A primary aim of science education is to teach students how to interpret and engage with scientific information. To do so effectively requires an adequate understanding of the nature of science (NOS)--in other words, what science is and how it works. There is a long history of evidence to suggest that many undergraduate students struggle to…

South Africa has opened up access to higher education over the past 20 years. The massive increase in enrolments (with almost 70% first-generation students) substantially affects progress and graduation rates in Science programmes in higher education. First-year students in Science realise that university mathematics requires knowledge and skills…

Background: The high rates of attrition in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programmes causes concern over a future shortage of graduates entering STEM careers. Students' first year experiences critically affect their motivation and are therefore also critical components of students' academic success in terms of retention,…

This paper discusses a novel structure for providing a high-impact, first year experience for science students. ASTER (Access to Science Through Experience in Research) is an extracurricular certification program designed to introduce our students to the research culture via seminar attendance, journal clubs, book clubs, and lab visits.…

We designed and implemented a first-year seminar in science course at the University of British Columbia to allow students to develop and improve their scientific writing and argumentation skills. To evaluate the efficacy of the course, we examined the progression that students made between the beginning and the end of the course as assessed by…