videos, it has also created new opportunities. We decided to modify our intervention and move it online. It looks like we will be able to implement it flexibly, with very little energy from the tired teacher. This kind of self-directed online delivery may make it easier for more students to obtain the student experience, and it is possible to obtain more student experience, and the life expectancy is also longer.
We believe that these changes will have a positive impact on more students and hope to increase fairness and inclusiveness, thereby strengthening science, because individuals from different backgrounds cooperate to solve problems for the benefit of greater benefits.
Lead researcher: Ed Madison, University of Oregon. Co-Principal Investigators: Matthew Kim, University of Kentucky; Jenefer Husman, University of Oregon; Ross Anderson, Turning Point. Rachel Guldin is a PhD student at the University of Oregon.
This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
This story is part of the EdSurge research series, provided with the support of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. EdSurge maintains editorial control of all content. This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
EdSurge reports on the people, ideas, and tools that shape the future of learning.
© 2021 International Institute of Educational Technology (ISTE), all rights reserved