Smaller classes promote equitable student participation in STEM

Under embargo until: 2020-07-24As science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) classrooms in higher education transition from lecturing to active learning, the frequency of student interactions in class increases. Previous research documents a gender bias in participation, with women participating less than would be expected on the basis of their numeric proportions. In the present study, we asked which attributes of the learning environment contribute to decreased female participation: the abundance of in-class interactions, the diversity of interactions, the proportion of women in class, the instructor's gender, the class size, and whether the course targeted lower division (first and second year) or upper division (third or fourth year) students. We calculated likelihood ratios of female participation from over 5300 student–instructor interactions observed across multiple institutions. We falsified several alternative hypotheses and demonstrate that increasing class size has the largest negative effect. We also found that when the instructors used a diverse range of teaching strategies, the women were more likely to participate after small-group discussions.acceptedVersio

Sample information

Sample ID with taxa designation and geographic locality. See Appendix Table 2 for detailed information on each sample

De novo STACKS output (all SNPs)

STACKS output of all SNPs from the de novo assembly in VCF forma

Index 12 sequence file

Sequence data for 40 individuals of 3 flicker taxa in fastq forma

Reference-based STACKS output (first SNP per STACK)

STACKS output of the first SNP per STACK from the reference-based assembly in VCF forma

Index 2 sequence file

Sequence data for 40 individuals of 3 flicker taxa in fastq forma

Data from: A flicker of hope: genomic data distinguish Northern Flicker taxa despite low levels of divergence

Next-generation sequencing technologies are increasingly being employed to explore patterns of genomic variation in avian taxa previously characterized using morphology and/or traditional genetic markers. The hybridization dynamics of the Northern Flicker complex have received considerable attention, primarily due to the conspicuous plumage differences among these birds and the geographically extensive hybrid zone between the Red-shafted (Colaptes auratus cafer) and Yellow-shafted (Colaptes auratus auratus) flickers in the Great Plains region of North America. However, no traditional molecular techniques have been able to differentiate these 2 morphologically well-defined taxa from one another, or conclusively from the closely related Gilded Flicker (Colaptes chrysoides). Here, we use a next-generation sequencing approach to assess the genetic diversity and evolutionary history of these 3 taxa. We confirm the overall low levels of differentiation found using traditional molecular markers, but are able to distinguish between the 3 taxa for the first time, using a dataset of thousands of SNP loci distributed across the genome. Through demographic modeling and phylogenetic reconstructions, we find that Red-shafted and Yellow-shafted flickers are likely sister taxa, and that their divergence from the Gilded Flicker was comparatively older. The low level of divergence and lack of fixed differences in our dataset between Red-shafted and Yellow-shafted flickers, in particular, suggests whole-genome re-sequencing may be necessary to assess the dynamics of their hybridization and identify the genetic basis of their striking differences in plumage

Index 2 barcodes

Barcode file to demultiplex Index 2 in STACK