Perceived Barriers to Equitable Participation in the Learning Assistant Program

To build a more diverse STEM workforce, institutions seek to increase the representation of diverse groups in faculty and mentoring positions. The Learning Assistant (LA) near-peer student support program has the potential to bring diverse students into highly visible and impactful mentoring roles early in their college careers, benefiting both LAs and students in LA-supported courses. However, the demographic characteristics of potential students interested in the LA Program and the subsequent barriers to entry have yet to be investigated. This short-term longitudinal case study revealed that even though students from historically underserved groups (HUGs) started the semester equally as likely as non-HUGs to see themselves as future chemistry LAs, an inequity developed later in the semester. Similar trends were not detected based on students' gender or age group (traditional/nontraditional). Qualitative data indicated that regardless of demographic group, the most prominent barriers to students seeing themselves as future LAs include a lack of time and self-efficacy in chemistry content knowledge/social skills. The trends observed at this diverse metropolitan research institution indicate that further research is needed to find and lower barriers for students to have the opportunity to become LAs, especially those from HUGs.

A Pilot Graduate Student-Led Near-Peer Mentorship Program for Transfer Students Provides a Supportive Network at an R1 Institution

The undergraduate transfer process has well-documented challenges, especially for those who identify with groups historically excluded from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs. Because transfer students gain later access to university networking and research opportunities than first-time-in-college students, transfer students interested in pursuing postbaccalaureate degrees in chemistry have a significantly shortened timeline in which to conduct research, a crucial component in graduate school applications. Mentorship programs have previously been instituted as effective platforms for the transfer of community cultural wealth within large institutions. We report here the design, institution, and assessment of a near-peer mentorship program for transfer students, the Transfer Student Mentorship Program (TSMP). Founded in 2020 by graduate students, the TSMP pairs incoming undergraduate transfer students with current graduate students for personalized mentorship and conducts discussion-based seminars to foster peer relationships. The transfer student participants have access to a fast-tracked networking method during their first transfer semester that can serve as a route for acquiring undergraduate research positions. Program efficacy was assessed via surveys investigating the rates of research participation and sense of belonging of transfer students. We observed that respondents that participated in the program experienced an overall improvement in these measures compared to respondents who did not. Having been entirely designed, instituted, and led by graduate students, we anticipate that this program will be highly tractable to other universities looking for actionable methods to improve their students' persistence in pursuing STEM degrees.

The Future of Laboratory Chemistry Learning and Teaching Must be Accessible

This commentary is a call to make the future of chemistry laboratories accessible and inclusive. We draw from research and lived experience to put forward a list of recommendations for laboratory-based teaching. Our authorial team includes undergraduate and postgraduate chemistry students, graduate teaching assistants, teaching-focused and traditional research and teaching academics, and a Diversity Equality Inclusion (DEI/EDI) academic expert. We all have lived experiences of disability, chronic illness, neurodivergence, and other marginalizations related to race, religion, sexuality, or other characteristics. We believe that laboratory-based chemistry learning environments, teaching, assessment, and resources should be accessible to all students and staff.

Sign Language Incorporation in Chemistry Education (SLICE): Building a Lexicon to Support the Understanding of Organic Chemistry

Historically, deaf and hard-of-hearing students (D/HH) who solely rely on an interpreter during organic chemistry lecture courses at the Rochester Institute of Technology consistently performed below the average in the class. A barrier attributed to this D/HH student performance is the lack of standardized methods in sign language to effectively communicate the organic chemistry terminology. As such, our group worked to address this challenge through a deliberate effort to develop a lexicon of insightful signs/classifiers that convey organic chemistry vocabulary as well as descriptive expansions to demonstrate challenging concepts. We will share our remarkable findings after the signs were developed and implemented, and the implications sign language incorporation in education could have on how we teach all students enrolled in STEM disciplines in the future.

Grassroots Efforts To Quantify and Improve the Academic Climate of an R1 STEM Department: Using Evidence-Based Discussions To Foster Community

Women and some racial and ethnic groups remain underrepresented in chemistry departments across the United States, and generally, efforts to improve representation have resulted in minimal or no improvements in the last 10 years. Here, we present the outcomes of a graduate-student-led initiative that sought to assess the issues affecting inclusivity, diversity, and wellness within the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. We report how the results of a department-tailored academic climate survey were used to develop a method to foster open, productive discussion among graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty. This event format led to an improved understanding of the challenges facing our community members, as well as the identification of strategies that can be used to make the Department of Chemistry more welcoming for all members. We report the success of this student-led effort to highlight the value of assessing diversity and inclusion at the department-level, as well as the benefits of using community data to stimulate productive, evidence-based discussions. Furthermore, we envision that these methods can be implemented within any research-focused academic community to promote positive cultural change.