Breaking the Taboos of STEM Instruction: Remote Learning in the Sudden Pandemic

Abstract:

The mid-semester change from in-person to remote instruction in spring 2020 brought a host of new challenges to instructors and students and forced a new understanding of work-life balance. Many of the situations encountered by both groups intermingled personal and professional lives that had not previously been shared. Faculty and students shared images of their homes, animals and families that made each one vulnerable in new ways. Remote instruction and the subsequent protests around the murder of George Floyd opened the door to conversations around physical and mental health concerns, struggles of disparity in internet access, family life and support structures that impact both teaching and learning. Such issues of emotional and societal access are not typically part of STEM curricula and can be threatening when they appear without warning. Most of us have heard a faculty member claim that they cannot teach about diversity because rocks or equations or chemicals experience a homogeneous environment, and spring 2020 made it clear that is not the case. The emotional investment took a toll on our collective psyches, but perhaps paved the way for stronger engagement and richer interaction in future semesters.