Research involving lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer, as well as individuals who identify with other gender and sexual minorities (LGBTQ+), make up a small, yet meaningful, amount of published work within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) literature. This review of LGBTQ+ STEM literature from January 2009 to…

Nationally, as the chemical community aspires to become more diverse, it is essential to make students of all races, ethnicities, gender expressions, and physical abilities feel welcomed and represented in the introductory courses in the field. One way to accomplish this goal is to present examples of scientists who are not traditionally included…

We surveyed 196 individuals who study or work in STEM regarding the role models and inspirations that had an influence on them pursuing STEM education and careers. The data showed that role models influenced around 30% of the sample. These role models can then be divided into three overarching types, teachers, family, and well-known scientists,…

As a member of the team that created elements 104 and 105 at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, James Andrew Harris [1932-2000] was the first African American credited in the discovery of an element. This factoid has been posted on social media, used in a quiz game, and repeated on numerous Web sites. The story (if any context is offered at all) is…

In our taught chemistry curricula, the majority of individuals who are used to illustrate historical aspects of chemistry topics are white, western chemists. Decolonizing the undergraduate chemistry curricula is increasingly recognized as an important step toward developing a more inclusive higher-education environment for students from…

The biographical stories of scientists and engineers, particularly those from historically excluded groups, have been integrated into the curriculum for a materials science course. The goal is to help students connect and relate to the scientific content, while opening the door to conversations about social justice in the virtual classroom. We…

A successful scientific career requires competency in not only content knowledge but also professional skills, such as written and oral communication, decision making, problem solving, and planning, organizing, and prioritizing work. These professional skills are prioritized in the 2016 NACE Job Outlook report as the top 10 attributes employers…

We have developed and implemented a change to our General Chemistry curriculum that makes the point that "not all chemists are white men." This builds on recent textbook analyses, which showed that General Chemistry textbooks overwhelmingly and unnecessarily focus on the biographies of scientists that are white men. We demonstrate a way…

In undergraduate classrooms, a majority of chemistry discoveries introduced are by white men and a small group of white women. There is greater online representation of chemists of diverse backgrounds, but the emphasis on diversity is mainly based on a monthly theme from Black History Month to Women's History Month. The "Diversity in…

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs)have been shown to result in increased science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) persistence, but such experiences are rarely available for first-year STEM students. This work outlines the development and integration of a CURE into a year-long honors general chemistry laboratory…

Writing is an essential component of scientific activity. As such, it is necessary to develop strategies to provide equitable training opportunities for science writing. In order to provide learners with ways to improve their writing regardless of their language background and/or institutional and departmental environments, this article describes…

Culturally relevant pedagogy and critical race feminism can be utilized to challenge the inequality and masculine nature of chemistry. Such an approach is needed to increase the representation of Black women in STEM and can be leveraged to create a curriculum that addresses the lived experiences of these individuals. This approach can shift the…

This study examines the representation of people of color in 10 US general chemistry textbooks published between 2016 and 2020. On average, people of color appear every 320 pages of text, while white figures are observed every 24 pages. The average percentage of people of color in the textbooks (12%) is well below the percentage in the US general…

Current laboratory-based practical classes are arranged so that all students can complete the required activities on time. With this system there is no incentive for students to optimize the time they spend in the laboratory or have awareness of whether they are conducting the activities in a timely manner. However, the acceptable timeframes for…

How often do students get to delve deeper into the lives of the scientists that are typically mentioned in a general chemistry class? Most of the time, the scientist's name is mentioned, and then their scientific contribution becomes the main topic of discussion. A Scientist Report writing assignment has been used in a General Chemistry I course…