If you teach a small college class, then it’s easier for you to get to know who your students are, but this is much harder in a large class. Also, the impersonal nature of large science classes makes it difficult for students to feel like they relate to the instructor, which can negatively impact student learning and engagement, especially for members of marginalized groups.
Mental health disorders are becoming increasingly common among undergraduate students, and premedical students may be especially vulnerable to those conditions because of the high levels of competition and stress they experience in their college programs. At least a quarter of premedical students experience mental health conditions that may be relevant to discuss when they are applying for medical school. However, there has been little research on whether revealing those mental health conditions on their medical school applications impacts students’ chances of being accepted.
The national report Vision and Change was a blueprint for what should be taught to undergraduate biology students. It outlined a set of core concepts and core competencies that undergraduate biology students should possess by the time they graduate. One of the core competencies is understanding the relationship between science and society and bioethics courses are often used to help teach students this competency.
Academic science can be an unwelcoming place for LGBTQ+ individuals, and fewer LGBTQ+ undergraduates persist in STEM than their non-LGBTQ+ counterparts. In addition to being underrepresented in STEM, an LGBTQ+ identity is a concealable stigmatized identity, meaning that individuals who hold this identity often have to “come out” in order for others to know that they are part of this community. Because revealing can have a negative impact on one’s career, LGBTQ+ instructors in STEM may hesitate to reveal their identity to students.
Depression is one of the most common mental health disorders among college students, and it is especially common among groups that are underrepresented or underserved in science, such as women, LGBTQ+ students, and students with disabilities. Previous studies have found that the unwelcoming and competitive nature of science courses may worsen students’ depression.
Individuals with disabilities are underrepresented in undergraduate science and in science careers. While it is becoming increasingly clear that students with disabilities experience unique challenges in undergraduate science classrooms, little is known about the experiences of students with disabilities in undergraduate research. However, a recent national study has begun to shed light on the experiences of students with disabilities in research.
Participating in research as an undergraduate is known to be a highly influential experience that can increase student motivation and persistence in science. Research experience provides students an opportunity to learn if scientific research is a career they would like to pursue and ultimately has been linked to increased graduation rates and career success.
How accessible is online education? Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students across the globe have had to adjust to a new normal as colleges and universities rapidly transitioned from in-person instruction to online and hybrid instruction. Though many applauded the newly found flexibility of online instruction, many undergraduate students found new challenges, specifically those students with disabilities.
Active learning has been recommended as a more effective way to teach when compared to traditional lecturing, yet active learning can be implemented in many different ways. One common approach in active learning is to ask students to share out their thoughts either with other students or in front of the whole class.