Effect of Team Diversity on Creativity of Bioinspired Design Inventions

Abstract

Historically, ethnic minority scholars (African Americans, Latinx, American Indians/Alaskan Natives) have been underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields (NSF, 2017). With historically underrepresented (HU) groups projected to become nearly 40% of the population by 2050, it is imperative that the STEM disciplines increase their diversity (NACME, 2014). A collateral benefit often attributed to diversity is greater creativity, with more divergent groups achieving greater amounts of creativity (Paulus, van der Zee, & Kenworthy, 2017; McLeod, Lobel, & Cox ,1996). Lack of heterogeneity in STEM education and the workforce is thought to result in missed opportunities, missed perspectives, and waste of intellectual potential (Valantine & Collins, 2015). Demographic, cognitive, and gender diversity have all been signaled as sources of strength and ideas in team settings. However, there are few studies exploring what types of team diversity actually lead to greater creativity in multidisciplinary settings. We designed this study to explore what type of team diversity results in greater creativity outcomes within a team-based, project-based Bioinspired Design course for undergraduate students. The Bioinspired Design course aims to remove artificially created disciplinary boundaries to extend beyond STEM by being open to undergraduates from any major, year, or disciplinary background. This study included 275 students, spanning over two years of the course, who were 60.7% female, 38.5% male, and 0.8% non-binary/other; ranged from 18 to 26 years of age, and 13.5% were HU student. Due to the unique student population and pedagogical approach of this course, we developed an integrative creativity measure that assessed the fluidity, elaboration, originality, and innovation of the bioinspired products created by the teams in the course and yielded good validity, α= 0.82. Lastly, we coded the 72 teams for different types of diversity measures that included educational status, major, ethnicity, and HU status. Correlational data between our measures of diversity and creativity show the more diversity of educational status in the team the higher the innovation (r=0.12, p<.05) and overall creativity (r=0.17, p<.01). The data also show the higher the diversity in majors within the group, the higher scores on elaboration (r=0.12, p<.05), originality (r=.019, p<.01), innovation (r=0.18, p<.01), and overall creativity (r=0.23, p<.01). Results further affirmed that the more diverse the group in terms of ethnicity, the higher the scores in all domains of creativity, fluency (r=0.23, p<.01), elaboration (r=0.23, p<.01), originality (r=0.11, p<.05), innovation (r=0.16, p<.01), and overall creativity (r=28., p<.01). Our findings show correlational effects on the creativity of student output within an interdisciplinary undergraduate STEM course and diversity in terms of educational status, major, and ethnicity. Specifically, when there is higher interdisciplinary cooperation and ethnic diversity in a team, there is greater output of original ideas, innovation, and overall creativity. The results suggest that many types of diversity in scientific teams can lead to more innovative discoveries, more focus on real world issues, and supports the strength of interdisciplinary collaboration.