Significant equity gaps in chemistry courses create barriers in the STEM pathway. Recent advances in digital textbook technologies that incorporate interactive content may positively impact equity outcomes among students from marginalized backgrounds. The purpose of the study was to determine if the use of an Interactive General Chemistry (IGC) textbook enhances students’ academic performance, perceptions of the textbook’s utility and effectiveness, engagement with the textbook, science self-efficacy and identity, and connectedness compared to a non-interactive textbook. Two sections of General Chemistry taught by different instructors were chosen in Fall 2022 to receive free textbooks as part of an Equity in Action Grant sponsored by the CSU Student Success Network. Students in one section received the IGC textbook and the second section received the non-IGC textbook. Equity data via disaggregated grades was analyzed for 129 students. Of those students, 65 completed a survey with questions about the textbook and their experiences in the course. There was no clear benefit of using an interactive textbook over a traditional textbook among marginalized students. Specific findings will be discussed. The authors hypothesize that social and contextual factors may play a larger role than type of textbook in predicting equity outcomes.

This study examines the positive effects of culturally relevant pedagogy in a STEM classroom. Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) is a theory that anchors on the idea that students that are from different backgrounds and cultures all put forward different strengths in the classroom setting. Educators that use CRP create a safe space that allows for student (and educator) cultural competence, academic achievement and sociopolitical consciousness. CRP has been shown to increase the rate of student success and a student's drive to continue to learn. In this study, we asked students enrolled in a first-year biology course, to participate in a class activity with a CRP intervention, to help them learn how to build cladograms. Cladograms are used in biology to show evolutionary relationships among organisms. Students completed surveys on self-efficacy, sense of belonging and science identity before and after they had participated in the classroom activity. Students also took concept quizzes before and after the activity to gauge learning. We found no significant difference in the average responses of students in regard to self-efficacy, sense of belonging or science identity. However, we saw an improvement in quiz scores because of student engaging with the activity.

There is a known disconnect between the real-world applications of chemistry and what is traditionally taught in the classroom. This disconnect prevents students from understanding the point of the chemistry that they are learning, and further prevents diverse students from seeing themselves as chemists. The Vaughn lab specifically focuses on homework assignment design to help students see themselves as chemists and identify chemistry in the world around them. In this study, we look at how students in a flipped classroom for the first semester of general chemistry view chemistry in the world around them through a weekly homework assignment. The responses were coded in NVivo 14 to determine how students see chemistry in the world around them and if thinking in this way changes their views on chemistry. The data were analyzed based on a variety of categories including, but not limited to, correctness, the types of examples, and the use of scientific language. Trends were also analyzed for the data. Preliminary results suggest that asking students weekly about chemistry outside of the classroom results in an increased engagement with the material and may impact how students view chemistry in the world around them.