BIO 290A: Being Human in STEM: Pedagogy/Teaching Tips

Download available for DePauw Community.
This source focuses on the University of Dayton’s project to improve DEI in their computer science department. It emphasizes changes that affect current students and addresses reasons for and successful ways they have increased retention rate (building common curricular foundations, cultural competency, changing pedagogy, etc.) It not only details reasons why DEI in STEM was needed at the university, but also how new methods were implemented and the subsequent results. This is a useful resource for implementing change at a departmental or institutional level, as well as in individual classrooms.

“Disciplinary jargon and institutional abbreviations, the unwritten academic “rules of the game” we assume all students understand, the tone used when we lay out (un)acceptable student behaviors—in all of these choices, we communicate (however unintentionally) messages about how inclusive or exclusive our courses will be.”
This source notes specific ways to use a syllabus to foster inclusivity in the classroom. It includes links to examples of using universal design of instruction and a sample before and after syllabus that has been redesigned to increase accessibility.