There is a national need to recruit more science teachers. Enhancing pathways to teaching for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors could help to address this need. The Learn By Doing Lab is a course in which STEM undergraduates teach hands-on life science and physical science to local third- through eighth-grade schoolchildren visiting the campus. To measure the impacts of this teaching experience on the undergraduate participants, we administered a version of the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument-Preservice survey at the start and end of the course. Significant gains were observed in the students’ belief in their personal ability to effectively teach science (self-efficacy). Furthermore, qualitative and quantitative analysis of student reflections revealed that they perceived the Learn By Doing Lab experience to have helped them develop 21st-century competencies, particularly in the areas of collaboration, communication, and adaptability. Finally, the students’ overall awareness and positive perception of science teaching careers increased. This indicates that providing a low-barrier course-based teaching experience for STEM undergraduates is a promising strategy to help recruit pre-service teachers, and a step toward alleviating the national STEM teacher shortage.

Vol. 21, No. 1

March 01, 2022

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History

Submitted: 2 June 2021

Revised: 7 September 2021

Accepted: 20 October 2021

Information

© 2022 S. Bush et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2022 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0).

We acknowledge the California Polytechnic State University, COSAM, especially Dean Emeritus Phil Bailey, for supporting and sustaining the Learn By Doing Lab as well as the Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Physics and the College of Engineering. We thank the California State University Mathematics and Science Teacher Initiative for supporting the Learn By Doing Lab. A.C. was supported by the William and Linda Frost Fund. We are grateful to the Center of Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education, including former director Susan Elrod and current director Chance Hoellwarth, for providing support to LBDL activities and to Jenny Cruz, Tiffany Kwapnoski, Jenny Bush, and Kaylene Wakeman for their roles in organizing the LBDL. We are grateful to faculty and staff who have brought their creativity and energy to the LBDL: Tom Bensky, Jen Carroll, John Chen, Kathy Chen, Jenny Cruz, Lynn Moody, Grace Neff, John Oliver, Kelly Polakek, Brian Rebar, Sean Ryan, and David Zigler, and others who have contributed ideas and taught in the LBDL as FIs. We thank Bev Marcum for sharing her blueprint for a course-based teaching experience and for inviting us to CSU Chico to observe the Hands-On Lab.

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