A generation of researchers is proving that scientific literacy is one of our most powerful tools against racism. Their work is under threat.
Read the research ↓In less than a decade, education researcher Brian Donovan did something that many had considered impossible: he used the science of genetics to mount a rigorous, evidence-based challenge to racial prejudice itself. Working with high school teachers, education researchers, and geneticists, he developed and tested a curriculum showing that accurate genetics instruction can reduce students' susceptibility to biologically essentialist beliefs — the scientific basis for racist thinking.1
Fresh from a PhD at Stanford, Donovan assembled a team to develop what he called the Humane Genomics Literacy (HGL) curriculum — an approach that moved well beyond Mendel's peas and Punnett squares to illuminate the true complexity of human genetic variation. His core insight: if students understood how genes and environments actually interact, they would be less vulnerable to the scientifically unsupported claims that fuel white supremacist belief systems.1
The curriculum centers on two fictional teenagers, Robin and Taylor, who debate whether racial disparities in the NFL and in STEM faculty — 68% Black vs. 6% Black respectively — reflect genetic differences or something else. Students work through real population genetics data to discover the answer, learning that variation within any racial group vastly exceeds variation between groups, and that social environments powerfully shape outcomes.1
Donovan's team ran a series of rigorous randomized experiments — an exceptionally rare methodological achievement in education research, given the complexity of controlling classroom conditions at scale while keeping instruction realistic enough that teachers could actually execute it. The design had to survive a global pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, and the intense national politics around critical race theory.1
When results came in from the first large trial, they were unambiguous. In February 2024, Science published two papers demonstrating that the HGL curriculum measurably reduced students' belief in biological essentialism — the first randomized evidence that classroom genetics instruction can reduce racism.2,3
Donovan envisioned this as the beginning of a long arc — the same trajectory Carol Dweck traced from classroom observations about math mindsets to a revolution in educational psychology. Build the evidence base; train teachers; set new standards. Instead, on a single Friday in April 2025, both of Donovan's NSF grants were terminated simultaneously, part of a mass cancellation affecting science education research disproportionately. By August 31, 2025, he and his entire team had lost their positions.1
The HGL curriculum has since been publicly released at wedowlab.com, with full materials, slide decks, and teacher guidance — though without the training infrastructure and ongoing research support Donovan's team had built. The curriculum, as Donovan put it, was designed as "a scalpel for cutting out a tumor. You want the scalpel to be used by the doctor, not by a murderer." The tool exists. The surgeon has left the building.1
From genetics to gender, these projects represent the leading edge of research on how education can counter misinformation and structural bias.
A randomized, multi-state intervention that uses accurate population genetics to reduce middle and high school students' belief in biological essentialism — the scientific root of racial prejudice. The curriculum is now publicly available.
A curriculum developed by NYU's Andrei Cimpian and Notre Dame sociologist Catherine Riegle-Crumb, drawing on the HGL model to reduce stereotypes claiming men have more innate aptitude for science. Currently being tested with undergraduate biology students using institutional funds after federal grants were cut.
Shoumita Dasgupta, Professor of Medicine at Boston University, has adapted the HGL curriculum to train medical students and residents on race, genetics, and the dangers of race-based clinical assumptions — with direct implications for health equity.
An unpublished randomized trial funded by the NSF demonstrating that teaching multifactorial inheritance — the reality that most traits are shaped by thousands of genetic variants plus environment — causes undergraduates to significantly reduce their belief in genetic determinism.
Foundational research by Carol Dweck — mentor to Donovan — demonstrated that replacing "fixed" ability beliefs with growth mindset interventions measurably improves academic persistence, especially among students from groups targeted by negative stereotypes. This work provides a theoretical blueprint for genetics-based interventions.
NYU cognitive development researcher Andrei Cimpian studies how and why humans default to essentialist thinking — the cognitive tendency to assume social categories reflect deep, inherent biological differences. This research identifies the cognitive mechanisms that evidence-based curricula must address.
The Humane Genomics Literacy curriculum is a multi-week instructional unit designed to replace basic Mendelian genetics instruction with a scientifically accurate account of human genetic variation. Here is how it builds understanding:
Students meet two fictional teenagers debating whether racial disparities in NFL rosters and STEM faculties reflect genetic differences. Neither is fully right. Students are tasked with finding out why.
Students learn that the genetic variation within any racial group is far greater than the variation between groups — a key finding of the Human Genome Project with profound implications for how we understand race.
Unlike pea coat color, most human traits — height, intelligence, athletic performance — are influenced by thousands of genetic variants, each with tiny effects, plus complex environmental interactions. There are no "athletic genes" or "intelligence genes."
Students learn that bias is a neurological process — a cognitive shortcut the brain evolved to manage complexity. This framing is blame-free and invites curiosity rather than defensiveness.
Students examine data showing how racism has produced profoundly different environments for Black and white Americans, and how those environments — not genes — explain most observed variation in outcomes.
The complete HGL curriculum — slide decks, lesson plans, teacher guidance, and student materials — is publicly available at no cost. Designed for grades 7–12.
Visit HGL Website →Donovan's story is emblematic of a broader, systematic dismantling of science education research in the United States. The timeline below documents key events.
Sources: Molteni, M. (2026). STAT News; Rosenberg, J. (2025). NSF K–12 STEM funding analysis; STAT News (2026, March). NIH/NSF funding crisis coverage.
These cuts have effectively made large-scale, rigorous randomized education trials impossible to fund in the United States.
If you are a biology teacher at the middle or high school level, the HGL curriculum is free, ready to use, and accompanied by detailed implementation guides. Sign up for Paul Strode's educator workshops in Colorado or reach out to the WeDow Lab team.
Private foundations and philanthropists can step in where federal funding has been withdrawn. The infrastructure for rigorous, large-scale education research still exists — it needs financial support to continue. Contact the WeDow Lab at University of Colorado Boulder.
Sixteen attorneys general are challenging NSF terminations in court. Contact your representatives to demand restoration of NSF education research funding. The compact between federal science agencies and researchers must be honored.