Peer Mentor Program for the General Chemistry Laboratory Designed To Improve Undergraduate STEM Retention

• Published in: Journal of chemical education Vol. 94; no. 12; pp. 1873 - 1880
• Main Authors: Damkaci, Fehmi, Braun, Timothy F, Gublo, Kristin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Easton American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc 12.12.2017; Division of Chemical Education, Inc and ACS Publications Division of the American Chemical Society; American Chemical Society
• Subjects: Academic Persistence; Chemistry; College Freshmen; College Science; Cooperative Learning; Graduate students; Laboratories; Mentors; Peer Teaching; Peer tutoring; Pretests Posttests; Program Effectiveness; Retention; Science Instruction; Science Laboratories; STEM Education; Student Surveys; Students; Technical education; Undergraduate Students; New York; First-Year Undergraduate/General; Laboratory Instruction; Laboratory Management; Collaborative/Cooperative Learning; Professional Development; Student Career/Counseling
• ISSN: 0021-9584; 1938-1328
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.7b00340

We describe the design and implementation of an undergraduate peer mentor program that can overlay an existing general chemistry laboratory and is designed to improve STEM student retention. For the first four freshman cohorts going through the program, year-to-year retention improved by a four year average of 20% for students in peer mentored laboratories versus those not in peer mentored laboratories. A majority of students in peer mentored laboratories recommend continuation of the program, 85.4% of 765 students in the first three cohorts. Our program is uncomplicated and requires only modest financial resources to affect significant increases in STEM retention.