D epartment
Claudia De Grandi Meaningfully Engaging Students in STEM b y
M ichele
S waner
H ighlight
Physics & A
How can we make Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics fields (STEM) more inclusive and accessible? How can we meaningfully engage students in STEM courses?
The retention rate in STEM fields is low—many students who initially plan to pursue a degree in STEM drop out because they don’t identify with the environment they’re exposed to and they don’t enjoy their STEM courses. How can we keep students excited and interested in staying in STEM?
Claudia De Grandi, assistant professor (lecturer)
of educational practice in the Physics and Astronomy Department, spends most of her time thinking about how to make her courses more inclusive and how to encourage every student, independently of their background, abilities and identities, to participate and engage in STEM fields successfully.
“I love teaching because of its challenges,” said De
Grandi. “Something that worked well in one place may not work in another setting. It’s the role of the teacher to listen to the students and adapt to be in tune with them. My goals are to be equitable and inclusive, although I don’t always achieve it. Unfortunately, we’re all biased, and it’s our responsibility to keep trying to understand how it feels to be someone else.” De Grandi tries her best to consider the hurdles and inequities each student has to overcome to succeed in school. She has taught at Yale University, Housatonic Community College (Bridgeport, Conn.), and now at the U.
