STEM Identity of Organic Chemistry students: How students’ see themselves as future graduates in their major

Cameron Bechard, Jackson Ellis, Abigail Castillo, Tamra Legron-Rodriguez, Nicole Lapeyrouse

University of Central Florida

How do science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) students taking the first semester of Organic Chemistry see themselves as being future graduates in their major? The building of a strong professional identity has been a growing topic in chemistry education. Professional identity in STEM, also known as STEM identity, describes how an individual identifies within occupational and social groups that relate to their STEM profession. In this study, a STEM identity survey was distributed each semester between Spring 2022 and Fall 2023. This survey was distributed two times during the semester, near the beginning and end of each semester. Students in various Organic Chemistry I courses were asked a variety of questions regarding how they identified as “future graduates in their major” to better understand how students develop their STEM identity as they progress through undergraduate courses. Student responses were analyzed using thematic analysis to determine common themes. The coded responses were further sorted by demographic information to gain a better understanding of how certain groups of individuals compare in the development of their STEM identity. This presentation will review how students describe their feelings of confidence and anxiety, positive and negative emotions, and their justifications for why they feel that way. This talk will also review if and why student’s think they should change their majors, and go over differences found in the reasonings between students of different major groups and gender identities.