EQUIP is a free, customizable observation protocol for tracking patterns of student participation in STEM classrooms (https://www.equip.ninja). EQUIP generates data analytics that are disaggregated by student social markers (e.g., race, gender), which makes it a useful tool for tracking patterns of inequity in student participation. However, prior studies have not yet established how many observations are needed to create a representative picture of instruction. In this study, we use g-theory and simulations with Cramer’s V to analyze observations from 20 undergraduate mathematics instructors to determine how many classroom observations are needed, and how this differs by individual codes. We found that Gender could achieve stability in just a few observations, whereas codes such as Instructor Response, Instructor Solicitation Type, and Instructor Solicitation Method required nearly 20 observations. Thus, we recommend that users account for their specific context and needs with EQUIP when determining the ideal number of observations to conduct, using this research as a baseline. We also compare the g-study and simulations approaches, bringing up new methodological questions for the field. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021.

This essay describes the concept of access needs as a tool for improving accessibility in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education broadly, from the classroom, to research group meetings, to professional conferences. The normalization of stating access needs and creating access check-ins is a regular practice used in disability justice activist circles, but it has not yet been normalized in STEM education spaces. Just as normalizing the use of pronouns has been an important step for supporting gender justice, we argue that normalizing access talk is an important step for advancing disability justice in STEM fields. Moreover, we argue that all individuals have access needs, regardless of whether they are disabled or nondisabled. We provide concrete suggestions and techniques that STEM educators can use today.

This article describes an equity-focused professional learning community that used the EQUIP observation protocol to provide data analytics to instructors. The learning community met during Spring 2020, and due to the global coronavirus pandemic, it moved online midsemester. This article describes patterns of student participation and how they were impacted in moving online. We found that student participation dropped significantly in moving online, but instructors were able to implement new teaching strategies to increase participation. We document seven concrete strategies that instructors used to promote equitable participation in their online classes and that can be incorporated by biology educators into their online teaching. The strategies were: 1) re-establishing norms, 2) using student names, 3) using breakout rooms, 4) leveraging chat-based participation, 5) using polling software, 6) creating an inclusive curriculum, and 7) cutting content to maintain rigor. In addition, we describe the faculty learning process and how EQUIP data and the learning community environment supported instructors to change their practices.