Twenty-nine students enrolled in community colleges were interviewed to probe factors that affect their anxiety in active-learning science courses. Student anxiety decreased when students perceived that active learning enhanced their learning, and fear of negative evaluation was the primary construct underlying student anxiety in active learning.

This review of 46 reports on 30 unique science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) bridge programs published over the past 25 years notes the characteristics and goals of each program and whether programs were successful in meeting their goals. A set of recommendations for STEM bridge programs is presented in hopes of encouraging development of better bridges into college.

For over 50 years instructor humor has been recognized as a way to positively impact student cognitive and affective learning. However, no study has explored humor exclusively in the context of college science courses, which have the reputation of being difficult and boring. The majority of studies that explore humor have assumed that students perceive instructor humor to be funny, yet students likely perceive some instructor humor as unfunny or offensive. Further, evidence suggests that women perceive certain subjects to be more offensive than men, yet we do not know what impact this may have on the experience of women in the classroom. To address these gaps in the literature, we surveyed students across 25 different college science courses about their perceptions of instructor humor in college science classes, which yielded 1637 student responses. Open-coding methods were used to analyze student responses to a question about why students appreciate humor. Multinomial regression was used to identify whether there are gender differences in the extent to which funny, unfunny, and offensive humor influenced student attention to course content, instructor relatability, and student sense of belonging. Logistic regression was used to examine gender differences in what subjects students find funny and offensive when joked about by college science instructors. Nearly 99% of students reported that they appreciate instructor humor and reported that it positively changes the classroom atmosphere, improves student experiences during class, and enhances the student-instructor relationship. We found that funny humor tends to increase student attention to course content, instructor relatability, and student sense of belonging. Conversely, offensive humor tends to decrease instructor relatability and student sense of belonging. Lastly, we identified subjects that males were more likely to find funny and females were more likely to find offensive if a college science instructor were to joke about them.

Background Undergraduate research experiences are becoming essential for pursuing future opportunities in science, but little has been done to identify what factors predict which students get to participate in research and which students do not. In this manuscript, we propose “scientific research capital” and specifically “scientific research cultural capital” as constructs to explain what students may need to know and do in order to successfully engage in an undergraduate research experience. We begin to articulate what comprises one component of scientific research cultural capital, embodied cultural capital, by identifying the knowledge that students may need to have in order to obtain an undergraduate research experience at a large, research-intensive institution where there are many more undergraduates vying for research positions than opportunities available. We interviewed 43 researchers, defined as undergraduates who had participated in research, and 42 non-researchers, defined as undergraduates who were interested in participating in research but had not yet successfully obtained a position, in a biology department at an R1 institution. We analyzed the data using inductive coding. Results We identified 10 “rules of research” or aspects of scientific research cultural capital that undergraduates reported about finding and securing undergraduate research. We used logistic regression to test whether undergraduate researchers were more likely than non-researchers to know particular rules. Researchers were more likely than non-researchers to know rules about securing research opportunities. Conclusions Since researchers were more likely than non-researchers to know rules related to securing research, educating students about how to secure research experiences and encouraging faculty to re-examine the criteria they use to admit students into their labs may be a key step in leveling the playing field for students who are vying for research positions. We propose that the construct of scientific research cultural capital can help publicize the hidden curriculum of undergraduate research so that students can more equitably gain access to undergraduate research.

A comparison of university and community college students’ evolution education variables revealed evidence of similarities and differences between populations. Community college students perceived more conflict between their religions and evolution, and their understanding of evolution was less associated with acceptance compared with university students.