An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Student Engagement in Scientific Practices in Undergraduate Biology, Chemistry, and Physics Laboratory Courses

This project aims to serve the national interest in undergraduate STEM education by examining student learning in laboratory courses. Many students enroll in introductory laboratory courses for multiple disciplines at the same time. As a result, there is a need for interdisciplinary investigation into how students experience scientific practices in such courses.

This project focuses on the eight scientific practices described in the Framework for K-12 Education and embedded in the Next Generation Science Standards. Scientific practices are important because they are fundamental to scientific discovery, inherently interdisciplinary, and applicable across scientific contexts in higher education. This project will investigate similarities and differences in the scientific practices incorporated into introductory laboratory courses in biology, chemistry, and physics.

It will focus on how students, staff, faculty, and teaching assistants value scientific practices that are perceived as more technical (such as analyzing data) or more social (such as communicating information). This project will determine whether and how students engage with specific scientific practices in biology, chemistry, and physics laboratory courses and how that engagement is encouraged and rewarded.

The findings from this project will expand current understanding of scientific practices in introductory science courses. In doing so, this work will lay a foundation for making these laboratory courses more equitable and supportive of a greater diversity of learners.

The goal of this interdisciplinary project is to explore the incorporation and gendering of scientific practices in introductory biology, chemistry, and physics lab courses at a primarily undergraduate institution using a comparative case study research design. This project will blend three theoretical lenses: the Framework for K-12 Science Education, accountable disciplinary knowledge (ADK), and technical-social dualism (TDS).

These three lenses operationalize what counts as a scientific practice (the Framework), what it means for students to be accountable for engaging in a practice (ADK), and the gendering of scientific practices that are perceived to be more technical/masculine versus more social/feminine (TDS). The comparative case study approach will enable critical analyses of data from a variety of sources, including surveys, interviews, and classroom observations and artifacts.

Case studies of biology, chemistry, and physics lab courses will provide insight into structural and interpersonal equity with regard to how scientific practices are valued, as well as examine how and by whom scientific practices are enacted across disciplines. Structural perspectives include those practices that are targeted by departmental and instructor learning goals, as well how those practices are assessed.

Interpersonal perspectives include the ways that instructors and teaching assistants facilitate student engagement in scientific practices, and how students participate in them. This work will help to fill a significant gap in the discipline-based education research literature, namely the lack of interdisciplinary studies across biology, chemistry, and physics at the undergraduate level.

Further, this project will provide insight into how structural and interpersonal mechanisms in laboratory courses may contribute to perceptions of some scientific disciplines as more social/feminine or technical/masculine than others. Finally, the findings from this work will provide guidance to support faculty, staff, and other instructors in their efforts to improve their interactions, instruction, and mentorship of students in the early stages of their science careers.

The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.