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Student experiences learning chemistry have been well studied in chemistry courses but less so in biology courses. Chemistry concepts are foundational to introductory biology courses, and student experiences learning chemistry concepts may impact their overall course experiences and subsequent student outcomes. In this study, we asked undergraduate students enrolled in introductory biology courses at a public R1 institution an open-response question asking how their experiences learning chemistry topics affected their identities as biologists. We used thematic analysis to identify common ideas in their responses. We found that while almost half of student respondents cited learning chemistry as having positive impacts on their experiences learning biology, students who struggled with chemistry topics were significantly more likely to have negative experiences learning biology. We also found significant relationships between prior chemistry preparation, student background, and the likelihood of students struggling with chemistry and negative experiences learning biology. These findings emphasize the impact of learning specific content on student psychosocial metrics and suggest areas for biology educators to focus on to support learning and alleviate student stress in introductory biology.
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This content will become publicly available on August 5, 2026
A Survey of Ethics Courses in U.S. STEM Bachelor of Science Programs
This article explores the frequency with which scientific ethics courses are available to biology, chemistry, and physics students for credit towards their B.S. degrees in United States undergraduate institutions. After examining undergraduate catalogs for ethics-related course requirements and elective offerings in the fields of biology, chemistry, and physics (along with each discipline’s sub-degree-level concentrations), we identified each relevant course as either “focusing on scientific ethics” or “including scientific ethics at some level.” We categorized each institution by governance type (public or private) and size (large or small). We found that scientific ethics courses are offered infrequently among most institution and program categories, and tend to include scientific ethics as a secondary focus. Additionally, we found that scientific ethics courses are most frequently offered to biology students at large public institutions, and least frequently offered to physics students at large private institutions.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2316107
- PAR ID:
- 10628489
- Publisher / Repository:
- Online Ethics Center
- Date Published:
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Ethics and Society Goals of Ethics Education Teaching Ethics
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Institution:
- Eastern Michigan University
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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