How can first-year STEM university students be better supported?

Suitable for 14 to 19-year-olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom or shared with students online.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 Biology.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• Going to university is a huge change from going to high school. At the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg in the US, biologists Barbara Barnhart and Dr Olivia Long are using their Science Seminar programme to ease this transition for first year students studying biology, chemistry and biochemistry degrees. This teaching resource explains their work.
• This resource also contains interviews with Barbara and Olivia. If you or your students have a question for them, you can submit it online – go to the article using the Futurum link below and scroll to the bottom of the page. Barbara and Olivia will reply!
• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Barbara and Olivia’s research, and poses the question, ‘who owns your biological tissues?’.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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