(447f) Preparing Incoming Chemical Engineering Graduate Students from Varying Academic Backgrounds for Graduate Level Curriculum through Peer-Led Workshops

Incoming graduate students to the Chemical and Biological Engineering department at [redacted] University come from a variety of different educational and personal backgrounds. Although several studies have assessed how race, ethnicity, and gender impact students’ sense of belonging within STEM departments [1,2], educational background is understudied with regards to its impact on incoming graduate students' sense of confidence. Educational background can include factors such as differing undergraduate degrees (i.e., Chemistry vs Chemical Engineering), time off between undergraduate and graduate degrees, or exposure to US institutions of higher education vs international institutions. These factors may come into play during the first quarter of graduate school, where the lack of familiarity, feeling of being “othered,” and feelings of being unprepared may lead to poor-performance in coursework and a negative impact on a student’s sense of belonging in the field and department. [1,3]

Though many graduate students face similar academic challenges as undergraduates upon beginning a new program, fewer interventions have been introduced for this population. Support courses aimed at entering undergraduate to ensure that incoming students from differing backgrounds are all similarly well-prepared for undergraduate courses have found success in improving both confidence levels and academic performance. [4,5] One intervention aimed at graduate students, but with the goal of improving undergraduate education, included workshops to improve the ability of graduate teaching assistants, who then reported improved understanding of active learning principles post-workshop. [6] Most interventions geared toward graduate students target improving research skills, not coursework preparedness. [6,7] However, these courses have been successful in increasing students’ confidence. [7]

In this presentation we will provide a review of the current literature on graduate student sense of belonging along with an analysis of some of the current interventions for improving confidence and sense of belonging for matriculating graduate students at US institutions. We will follow with the current state of our research proposal in the hopes of gaining some audience feedback during the presentation.

Our research is focused on two main goals: studying how an incoming Chemical and Biological Engineering student’s educational background impacts their confidence coming into a graduate program, and how peer-led mini courses can help increase students’ confidence and success in graduate school. In studying how students’ educational background can impact their confidence going into graduate school, we will have valuable insight to take informed approaches to creating support programs for students to increase equity and success, in order to ensure that all students who matriculate in the graduate program have the resources to attain academic success in their coursework, regardless of their educational background. Lack of confidence and a sense of belonging upon entering graduate school can be attributed to a variety of factors including but not limited to personal identity and educational background. In addition to understanding the source of these challenges, we hope to ameliorate them by implementing peer-led workshops focused on reviewing common course material prior to the start of graduate courses.

(1) Stachl, C. N.; Baranger, A. M. Sense of Belonging within the Graduate Community of a Research-Focused STEM Department: Quantitative Assessment Using a Visual Narrative and Item Response Theory. PLOS ONE 2020, 15 (5), e0233431. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233431.

(2) Clune, R.; Das, A.; Jasrasaria, D.; Rossomme, E.; Cohen, O.; Baranger, A. M. Development of a Week-Long Mathematics Intervention for Incoming Chemistry Graduate Students. J. Chem. Educ. 2023, 100 (9), 3291–3301. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.2c00915.

(3) Pascale, A. B. “Co-Existing Lives”: Understanding and Facilitating Graduate Student Sense of Belonging. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice 2018, 55 (4), 399–411. https://doi.org/10.1080/19496591.2018.1474758.

(4) Raines, J. M. FirstSTEP: A Preliminary Review of the Effects of a Summer Bridge Program on Pre-College STEM Majors. Journal of STEM Education: Innovations and Research 2012, 13 (1).

(5) Dockter, D.; Uvarov, C.; Guzman-Alvarez, A.; Molinaro, M. Improving Preparation and Persistence in Undergraduate STEM: Why an Online Summer Preparatory Chemistry Course Makes Sense. In ACS Symposium Series; Sörensen, P. M., Canelas, D. A., Eds.; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017; Vol. 1261, pp 7–33. https://doi.org/10.1021/bk-2017-1261.ch002.

(6) Roden, J. A.; Jakob, S.; Roehrig, C.; Brenner, T. J. Preparing Graduate Student Teaching Assistants in the Sciences: An Intensive Workshop Focused on Active Learning. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education 2018, 46 (4), 318–326. https://doi.org/10.1002/bmb.21120.

(7) O’Clair, K. Preparing Graduate Students for Graduate‐level Study and Research. Reference Services Review 2013, 41(2), 336–350. https://doi.org/10.1108/00907321311326255.