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Moderator: Lorrie Comeford, Salem State University

Alien intelligence activity to promote a growth learning mindset

Iglika Pavlova, Academic Professional, University of North Carolina Greensboro

An understanding of intelligence as a complex combination of traits that is malleable by environmental influences supports a growth learning mindset in students and empathy during teamwork while countering racial bias. Instructor fixed mindset has been linked to racial achievement gaps (Canning et al., 2019). An activity was introduced at the start of the semester to promote a more scientifically informed view of intelligence, while also encouraging creative thinking, evidence-based scientific reasoning, and teamwork in a COVID-era online synchronous biology course. Student groups worked in breakout rooms to create a slide in a shared file describing an "alien intelligence research plan" to test for human intelligence from the perspective of an alien life form. Students had the freedom to choose their alien to have whatever abilities, motivations, and intelligences they wanted. Perspective-taking is an important element that engages the emotional domain and is a recommended strategy for addressing bias. The activity was highly student-centered, with students showing through their own work that an understanding of intelligence is closely linked to the methods used to measure it. Thus, the activity promoted evidence-based thinking. The quality of student work was higher using the poster-on-a-slide module than previously where groups posted on a discussion forum. Students widely showed excitement about the activity and working in teams. This COVID-era invention resulted in a successful strategy that would be valuable to continue during face-to-face instruction. I will place the activity in the wider context of a module on diversity and race.