Racially-Just, Inclusive and Open STEM Education

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: RIOS Brew & Banter: Advocating for Curricular Change Within and Across Disciplines. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining t... In this session, Dr. Emery will facilitate a lively discussion about changing curricula within and across departments in higher education. This includes data-driven decision making, promoting departme...

RIOS Brew and Banters are a virtual series where people come together for informal conversations about current topics in STEM education.

On Nov 6, Dr. Nate Emery will have a session about advocating for curricular change within and across disciplines. Learn more and register here: bit.ly/4nY4h5L

Blue background with green quotation marks. The text reads: "So given the current socio-political climate, we feel like this is a very valuable resource for people that are interested in some of the advocacy work. Acknowledging that given our situation, we may receive a lot of hostility and backlash for our work to try to discourage or intimidate activists in the field."

Jude is the Chief Operating Officer of @qside.bsky.social .

Last year, QSIDE had a #RIOSWorkingGroup. Their group created a Social Justice Advocate Manual for Survival (SJAMS). This manual offers proactive strategies to counter the anti-DEI/anti-woke hostility from bullies against advocates.

We are still accepting applications for our upcoming Learning Community: "Science Education as Civic Education".

This LC will interrogate the claim that science and democracy share an “indissoluble” bond.

Learn more and apply here: bit.ly/4o0AA4k

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: RIOS Brew & Banter: Advocating for Curricular Change Within and Across Disciplines. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining t... In this session, Dr. Emery will facilitate a lively discussion about changing curricula within and across departments in higher education. This includes data-driven decision making, promoting departme...

Nov 6 - Dr. Nate Emery will have a session about advocating for curricular change within and across disciplines. Learn more and register here: bit.ly/4nY4h5L

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: RIOS Brew & Banter feat. Carrie Diaz Eaton & Dan Turner: Academic-Community Partnerships and Public Trust. After registering, you will receive a confirmatio... How can community-academic partnerships help repair the trust between the public, science, and higher education? By going beyond outreach-oriented community engagement and moving towards research-comm...

Oct 24 - Drs. Carrie Diaz Eaton and Dan Turner will host a session together. The session will be about using community-engagement as an opportunity to rebuild public trust in academia. Learn more and register here: bit.ly/4nk6F5M

RIOS Brew and Banters are a virtual series where community members come together for informal conversations about current topics in STEM education and/or the education system as a whole. We have two upcoming sessions.

RIOS Learning Community Application: Science Education as Civic Education “…unless education has some frame of reference it is bound to be aimless, lacking a unified objective….There exists in this country such a unified frame. It is called democracy.” (John Dewey, Educati...

We have a new Learning Community coming up: "Science Education as Civic Education".

The focus of this LC is to use primary documents & secondary sources to interrogate claim that science & democracy share an “indissoluble” bond, as well as an “ethical orientation”.

Apply by Oct 27: bit.ly/4o0AA4k

An illustration of people watering a tree. Text reads: "Organization HIGHLIGHT. The Environmental Education Initiative. Their mission. Their goal is to inspire students to learn more about making decisions that protect the environment and create thriving communities."

There are so many organizations and projects working to make education more inclusive & accessible. The Environmental Education Initiative is one of them.

They offer a curated collection of free environmental education resources for K-12 classrooms: bit.ly/40EumO2

An illustration of 3 people working on a graph together. Text reads: "RIOS Institute. Lesson Highlight. Learning R for Biologists. Students will use skills to practice analyzing and interpreting data, as well as producing publication quality graphics. These skills also help students think deeply about their own data, encouraging them to communicate their research findings without misrepresenting the data.Learn more about this resource: www.bit.ly/3XkxZ8V"

Sharing open educational resources amplifies our mission to improve accessibility in STEM education.

The resource we are sharing today is based out of CourseSource & focuses on getting students comfortable with R, data literacy & statistical concepts: bit.ly/3XkxZ8V

We are still accepting applications for our upcoming Learning Community. This community will focus on alternative grading. Participants will put together an implementation plan to incorporate an alternative grading into their next course.

Learn more and register here: bit.ly/4gCUz61

Reminder: we have our next Brew and Banter event coming up this week!

During this session, Drs. Desiree Forsythe and Meg C. Jones will briefly reflect on past sessions of their recurring Learning Community that focuses on difficult dialogues.

Join us on October 2nd (1pm ET): bit.ly/4nKnveN

Are you trying to implement alternative grading into your classroom? Then, this #RIOSLearningCommunity is for you.

Participants will work through an implementation plan to incorporate alternative grading into their next course. It starts next month.

Learn more & apply: bit.ly/4gCUz61

Fearless Change: Small Steps, Big Impact - Tessera Strategies Fearless Change is like the TikTok of change-making books. Short, actionable, and packed with strategies you can use right away. Ready to start small, build momentum, and make your ideas stick? Here’s...

Earlier this year, RIOS funded the "Community Organizing for STEM Professionals" Working Group. This group read several books about community organizing.

Check out their thoughts on the first book, Fearless Change, in their recent blog post: bit.ly/4nhMFS0

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: RIOS Brew & Banter: Difficult Dialogues in a Difficult Time feat. Meg Jones and Desiree Forsythe. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email ... During this session, Drs. Jones and Forsythe will briefly reflect on past sessions of difficult dialogues including 1) the material covered and 2) the experience of facilitating. We will then situate ...

Our next Brew and Banter, featuring Drs. Desirée Forsythe & Meg C. Jones, is on Oct 2nd (1pm ET).

They'll briefly reflect on past sessions of their Learning Community that focused on difficult dialogues and what difficult dialogues means to us in today's current climate.

Register: bit.ly/4nKnveN

@melanielenahan.bsky.social and I are running another iteration of the Implementing Alternative Grading learning community starting next month!

Details and sign up at qubeshub.org/community/gr...

A photo of Drew. Text reads: "There's tons of different options for active learning and things. It's the exact same thing with assessment. So it’s important to try to make sure people understand that there are all these options and try and help them figure out which one fits what they're trying to do with their students best."

This is Dr. Drew Lewis. He is a mathematician and education researcher.

Last Fall, he organized a #RIOSLearningCommunity (with Dr. Lenahan) that explored alternative grading practices. This is what he said about it. #LetsLearnTogether

Cover page of Social Justice Advocate Manual for Survival (SJAMS).

In response to retaliatory hostility towards justice advocates, QSIDE is sharing our Justice Advocate Manual for Survival (SJAMS). This resource offers proactive strategies to protect yourself and counter tactics often used to bully, intimidate, and discourage activists in the field: bit.ly/sjams

Blue background with green quotation marks. Text reads: "It's been a very inspiring project. What's been really working for us is continuous community connection, feedback, and support. It has been embedded throughout the project for us.”

Last year, Bekah led a #RIOSWorkingGroup.

Vecina was created out of her working group. It's a website, which visualizes environmental & community info for neighborhood advocacy.

It's a guide that helps families through: registering their kids in school, finding health services, etc.

Blue background with text that says "How are you coping with these uncertain times? What are you doing to take care of yourself? Let us know in the comments!"

Happy Tuesday! It's time for our #RIOSTuesTalks (where we explore ideas related to social justice, #OpenEducation & social change).

Science has been hit hard this year by the current administration. How are you coping with these uncertain times? What are you doing to take care of yourself?

An illustration of people playing a game together. Text reads: RIOS Institute. Lesson Highlight. A Sorting Game to Introduce Different types of Algae. Students will learn the general characteristics of algae and know that no defining characteristic is shared by all algae. This lesson is designed for second-year biology students, but can be modified for a variety of courses (including high school, intro bio classes & more). Learn more about this resource: www.bit.ly/3Xkd85L"

Sharing open educational resources amplifies our commitment to improving accessibility & equity in STEM education.

Based out of CourseSource, this lesson uses a sorting game to introduce students to the different types of algae, in an engaging way. Learn more: bit.ly/3Xkd85L

Sharing:
📢 The BioGraphI Project
🗓️Sept 24
🗣️ Drs. Desirée Forsythe, Bryan Dewsbury & Jeremy Hsu
📝”Journeys into Justice-Centered Pedagogy”
Join a talk on how STEM educators confront inequities & break barriers for students

☑️ Register by Sept 17
🔗 tinyurl.com/Fall2025Even...

Just a reminder: we are still looking for collaborators for the OCTOPUS Project. Application deadline: August 8 (this Friday): bit.ly/4fiK9bg

Join us to explore strategies for engaging faculty and students with open science principles and practices.

OER Posted! 30 min #AILiteracy online asynchronous tutorial co-authored w/3 Bates students. It includes 2 videos and instructor guide (an an example AI policy) qubeshub.org/publications...
Also includes slides and video scripts to adopt and adapt for your own institution. @rioscommunity.bsky.social

@karencang.bsky.social @melanielenahan.bsky.social @samdonovan.net

Have you heard about the OCTOPUS Project?

In collaboration with BIOQUEST (@bioquest.bsky.social), RIOS is working to create a set of openly licensed materials that can be adopted or adapted by faculty.

We are looking for faculty collaborators to participate
(deadline: Aug 8): bit.ly/4fiK9bg

A photo of Melanie Lenahan with a quote. It says: "What I found was really impactful were the open conversations. It was really important giving our participants time to talk about things and talk out loud about different strategies and barriers. I think Drew (co-facilitator) really helped in facilitating a structure that allowed for a lot of conversations."

This is Dr. Melanie Lenahan. She is a biology professor.

She organized a #RIOSLearningCommunity (with Dr. Drew Lewis) that explored alternative grading practices. This is what she said about it. #LetsLearnTogether

A blue background with text that says: "By listening to the podcast episodes...you get to more deeply understand what the guest has to say. [This] aided in opening my eyes and better understanding the work that each podcast guest carries out in the field, their communities, their college campuses, etc."

RIOS student workers play a role in the direction of our goals, mission & more. Segev is a college student.

He helps produce the RIOS Podcast: Knowledge Unbound. He edits the audio & video files, & makes sure the eps are in its highest quality. This is what he had to say about working on it.

An illustration of two people standing on books. Text reads: "Organization HIGHLIGHT. The Open Education Network’s Certificate Program (OEN). Their mission. The OEN is a community dedicated to working together to make higher education more affordable and equitable. With their certificate program in Open Librarianship, librarians are able to gain insight to implement new practices."

There are so many organizations and projects working to make education more inclusive & accessible.

The Open Education Network is one of them. They have a certificate program for librarians to develop tools and skills, to create sustainable and effective OpenEd programs: bit.ly/3BM7SBk

An illustration of an animals sleeping on a pillow. Text reads: "RIOS Institute. Lesson Highlight. An Activity for Population Estimation Comparisons. This lesson helps to describe how ecologists and wildlife managers estimate population sizes for animal species. This course takes students out of the classroom and engages them in research on locally relevant and widely distributed mammals. Learn more about this resource: www.bit.ly/3TnB0Eu"

Sharing OER amplifies our mission to improve accessibility in STEM education.

This is a hands-on activity based out of CourseSource. It teaches students (using multiple methods) how to estimate, compare & evaluate the size of a single population of animals.
Learn more: bit.ly/3TnB0Eu