| Enrolled students who… |
% (n) |
Sample student evidence from postassessment responses to:“I know of one or more important scientists to whom I can personally relate.” |
| shifted from disagree to agree |
36% (267/752) |
“After taking this course I learned a lot about different scientists which I can relate … It was nice to read about scientists who are minorities and also women because I never read about them.” “I relate to his family background and share some things in common with him academically. I can also relate to [another scientist] because of how she is a woman in science.” “I learned that [she] and I have some things in common, things that reflect our journey through school. Both of our parents’ divorces and family situations forced us to struggle with finances.” “The scientist spotlights have definitely inspired me and showed me a variety of ways of being able to give back to the community with my cultural upbringing.”
|
| always agreed |
40% (303/752) |
“I strongly agree with this statement. The one person that I always think about when I think of a scientist is my partner. He runs his own company that tests dietary supplements from Amazon and off the shelves in stores to see if it really has all the vitamins and nutrients that they claim to have.” “At the beginning of the semester, I rated that on a scale of 1-4, I would choose a 4 for “strongly agree” to scientists I can personally relate to. Since that rating, nothing has changed, so the rating stays at 4. However, I did discover two new important scientists I could personally to.” “[Compared with before] nothing has changed, so the rating stays at 4. However, I did discover two new important scientists I could personally [relate] to. The first new important scientist I can personally relate to is Dr. George M. Langford. Reading his background for one of the scientific spotlights, I was definitely inspired because of all the hardship he had to go through during a tumultuous period in our nation’s history.” “I agree with this statement. After completing the scientist spotlights throughout the semester I was able to see a variety of scientists. One of the most important points I was able to capture through these exercises was being able to understand that while many difficulties rise when pursuing a degree in the sciences, it is not impossible to persevere.”
|
| always disagreed |
18% (138/752) |
“In this course, I studied two Latin American female scientists: one from Argentina and the other from Mexico. Even though they are both Latinas, I do not feel fully represented by them because they are not Salvadoran scientists.” “I cannot say I personally relate to any of the scientists we study. Although their work was interesting and I am glad that there are people out there focusing on these things to fix, but none of their passions are the same as mine.” “I can’t say that I have any relation to any important scientists. I have no drive nor desire to learn about the natural processes that occur in life and feel like my interests are somewhere else unrelated to science.” “I do know other scientist, but I don’t know if they are considered important to others. I believe every scientist is important, since we all have the potential to change the world. Nevertheless, there are inspiring scientist that I can learn from and that can help inspire me in many ways.”
|
| shifted from agree to disagree |
6% (44/752) |
“Although I am a pretty persistent person when it comes to finding the right answer, I do not feel as though I can personally relate to many scientists. I can maybe relate to scientists in the sense that I will go endless hours to find the solution to my problem but I do not think my work ethic is what is [sic] should be.” “I don’t really consider myself a scientist to be relating myself to one of them because yes, I am interested in going into medicine or any field related, but I wouldn’t be a scientist. Also, each scientist had to go through different struggles to get to where they accomplished their dreams, with hardships and hard work.” “My reason for this is that the scientists we reviewed in [this class] have gone through adversities that I feel I haven’t personally experienced … Many of these scientists have experienced great adversity in order to have their work recognized. I cannot claim to relate to the adversities that the scientists we learned about had faced and in my opinion, it would be unfair to them to claim to have faced them.” “I would have to say that I personally disagree because I feel that I don’t really know anyone that I personally would consider a scientist, because I would consider as scientist someone who is officially done with the process of their career and has officially been in there major science career and is making a living of it.”
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