Traditional notions of “who counts” as good at chemistry are both racialized and gendered. “What counts” as being good at chemistry involves being quick and correct at answering questions posed by the instructor, as opposed to valuing authentic scientific practices, such as collaboration, asking questions, and analyzing data. In this project, College of Marin, Diablo Valley College, Sonoma State University, and University of California, Berkeley (UCB) use group-worthy tasks to support equitable participation that centers around sorting, using, and making sense of data.
Learning how to effectively implement these tasks in ways that disrupt inequity in chemistry classrooms requires shifts in faculty mindset about “who counts” and “what counts” as competent. Rigorous assessment of the student experience and student outcomes from using data tasks is needed to show faculty that using these tasks is a way to teach chemistry both rigorously and inclusively. Further, a more intentionally designed, user-friendly website is needed to support wider use of the data task curriculum. Towards these ends, this team proposes to scale their by training and mentoring faculty in shifting mindsets around designing and utilizing group-worthy, data-driven tasks in ways that disrupt inequity in their classrooms, as well as assessing the effectiveness of the data tasks on shifting students’ sense of themselves as chemistry learners, and on their persistence in STEM pathways after introductory chemistry. Their project will also disseminate our curriculum through an open-access, mobile-accessible website, allowing updates and revisions to be accessible to users outside of the Canvas platform.
