Seiham Alansary

My research is centered on the improvement of lower-division STEM education and helping students

My research is being conducted in general chemistry classrooms at an undergraduate level in order to better understand how students are learning. We interviewed students at the end of Spring 2024, with a small sample group of students in their second semester of the general chemistry series. The interview protocol was designed to contain a set of ten questions to assess student math backgrounds prior to beginning the course and their perception of lecture and lab correlation. One of the main questions we used to guage student perception of the course and what they aimed to gain from it was “what do you believe it means to think like a scientist?”. Based on student responses we found 3 categories that grouped how students defined how students interpret the question “what it means to think like a chemist”. The first category, Category 1, represents an analytical perspective of the question, where students interpret thinking like a chemist as mathematics-heavy and the pursuit of understanding stoichiometry/general chemistry equations. Category 2 students interpreted the question as an individual who is constantly thinking about the scientific method, constantly asking questions, and overall a very inquisitive individual. Category 3 students interpreted the question as a type of mentality that one could apply not only within the classroom but also in everyday application. Truly viewing the knowledge learned as something that could be useful, even outside the chemistry context. Further data is needed to gain a comprehensive view of how affective states impact learning styles and student engagement in general chemistry. Through further surveys and testing, we anticipate results that will reveal a correlation between self-directed study styles and a more connected, applied view of the general chemistry curriculum.