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Chem 1B: General Chemistry II

Equity, Utility-Value Intervention, Academic Achievement

Reflection on Instructional Change for Equity-Minded Instruction:

Utility value is the usefulness, relevance, or perceived congruence of the assignment or task to the values of the learner’s educational goals. Utility value intervention (UVI) will be implemented in my Chem 1B lecture course in Spring and Fall 2024 as writing assignments to stimulate students’ interests in chemistry and attainment values which will help to close equity gaps. Weekly homework assignments are low-stake formative assessments. To be more accommodating to students, a one-day extension is provided to students and they are encouraged to practice the problems.

UVI assignments ask students to identify how what they are learning is applicable to their own lives. For this intervention, students were asked to submit written responses to Canvas three times a semester. In the response, they were asked to describe the relevance of course material to their personal lives. Students who did not submit the homework assignments before the regular due dates were contacted, and they were reminded to use the extra day to submit the assignments for practices.

Students’ participation rates in the homework assignments were close to 100%. Students written responses showed that they reflected on what chemistry concepts they learned in the course and how the concepts were connected to their personal life. One student written response is shown in the following:

“I think something we've learned this year that can help me is learning about acids and bases. I feel like when I am in my own life outside of class dealing with something, I am able to find the pH or anything in that fact that can be used to determine how strong that substance is. I can also use that knowledge to learn and dilute it or make it stronger depending on what I have to do with it.”

The interventions seemed to have increased students’ performance in the course. After the interventions, the DFW rates of students in the Chem 1B lecture course were lower than those before the UVI was implemented. The results suggested that the intervention increased student performances in introductory chemistry course.

**Evidence of Instructional Change**
UVI Assignment	Homework Assignment
Instruction for UVI Writing Assignment	Instruction for Homework Assignment

Changes in Course Syllabus and Schedules:

Pre Minigrant - Syllabus and Schedule

Post Minigrant - Syllabus and Schedule

Minigrant Impact Data:

Post Minigrant - DFW rate, Equity gap data (*To be completed for FINAL report)

**Faculty Bio**
Faculty Picture	Bio
	Yujuan Liu holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry Education and a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry. Dr. Liu teaches general chemistry lectures and general and organic chemistry laboratory courses. Her research interests include (1) developing and evaluating green chemistry experiments for undergraduate laboratory curriculum and (2) investigating student affect (e.g. motivation, self-efficacy, and goals) based on theory-based instruments for interventions to improve student achievement and retention. She is an active member of American Chemical Society and has published many conference papers and journal articles on development, implementation, and evaluation of laboratory projects and evidence-based instructional practices.

STEM4Equity: US Dept. of Education STEMHSI P031C210012
*Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sacramento State.