Gatekeeper courses-- high-risk, foundational courses, with high enrollment-- provide a rich opportunity to broaden participation in STEM. We describe a novel method to engage students in threshold concepts from general chemistry in other disciplinary settings to reduce anxiety and improve learning gains. Interdisciplinary Investigations (IDIs) are curriculum modules that create opportunities for students to connect to threshold concepts, extend out to embrace other disciplines and the scientific literature, and address a challenge involving a complex problem that requires multiple disciplines to understand. A series of evidence-based pedagogical strategies are threaded together to create a classroom environment that is centered on socially-mediated learning, representing complex thinking through drawing, and documenting student cognitive progression to inspire metacognition. Here, we present how IDIs are implemented concurrently in biology and chemistry courses. This model brings students from each course together as subject matter experts to co-construct knowledge in a peer-mediated learning environment. Initial results suggest that students participating in peer-mediated IDI’s experience significant cognitive gains in threshold concepts as well as self-reported gains in affective dimensions of learning. This opportunity to foster both cognitive and affective gains in early STEM courses may help foster the evolution of equitable, inclusive STEM pathways for a diverse array of students.

Crossing disciplines with threshold concepts in chemistry

2019 Spring National Meeting

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