Worcester Polytechnic Institute received a $240,000 grant from the Davis Educational Foundation to help teach WPI students how to call out biases in race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status or national origin.
The group, Supporting WPI through Effective and Equitable Teamwork — known as SWEET — is taking a closer look at the issue in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) institutions via a four-phase approach to implement an equitable environment in teamwork.
According to a 2015 U.S. Census Bureau, 56 percent of the population under 18 will be made up of people of color from multiple ethnicities by 2060.
The program’s long-range goal is to evolve alongside the population to ensure the workforce remains strong for future college students.
Such a program is important for WPI, which offers a project-based curriculum in which students are required to work together to solve real-world problems.
“Students often don’t realize that they’re behaving with bias,” said Elisabeth Stoddard, assistant teaching professor in the environmental and sustainability studies program, and one of the grant recipients. “For example, team members might assign women more organizational tasks, whereas men might take on more technical roles.”
According to Stoddard, studies show teams with more diversity are better at solving problems and innovating than homogeneous teams.
