This week's picks

Hello everyone!

For those of you in academia, happy end of the semester!

If you're an educator, you may have noticed a disparity in your student population. This article by the Washington Post delves into the question as to why black and Latino students drop out of STEM majors at higher rates than their white peers. Perhaps one way to circumvent this disparate tendency is for institutions to take advantage of the Inclusive Excellence initiative by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. This initiative allows for up to 30 schools to apply for grants to help promote diversity and inclusivity within their STEM programs. Is your institution on the list? If not, perhaps you can apply!

Speaking of inclusivity, there is always more to learn when it comes to how women fare in the STEM world. A recent paper highlighted that only 10% of children will depict a woman when asked to draw a scientist. Although 10% isn't particularly high, consider that in previous decades, this statistic was  only 1%! In order to combat this kind of perception, the organization 500 Women Scientists has compiled a database called Request a Woman Scientist so that women scientists will have more representation when it comes to public speaking events, consultations, or having their voice heard in the media. A recent study surveyed the women in this database, and one of the authors, Elizabeth McCullagh, sat down with Laboratory Equipment for an interview about this recent study investigating the effects Request a Woman Scientist has had.

We're always talking about inclusivity, and interventions to promote diversity in STEM, but what if there are unintended consequences, good or bad? This article in Psypost discusses potential negative consequences that come with these kinds of interventions.

Lastly, if you're looking to join an organization, consider checking out NEURONEXXT, a network for women in neuroscience.

Thanks for stopping by!