STEM Data Center

Among efforts to increase diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in the federal workforce, women still fall significantly behind in representation for agencies’ science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) roles. Women comprised just 29.3% of federal STEM workers, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported on July 13. The statistic was based on data from fiscal 2019, the most recent information available. The number was just ahead of STEM workers nationwide. Data from the Census Bureau showed that women made up about 27% of the overall STEM workforce in the U.S.

To graduate with a science major, college students must complete between 40 and 60 credit hours of science coursework. That means spending around 2,500 hours in the classroom throughout their undergraduate career. However, research has shown that despite all that effort, most college science courses give students only a fragmented understanding of fundamental scientific concepts. The teaching method reinforces memorization of isolated facts, proceeding from one textbook chapter to the next without necessarily making connections between them, instead of learning how to use the information and connect those facts meaningfully. (THE CONVERSATION)

BALTIMORE —Late one night in the fall of 2020, when Kizzmekia Corbett learned the vaccine she had helped design was highly effective against the coronavirus, there was only one person she wanted to call: Freeman A. Hrabowski III, the longtime president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. At 34, Dr. Corbett was the first Black woman to achieve such a feat, a groundbreaking development in the fight against the deadliest pandemic in recent U.S. history. But all she could think about was the man she had met as an 18-year-old freshman at the university, who immediately recognized her thick Southern accent and her potential to make history. (NY TIMES)

Newswise.com: According to the National Center for Education Statistics, only 10 percent of all master’s degrees were awarded to Latinx students between 2015-16, and a stunningly low 1 percent to Indigenous students. The situation for Ph.D. students is even more dire, with only 8 percent of Ph.D. graduates coming from Latinx populations and less than 1 percent from Indigenous populations.

U.S. medical schools attracted and enrolled a more diverse class in the 2021-22 academic year, with Black, Hispanic, and women applicants and enrollees all making gains, according to data released today by the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges).