Advancing Excellence and Equity in Science: A curriculum to build community and belonging in STEM

The Advancing Equity and Excellence in Science (AEES) initiative at Western Washington University (WWU), funded through an HHMI Inclusive Excellence grant, works at multiple levels to make science majors more attractive and inclusive to undergraduates, especially those who are from minoritized groups. As part of the AEES initiative, faculty and staff at WWU created an interdisciplinary, two-quarter seminar sequence for science-interested first-year and transfer students of minoritized backgrounds that includes faculty and peer mentoring. To understand the impacts of AEES seminars and embedded mentoring, we used an untreated control group design with dependent pretest and posttest samples to examine how AEES students differed from non-AEES students in their perceptions of belongingness, science identity, and motivation. We found AEES Cohorts 1 (starting in 2017) and 3 (starting in 2019) had higher self-determination and goal orientation on posttests, controlling for pretest responses. These cohorts also reported higher perceived peer support than the non-AEES group. For belongingness, AEES students reported significantly higher comfort in STEM classrooms and greater belongingness at WWU than did non-AEES students. To understand the degree to which science identity, science motivations, and belongingness contributed to ultimate outcomes, we ran a series of regressions with STEM and overall GPA, whether students graduated, and whether students changed majors to a non-STEM major post year one. We found that less intrinsically motivated students were most likely to change majors, albeit most commonly to another STEM major and that belongingness to WWU was predictive of both STEM and overall GPA. Along with summarizing these findings, the presentation will summarize aspects of the seminars' curricula, including major revisions enacted between cohorts 2 and 3.