Ryu Earns Prestigious NSF Award
Minjung Ryu, UIC assistant professor of chemistry and learning sciences, will be supported with $750,000 from the prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation to examine how college students from non-dominant linguistic backgrounds, such as Arabic, Somali, Swahili, and Nepali, use multiple languages in the context of STEM learning and participation, and to design a STEM learning environment that encourages and supports flexible use of languages for students from these backgrounds.
Ryu, whose work is focused on issues around diversity, equity, language, and participation in various STEM and chemistry learning settings, says evidence supports flexible language use for STEM and English learning, but her project will address a gap in research on the matter at the college level.
“This project will advance understanding about the interrelationship between STEM learning and language use and investigate pedagogical environments and practices that better facilitate STEM learning and participation. Given that students from non-dominant linguistic backgrounds are the fastest-growing student population group in the U.S. education system, findings can have broad impacts on students and educators in post-secondary STEM education,” Ryu said.