Research shows that students are more likely to stick with science if they feel like they are part of a scientific community. Explicit instruction on the norms and behaviors associated with science can help students persist in science, especially first generation and populations traditionally under-represented in science. This talk will describe the development and execution of a class for first-year students called Mythbusters!, where students discussed behavioral norms associated with the scientific method. Through readings and case studies, students learned how scientists practice key skills like skepticism, curiosity, honesty, and persistence and described how these skills help distinguish science from pseudoscience and myth. Students demonstrated their understanding of scientific norms by creating 3-4 minute Mythbusters! style videos.<br/>The videos were then showcased in a one day video festival at the Pacific Science Center. High school interns evaluated the videos, scoring videos on how informative and engaging the videos were to a high school audience. This evaluation contributed to 10% of the student’s final grade in the course. Then, college students participated in a panel on the transition from high school to college. Student reflections discuss the importance of having an external audience to evaluate their work and how they now have a deeper understanding of the scientific process.<br/>This talk will discuss the scaffolds used to implement this community engaged experience in a 10 week course and student reflections on the experience. This talk will also discuss preliminary results of a multi-institutional study on belonging in STEM learning communities.

Developing scientific identity through a Mythbusters! style video and interaction with a local science center

255th National Meeting (2018)

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