![]() As a result, targeted interventions such as diversity programs and workshops have been created to combat social isolation and low confidence (Ahern-Dodson, Clark, Mourad, & Reynolds, 2020 Ballen & Mason, 2017 Casad et al., 2018 Yeager et al., 2016). ![]() In some cases, student demographics are directly related to sociological, psychological, and physiological mechanisms such as test anxiety (Salehi et al., 2019) that in turn compromise academic performance (Ballen, Wieman, Salehi, Searle, & Zamudio, 2017) and alter career intentions (Cheryan, Ziegler, Montoya, & Jiang, 2017 Epstein & Fischer, 2017). College has been identified as a critical time point in the recruitment and retention of diverse students in STEM.Įnsuring diversity in STEM requires examining both racial and gender identities as well as socioeconomic status and how these demographic factors intersect (Eaton, Saunders, Jacobson, & West, 2019). The leaky pipeline begins with high attrition of students (Graham, Frederick, Byars-Winston, Hunter, & Handelsman, 2013), especially racial/ethnic minority, economically disadvantaged, first-generation, and women students (Alexander, Chen, & Grumbach, 2009 Reardon, 2011 Riegle-Crumb, King, & Irizarry, 2019). Gender and racial representation disparities remain a concerning issue in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields worldwide (Holman, Stuart-Fox, & Hauser, 2018). Together, our findings suggest that increasing the number of field courses and actively facilitating access to students from under-represented groups can be a powerful tool for increasing STEM diversity. All demographic groups experienced significant increases in self-efficacy during field-based but not lecture-based courses. ![]() Although under-represented students were less likely to enroll in field courses, field courses were associated with higher self-efficacy gains, higher college graduation rates, higher EEB major retention, and higher GPAs at graduation. ![]() This retention gap is partly due to a lower rate of college completion and partly through attrition to other majors. However, five years later, under-represented students were significantly less likely to graduate with EEB degrees, indicating retention rather than recruitment drives disparities in representation. We found no differences in the proportion of students matriculating at the university as undecided, proposed EEB, or proposed other majors across demographic groups. Additionally, we administered longitudinal surveys to evaluate self-efficacy gains during field-based versus classroom-based courses ( N = 570 students). We compared the relationships among academic success measures and demographic data (race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, first-generation, and gender) for UC Santa Cruz undergraduate students admitted between 20 who participated in field courses ( N = 941 students) and who did not ( N = 28,215 students). Our objectives were to examine (a) demographic gaps in ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB) major completion, college graduation, and GPAs for students who did and did not enroll in field courses, (b) whether under-represented demographic groups were less likely to enroll in field courses, and (c) whether under-represented demographic groups were more likely to feel increased competency in science-related tasks (hereafter, self-efficacy) after participating in field courses. Classroom-based experiential learning opportunities can increase student confidence and academic success however, the effectiveness of extending learning to outdoor settings is unknown. Disparities remain in the representation of marginalized students in STEM.
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