Encountering and Becoming Role Models Underrepresented in STEM

• In Event: Poster Session 7
  In Poster Session: Learning Sciences SIG Poster Session

Abstract

Neuroscience Education Outreach (NEO) is a program, sponsored by a major university located in the mountain west region of the United States, which employs undergraduate students pursuing degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) to perform outreach and be liaison to community partner(s). Undergraduate instructors, who tend to be from underrepresented groups in STEM, thus perform roles brokering relationships among the university and students in classrooms, as well as the role of preparing and teaching age appropriate lessons in local classrooms. Three case studies show how, through participation in outreach, undergraduate instructors from groups underrepresented in STEM gain professional skills and are positioned as neuroscientists, thus contributing to the development of their professional identities in their STEM field.

Author

• Leighanna Hinojosa, University of Colorado - Boulder