Photo Courtesy of Jenny Yu ‘24
By Imaan Moin ’22
Staff Writer
Undergraduate students at Mount Holyoke College have long been able to pursue research in STEM departments. However, this year, the path to pursuing research is being restructured as part of the STEM departments’ inclusive education efforts and anti-racism plans, according to the MHC Chemistry and Biochemistry Anti-Racism Community meeting minutes from November 2021.
The College has received an Inclusive Excellence grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute “to substantially and sustainably build their capacity for student belonging, especially for those who have been historically excluded from the sciences,” according to the HHMI website. This grant challenge began in February 2021 and allows for participating U.S. colleges and universities to collaborate in their plans to implement inclusive education practices. The College’s program director for this grant is Dr. Gary Gillis, associate dean of faculty. Gillis has been meeting with program directors from other universities and has discerned two large themes arising from this collaborative work.
The first theme to implement inclusive education is embedded in the mindset and attitudes of faculty. “Good pedagogy is inclusive, anti-racist pedagogy,” Gillis said. But the difficulties lie in implementing this attitude. “So how do we work with staff, with faculty around mindset? How do we build it into our normal way of doing business, in terms of our teaching and learning and training teachers? And how do we reward people for that work?” Gillis added.
The second theme in implementing inclusive education delves into STEM curriculum and its development. “What are different ways to grade? What are different kinds of assignments? What are the ways that you can test students differently?” Gillis explained. Ideas on how to change this approach to teaching vary widely, according to Gillis. “Frankly, a lot of what I’ve learned in the last couple of years around this is how important getting to know the students themselves is,” Gillis said. “We were in a workshop with a guy named Bryan Dewsbury, who’s a real expert on this stuff, and he had this phrase that has stuck with us, which is ‘you know you’re teaching students, not content,’” Gillis added.
The College has begun to include these approaches in the departments of biological sciences and chemistry since 2017. According to Gillis, the chemistry department added a new introductory course and created more 200-level course options. “ “But what’s been lacking is any assessment of how that’s going,” Gillis said. “You can design something with the best intentions, but if it’s not doing what you designed it to do, then you know it’s an unfortunate failure … “It’s been tough because COVID[-19] is now sort of a weird variable that adds a wrench into any analysis you want to do.”
Outside of classes, the College is focusing on developing faculty through the Teaching and Learning Initiative, specifically through the annual “Teaching Renewal Week” in May. Another process is the department of biological sciences’ new approach to student research. “We’ve made the connection that historically speaking, faculty invite students into their labs based on the performance of those students in introductory courses, and introductory courses are … designed in this way that rewards previous privilege,” Gillis said. “And so we need to somehow remove the barriers … We need to figure out different ways of getting students into labs because the lab experience itself is incredible development for students and, in turn, is the access point to the next level,” Gillis added.
The department of biological sciences implemented a new formal application process for students interested in pursuing independent research in a faculty member’s laboratory. The application requires students to fill out a Google Form available on the department’s website that was also emailed to biological sciences and biochemistry majors. This form asks questions about goals and previous biology and research experience alongside questions about students’ identities in an effort to track metrics to “make sure that everyone has equal access,” according to the form.
Alishba Ahmad ’24, a neuroscience and behavior major, joined the Camp Lab this semester and went through the laboratory research application in the fall.
“I feel like the form was accessible and easy to use, but I do feel like [the department] didn’t advertise it,” Ahmad said. She was not aware of the form or the application process until Dr. Amy Hitchcock Camp, associate professor of biological sciences, informed her of the department of biological sciences’ new policy. “I think maybe a lot of other people didn’t know as well,” Ahmad added.
Siyu Yin ’23, a biochemistry major, went through the same process to join the Camp Lab this semester. “I plan to go to graduate school after I graduate from Mount Holyoke, so I think having a lab experience makes me more competitive,” Yin said. She agreed with Ahmad that information about getting into research labs is not well known amongst students. She also did not know that she could apply to join a lab in her first two years at the College. “I think there’s kind of a lot of information gaps,” Yin said. However, students have some ideas about how to improve the research application process even more. Yin suggested that the faculty members could put together a panel to introduce their research topics instead of having students talk to faculty members independently. “Some students might be shy,” Yin said. “I feel very lucky to get into a lab finally in my junior year because I think I really need this kind of experience.”
With these new approaches to making STEM education more inclusive at the College, the next steps seem to be analyzing if these changes are making a difference and sharing this information with other colleges participating in HHMI grant funding, according to Gillis. “I hope and expect that our STEM curriculum will be quite changed,” Gills said.