POSTER: Student role preferences and experiences in instructional physics labs
Emily M. Stump, Sophia Jeon, Z. Yasemin Kalender, N. G. Holmes

Across STEM disciplines, instructional labs play a critical role in the development of students’ experimental skills and identities as scientists by allowing them to directly engage with experimental science. What skills and experiences students take away from an instructional lab experience are dependent on what roles students take on within the lab, such as working with an experimental apparatus, analyzing data, or taking notes. However, not all students are afforded the same experiences in labs. Research has suggested that in physics labs male and female students tend to take on different primary roles, with men often working with an experimental apparatus while women take notes. In this work, we studied the role-taking experiences of students in introductory physics labs. We surveyed students about what roles they prefer as well as what roles they actually took on and compared the experiences of male and female students. This work has implications across STEM disciplines to inform the development of equitable educational environments in instructional labs.

THEME: Diversity, inclusion, and equity