Board 254: Emphasizing Broader Impacts and Societal Benefits in a Developing ERC

Gina Ristani; Keisha Varma; Seth Thompson

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Tagged Topics: Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/46826

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Paper Authors

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Gina Ristani University of Minnesota, Twin Cities orcid.org/0000-0002-4994-469X

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I am a recent graduate of the Psychological Foundations of Education: Learning and Cognition Master's Program at UMN-TC and am excited to begin my new role as NSF ERC ATP-Bio’s Diversity and Culture of Inclusion Education Program Specialist. My passion lies in building my skills in program evaluation to help measure and support cultural responsivity and equity in educational organizations.

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Keisha Varma University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

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Seth Thompson University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

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Dr. Thompson is the current Engineering Workforce Development Program Manager for ATP-Bio and has previously held faculty appointments in the Department of Biology Teaching and Learning at the University of Minnesota and on the Faculty of Engineering and Science at the University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway. His published work includes papers on innovative approaches to undergraduate research, equitable science education, and professional development for early career scientist.

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Abstract

Research is crucial to humanity’s technological and theoretical advancement. It is equally important research be conducted by a diverse, representative workforce. Sustained efforts by academic and industrial institutions to increase diversity in research identify many factors influencing recruitment and engagement of underrepresented minority (URM) students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) research. One promising approach to increase diversity of undergraduates in STEM disciplines focuses on communicating culturally valued outcomes of the research being conducted.

For URM students, collectivistic values which emphasize communally beneficial actions may play a stronger role in their motivation and overall retention. Speaking to cultural experiences shaping students’ prosocial actions is a crucial step in encouraging URM motivation and persistence in STEM fields. Research also shows evidence URMs tend to engage in science for altruistic reasons in pursuit of valued social causes. In the context of these findings, the ideal workforce of diverse STEM professionals seems likely to not only have an understanding of, but a deep and motivating meaning derived from, the benefit their work provides to the world and how they are personally contributing to it. But this can only be achieved when the deeper benefit of and meaning behind research is first clearly communicated and emphasized to researchers as they conduct their work.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center (ERC) for the Advancement of Technology for the Preservation of Biological Systems (ATP-Bio) is working to improve the communication of the broader impacts and societal benefits provided by the center’s research. ATP-Bio focuses its biopreservation mission not only on the engineering research necessary to advance the field, but on the need to educate an engineering workforce that is a demographic reflection of the current and future nation so we may maximize the impact of biopreservation technologies on society.

In this work, we study how increasing communication of the broader and societal impacts of research conducted within an National Science Foundation (NSF) funded engineering research project may improve the diversity of research through imparting the meaningfulness of research to URM students. The main significance of this work is in learning how to improve STEM researchers communication and emphasis on broader and societal impacts of their engineering research. This aim serves to support efforts to reach diverse communities of underrepresented minority students and improve representational diversity of engineering research and research in all STEM fields. The current findings show how researchers are communicating broader and societal impacts of their research over time. Promising effects of educating researchers how to communicate broader and societal impacts of their work were observed in increased numbers of references to these impacts in subsequent presentations. Diverging findings between faculty and trainees indicates a need to continue this research to better understand differences between senior and early career scholars in the way they communicate the broader and societal impacts of their research. With further research in this space, we can continue to support diversity of research through imparting the meaningfulness of research to URM students.

Citation
Format

Ristani, G., & Varma, K., & Thompson, S. (2024, June), Board 254: Emphasizing Broader Impacts and Societal Benefits in a Developing ERC Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://strategy.asee.org/46826

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Research is crucial to humanity’s technological and theoretical advancement. It is equally important research be conducted by a diverse, representative workforce. Sustained efforts by academic and industrial institutions to increase diversity in research identify many factors influencing recruitment and engagement of underrepresented minority (URM) students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) research. One promising approach to increase diversity of undergraduates in STEM disciplines focuses on communicating culturally valued outcomes of the research being conducted. 

For URM students, collectivistic values which emphasize communally beneficial actions may play a stronger role in their motivation and overall retention. Speaking to cultural experiences shaping students’ prosocial actions is a crucial step in encouraging URM motivation and persistence in STEM fields. Research also shows evidence URMs tend to engage in science for altruistic reasons in pursuit of valued social causes. In the context of these findings, the ideal workforce of diverse STEM professionals seems likely to not only have an understanding of, but a deep and motivating meaning derived from, the benefit their work provides to the world and how they are personally contributing to it. But this can only be achieved when the deeper benefit of and meaning behind research is first clearly communicated and emphasized to researchers as they conduct their work. 

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center (ERC) for the Advancement of Technology for the Preservation of Biological Systems (ATP-Bio) is working to improve the communication of the broader impacts and societal benefits provided by the center’s research. ATP-Bio focuses its biopreservation mission not only on the engineering research necessary to advance the field, but on the need to educate an engineering workforce that is a demographic reflection of the current and future nation so we may maximize the impact of biopreservation technologies on society. 

In this work, we study how increasing communication of the broader and societal impacts of research conducted within an National Science Foundation (NSF) funded engineering research project may improve the diversity of research through imparting the meaningfulness of research to URM students. The main significance of this work is in learning how to improve STEM researchers communication and emphasis on broader and societal impacts of their engineering research. This aim serves to support efforts to reach diverse communities of underrepresented minority students and improve representational diversity of engineering research and research in all STEM fields. The current findings show how researchers are communicating broader and societal impacts of their research over time. Promising effects of educating researchers how to communicate broader and societal impacts of their work were observed in increased numbers of references to these impacts in subsequent presentations. Diverging findings between faculty and trainees indicates a need to continue this research to better understand differences between senior and early career scholars in the way they communicate the broader and societal impacts of their research. With further research in this space, we can continue to support diversity of research through imparting the meaningfulness of research to URM students. 
AU  - Gina Ristani
AU  - Keisha Varma
AU  - Seth Thompson
CY  - Portland, Oregon
DA  - 2024/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Board 254: Emphasizing Broader Impacts and Societal Benefits in a Developing ERC
UR  - https://strategy.asee.org/46826
ER  -