Making STEM for everyone: Resources for supporting people from under-represented groups to engage with Science, Technology, Mathematics and Engineering

A resource compilationThis document provides a compilation of resources for supporting people from under-represented groups to study STEM subjects, enter STEM careers and see that STEM subjects can be ‘for them’.The list is arranged in a series of sections designed to make the wide range of resources in this area easier to navigate:BackgroundGeneral information on under-represented groups in STEM and what influences participation in STEMScience capitalUnderstanding the term 'science capital' and its applicationDiversity in science, positive role models and case studiesExamples of people from under-represented groups in STEM, and resources to support the concept of 'STEM for all'What could a STEM career look like?Examples of roles using STEMEngineering in a different lightEngineering might not be what you think it is...Inclusion in the classroomInclusive STEM teaching supportBreaking the mouldChallenges to stereotypes in popular cultureEncouraging people into STEMResources to support interests in STE

Women Like Me Executive Summary 2019

Only 11% of engineers in the UK are women. For democratic, utilitarian and equity reasons this is not enough. Both recruitment and retention are important – more girls need to connect with engineering as a creative, socially conscious, collaborative discipline, and more women need to be supported to make a difference in the workplace. The ‘Curiosity Connections – Women Like Me’ project aimed to change this through tiered mentoring and role modelling. Previous Ingenious research by Laura Fogg-Rogers indicates how important peer group and leadership support is for women, providing vicarious experience and changing social norms. This means that women need peer support to thrive in the workplace, and that girls need to see women succeeding in STEM careers in order to feel that engineering is for them. This project therefore paired 21 mid-career (senior) women engineers with 21 junior women engineers (less than five years’ experience) in order to provide career and public engagement mentoring. The outreach activities resulted in over 10,240 children being engaged in public engagement with women engineers. the junior engineers reported that they feel significantly more equipped to take part in public engagement, with 54% of junior engineers feeling fairly well equipped before the project, but this increased to 68% after the project, with 38% indicating they were very well equipped. Similarly, the mean score on the Engineering Outreach Self-Efficacy Scale significantly improved from 6.80 to 8.41 (out of 10). This indicates that the engineers are now much more confident to undertake education outreach, and are then more likely to continue public engagement following the project. We therefore conclude that mentoring is highly important to ensure a supportive workplace, which means that women are more likely to be retained in the engineering industry

Mapping current range with respect to abiotic site factors of selected southern oaks (Quercus spp) in Mississippi

Physical characteristics of a site that plant species inhabit may be useful in deriving the range of the species. Current range maps for tree species of the United States were originally developed by Elbert Little. These range maps were based primarily on observations. The purpose of this study was to update Little’s (Little, 1971) range maps of select southern oak species in Mississippi by calculating the topological, soil, and climatic features of sites using a Geographic Information System (GIS) to analyze environmental variables associated with species distributions. Data collected from databases were input into ArcMap and site data extracted using Hawth’s Analyst Tools. Stepwise logistic regression performed with site variables yielded the parameters used in predictive models to generate probability maps for each species across Mississippi. These probability maps demonstrate the potential to efficiently manage forests by giving a more encompassing view of species occurrence

Moonlight drives ocean-scale mass vertical migration of zooplankton during the Arctic winter

The creation of the pan-Arctic archive of ADCP data was supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) (Panarchive: NE/H012524/1 and SOFI: NE/F012381/1) as was mooring work in Svalbard (Oceans 2025 and Northern Sea Program). Moorings were also supported by the Research Council of Norway (NFR) projects: Circa (214271), Cleopatra (178766), Cleopatra II (216537), and Marine Night (226471).In extreme high-latitude marine environments that are without solar illumination in winter, light-mediated patterns of biological migration have historically been considered non-existent [1]. However, diel vertical migration (DVM) of zooplankton has been shown to occur even during the darkest part of the polar night, when illumination levels are exceptionally low [2 and 3]. This paradox is, as yet, unexplained. Here, we present evidence of an unexpected uniform behavior across the entire Arctic, in fjord, shelf, slope and open sea, where vertical migrations of zooplankton are driven by lunar illumination. A shift from solar-day (24-hr period) to lunar-day (24.8-hr period) vertical migration takes place in winter when the moon rises above the horizon. Further, mass sinking of zooplankton from the surface waters and accumulation at a depth of ∼50 m occurs every 29.5 days in winter, coincident with the periods of full moon. Moonlight may enable predation of zooplankton by carnivorous zooplankters, fish, and birds now known to feed during the polar night [4]. Although primary production is almost nil at this time, lunar vertical migration (LVM) may facilitate monthly pulses of carbon remineralization, as they occur continuously in illuminated mesopelagic systems [5], due to community respiration of carnivorous and detritivorous zooplankton. The extent of LVM during the winter suggests that the behavior is highly conserved and adaptive and therefore needs to be considered as “baseline” zooplankton activity in a changing Arctic ocean [6, 7, 8 and 9].Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

A gesture-based virtual art program for children with severe motor impairments - development and pilot study

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Art plays a vital role in developing a child’s communication, problem solving, social and emotional skills as well as motor control, creativity and self-expression. For children with severe impairments that limit their access to traditional art processes, it is important to find alternative methods to enable these children to express themselves creatively. Advantages of a virtual art program include its ability to compensate for specific physical impairments, flexibility of incorporating sensory feedback, such as audio, to improve engagement, the avoidance of the untidiness often associated with children’s arts activities, and the absence of physical parts conducive to accidental ingestion. The Kinect Virtual Art Program (KVAP) uses the Microsoft Kinect gesture recognition technology that facilitates a new method of engaging children in therapeutic recreation. The program was designed to allow the creation of art through non-contact ‘virtual’ button activation. A pilot study was performed with five children with severe impairments to determine the level of physical engagement that these children could attain while using the KVAP over five sessions. The results indicated that the participants enjoyed using the KVAP and increasingly engaged with it over the sessions. The KVAP encouraged physical activity and enabled children to create their own works of art, an activity that was previously inaccessible to them using traditional approaches. The KVAP may offer a potential new avenue for therapy, play and exploration

DVM: The World’s Biggest Game of Hide-and-Seek

Diel vertical migration (DVM) refers to the daily, synchronized movement of marine animals between the surface and deep layers of the open ocean. This behavior is the largest animal migration on the planet and is undertaken every single day by trillions of animals in every ocean. Like a big game of hide-and-seek, animals that perform DVM spend the day hiding from predators in the deep ocean, and then migrate to the surface to feed under the cover of darkness. In this article we will explore this incredible strategy for survival. We will introduce the animals involved, describe how the environment of the open ocean drives DVM, and reveal the questions still to be answered as the ocean environment continues to change

Examining the Potential Role of Descriptive Norms in Landscape Water Conservation Programs

The study reported here was conducted to inform potential social norms approaches to water conservation programs. Using a theoretically informed survey instrument, we examined Floridians\u27 perceived descriptive norms of close-peer, neighborhood, state, and national groups pertaining to water conservation. Respondents perceived that people conserved less as groups became more distant and perceived that conservation among close peers was most strongly related to their own conservation practices. When we considered perceptions of the four groups together, we found that only perceptions of close peers\u27 conservation efforts significantly predicted respondents\u27 conservation behaviors. Our findings revealed opportunities to highlight descriptive norms as an Extension strategy, especially among clientele\u27s close peers

Spider Web Graphs

Recent results from Chih-Scull show that the ×-homotopy relation on finite graphs can be expressed via a sequence of “spider moves” which shift a single vertex at a time. In this paper we study a “spider web graph” which encodes exactly these spider moves between graph homomorphisms. We show how composition of graph homomorphisms relate to the spider web, study the components of spider webs for bipartite and tree graphs, andfinish by giving an explicit description of the spider web for homomorphisms from a bipartite graph to a star graph

Posture flexibility and grip strength in horse riders

Since the ability to train the horse to be ambidextrous is considered highly desirable, rider asymmetry is recognized as a negative trait. Acquired postural and functional asymmetry can originate from numerous anatomical regions, so it is difficult to suggest if any is developed due to riding. The aim of this study was therefore to assess symmetry of posture, strength and flexibility in a large population of riders and to determine whether typical traits exist due to riding. 127 right handed riders from the UK and USA were categorized according to years riding (in 20 year increments) and their competition level (using affiliated test levels). Leg length, grip strength and spinal posture were measured and recorded by a physiotherapist. Standing and sitting posture and trunk flexibility were measured with 3-D motion capture technology. Right-left differences were explored in relation to years riding and rider competitive experience. Significant anatomical asymmetry was found for the difference in standing acromion process height for a competition level (-0.07±1.50 cm Intro/Prelim; 0.02±1.31 cm Novice; 0.43±1.27 cm Elementary+; p=0.048) and for sitting iliac crest height for years riding (-0.23±1.36 cm Intro/Prelim; 0.01±1.50 cm Novice; 0.86±0.41 cm Elementary+;p=0.021). For functional asymmetry, a significant interaction was found for lateral bending ROM for years riding x competition level (p=0.047). The demands on dressage riders competing at higher levels may predispose these riders to a higher risk of developing asymmetry and potentially chronic back pain rather than improving their symmetry