Supported by an HHMI Inclusive Excellence grant, the STEM college at Radford University is implementing faculty development and curriculum reform to decrease student attrition caused in part by uninspiring courses and an impersonal social environment. In summer 2018, the learning objectives for the general chemistry laboratory at Radford University were revised to make the laboratory experience more inclusive and relevant to modern science. During summer and fall 2018, general chemistry laboratory experiments were redesigned to reflect these new learning objectives. The impacts of the laboratory experience will be assessed by surveying students in the first semester of general chemistry. The survey is administered at the beginning and end of the semester to determine changes in students’ self-efficacy, science identity, and perceptions of the connectedness of chemistry to everyday life as well as their confidence in performing technical and analytical skills. Each of these constructs can be related to a students’ likelihood of success in science. Data will be collected from students taking an unmodified laboratory in fall 2018 and students taking the revised laboratory in spring 2019. We will describe the redesigned learning objectives, laboratory experiments, and initial results from our assessments.

Using the lens of inclusive excellence to redesign and assess the general chemistry laboratory experience

2019 Spring National Meeting

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