OOS 38-4 - Integrating socio-cultural context and identity into an introductory undergraduate course to counter the white cisheteropatriarchal norms of STEM education

The false pretense of STEM as unbiased creates harm by excluding students with minoritized identities and propagating a harmful culture. Biology and ecology are unique disciplines because they include identity-related topics, including sex, gender, reproduction, and sexuality, yet introductory courses are usually taught from a gender essentialist perspective, where sex and gender are interchangeable binaries, and only heterosexual sex exists. However, diversity, rather than cisgender heteronormativity are biological norms. In this talk I will discuss my experiences integrating socio-cultural context and identity into an introductory biology course, including discussing analyses of student responses to specific in-class prompts. My experiences and research findings provide a pathway for teaching more biologically accurately and creating a more equitable world for queer students.