The SEISMIC Collaboration is a collection of educators, researchers, students, student support staff, and more who work in higher education and have seen the persistent problem of inequity and non-inclusion in STEM education. We use a Working Group structure to take advantage of the expertise across SEISMIC and to promote collaborative work in “themes,” rather than by discipline, institution, or title. In this way, our Working Groups are multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary, have participants working in a range of roles at their institutions, and are motivated to study a specific area that will contribute to making our intro STEM courses more equitable and inclusive. 

For more check out: https://www.seismicproject.org/

Working Groups:

SEISMIC participants currently work together through four Working Groups: Measurement, Experiments, Implementing Change (formerly Structures), and Constructs. Each Working Group focuses on a specific aspect of equity and inclusion in STEM education. Our Measurement group uses institutional datasets and parallel data analysis to identify inequities in STEM classrooms related to performance, representation, and persistence. Our Experiments group works with STEM instructors to try classroom innovations and interventions to address inequities and problems of inclusion. Our Implementing Change group looks at the programs and tools influencing student experiences in STEM to identify strategies that best support reform in STEM education and practices that harm these efforts. Our Constructs group studies the diversity of ideas that undergird efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in foundational STEM courses, helping us to be explicit about what we mean when we aim for equity and inclusion in STEM education. These four Working Groups represent the bulk of SEISMIC activity and meet face-to-face and virtually throughout the year to accomplish the key goals of our collaboration. 

Working Group Focus:

Measurement: Establish metrics for measuring equity and inclusion in foundational STEM courses, conduct the measurements, and identify actionable data to promote change.

Experiments: Use experiments to understand disparities and foster equity in the classroom and across multiple disciplines and universities, with an emphasis on replication and context.

Implementing Change: Present analyses on student outcomes to campus stakeholders and leverage institutional knowledge and tools to promote policy changes toward creating equitable and inclusive introductory STEM courses.

Constructs: Integrate critical frameworks and histories into STEM education research and bring in perspectives, expertise, and experiences from marginalized communities in STEM.