Over the next three years, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) will use project-based teamwork to call out unconscious racial and gender biases and change STEM culture.
With the first term of the 2018-19 school year, faculty and undergraduate students at WPI will encounter a new normal. Supported by a $240,000 grant from the Davis Educational Foundation, WPI will use project-based team learning to explore and challenge unconscious bias in areas such as race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status and national origin.
The initiative, which extends WPI’s focus on project-based learning, includes curricular and co-curricular approaches intended to expose and reframe bias narratives. A group dubbed SWEET – which stands for Supporting WPI through Effective and Equitable Teamwork – will train a network of students, faculty and staff to provide support and guidance.
First-year students work in groups in the Great Problem seminar, where they tackle major world social problems at the start of their college careers. As juniors, they will work on projects around the world to solve global problems. In their senior year, teams will take on problems related to their majors.
The new program’s training in unconscious bias and tem dynamics is expected to enhance students’ abilities to work effectively in teams, making the bias project a strong fit for WPI, said Dr. Emily Perlow, assistant dean of students.
Noting that problems related to teamwork dynamics can arise, Dr. Geoffrey Pfeifer, associate teaching professor of Philosophy and International & Global Studies, said the student teams can be expected to encounter challenges with domineering teammates, slacking teammates and limited learning.
Often, team dynamics involving multi-ethnic groups leave some participants marginalized or under-utilized.
