Patching a leak in an R1 university gateway STEM course

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 13; no. 9; p. e0202041
• Main Authors: Lee, Stephen, Crane, Brian R, Ruttledge, Thomas, Guelce, Dominique, Yee, Estella F, Lenetsky, Michael, Caffrey, Matthew, Johnsen, Walter De Ath, Lin, Anthony, Lu, Shuting, Rodriguez, Marc-Anthony, Wague, Aboubacar, Wu, Kane
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 06-09-2018; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Active learning; Adolescent; Adult; Analysis; Biology; Biology and Life Sciences; Chemistry; Chemistry - education; College curriculum; College students; Colleges & universities; Cooperative learning; Core curriculum; Curriculum; Education; Female; Humans; Inquiry method; Male; Mathematics; Organic chemistry; Patching; Pedagogy; Physical Sciences; Retention; Science education; Science Policy; Social Sciences; Standard deviation; Statistical analysis; STEM education; Students; Teachers; Teaching; Technical education; Universities; New York; United States > US
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0202041

A cognitively intensive companion service course has been introduced to the main fall general chemistry class at Cornell University. For years 2015 and 2016, priority students (those from groups under-represented and economically disadvantaged) show respectively improvement of +0.67 and +0.51 standard deviations in final course grade compared to priority students not in the program. Non-priority students show respectively a +0.66 and +0.62 standard deviation improvement. Progressive improvement (as measured by higher than expected Final Exam scores than what would have been expected solely from a given student's earlier Exam 1 score) demonstrates conclusively the service course's role in the enhanced outcomes. Progressive retention (as measured by the following year fall semester's organic chemistry exam scores compared to what would have been expected based on a given student's general chemistry final exam score) demonstrates that, on the average, the earlier observed progressive improvement is significantly retained in a chemistry course one year later. Preliminary retention statistics suggest a significant increase in first year to second year retention. A meta analysis of results from previously reported chemistry service courses indicate that such performance gains are difficult to achieve and hence common elements of the few effective programs may be of high value to the STEM education community.