Thank you for the invitation to the RF CUNY STEM Summer Institute. I am honored to be part of this institute. I teach biology courses (for science and non science majors) at CUNY (BMCC and HOSTOS-Lincoln HS in the Bronx). I do not have a background in psychology, so it has been very helpful to hear and learn from psychology professors, who are in an excellent position to address important issues, such as motivation and representation of URM in STEM. I quit research and decided to teach, primarily at city schools. One reason was that I want to help URM students become more interested in STEM, especially in the biomedical field.
Reflecting on Topic 1 Belonging and Social Skills and the wonderful presentations by Dr. Jessica Summers and Dr. DeLeon Gray:
1] I am going to make much more effort in knowing each student at the beginning of the semester, learning about their academic goals, interests, etc. I will dedicate a good portion of the 1st lecture for this. I am going to also set up, based on recommendations in my discussion group, meeting with individual students (all of them) during the semester, discuss their progress and what they need to work on more, offer encouragement, and provide individual office hours for students who are struggling.
2] Instead of ‘micro managing’ all the time, such as picking lab groups, I am going to allow the students to choose their lab groups. Allow them to pick a leader, and allow him or her to decide which student in the group will do which part of the experiment. I will rotate the leader in the group (usually 4 or 5 students) so that each one gets the opportunity to be a leader. I have groups for lab sections only, but I am going to form groups for lecture sections, as well. Again, the students will pick the groups, and have a leader. They can study together, and also can do presentations in front of the class on a topic related to the course as extra credit.