131 A Qualitative Study Exploring Students Open Ended Responses Regarding Belonging Uncertainty in General Chemistry 1

Faculty Mentor: Regina Frey (Chemistry, University of Utah)

Student continuation of pursuing STEM degrees after completing General Chemistry 1 depends on not only their sense of belonging, but also their uncertainty of their belonging. Additionally, based on quantitative calculations of students’ performance and belonging in General Chemistry 1 at the University of Utah, women feel a higher uncertainty in their belonging when compared to their men peers, even at similar exam performance. This leads to lower persistence to General Chemistry 2, as well as lower retention in STEM paths for women. To better understand what leads women students to have a higher belonging uncertainty, open ended explanations to how students rated their agreement of the statement: “I feel uncertain about my belonging in CHEM 1210” were coded into different categories that emerged from their responses. Then, these results will be graphed to understand what factors of a course different demographics consider when thinking about their uncertainty of belonging in STEM. With this data, course interventions can be implemented to improve student retention in STEM.