While the role of affective factors in learning is well understood in geoscience, math attitudes have been overlooked. This study sought to explore the relationships between math attitudes and geoscience attitudes, namely math anxiety, self-efficacy, and geoscience interest. Baseline data were collected from 245 undergraduate students enrolled in introductory geoscience courses at three colleges and universities in the United States, with self-report measures of math anxiety, math self-efficacy, geoscience self-efficacy, geoscience interest, and demographic information. Results show strong relationships and predictive values of math attitudes for students’ geoscience attitudes, particularly for female-identifying students. This research provides important empirical support for the study of math attitudes in geoscience; additionally, educators can use this knowledge to inform their understanding of their students’ math attitudes and possible interest in geoscience.

Transformative experience represents a deep-engagement construct and refers to experiences in which students use science content to see and experience the world in meaningful new ways outside the classroom. Such experiences are associated with deep learning (e.g., transfer) and engagement (e.g., academic and career choice) outcomes. However, research on individual factors predictive of transformative experience is limited. The current study investigated university geoscience students’ perceptions of a connection to their instructor(s) and perceptions of their instructors’ passion for the content as predictors of transformative experience. Controlling for students’ initial interest and self-efficacy in the domain, we found both these factors to be predictive of transformative experience. These results suggest science teachers may be able to support engagement in transformative experiences by connecting with students and expressing a passion for the content.

Climate change is a critical environmental issue and is a recommended core concept in the Ecological Society of America’s 4‐Dimensional Ecology Education framework. Limited work describes K‐12 students’ conceptions of the biotic impacts of climate change, yet research is lacking to explore undergraduate students’ conceptions on this topic. Our goal was to describe undergraduate student conceptions of the biotic outcomes of climate change, and characterize how these student conceptions of animal responses to climate change align with accepted scientific ideas. We used an interpretive qualitative research design and interviewed 13 undergraduate students who were enrolled in either an introductory biology or general ecology course. Through two independent codings of the same dataset, we separately addressed each of our research goals. Prior to this study, we identified three general biotic outcomes from climate change, which were confirmed by outside experts: changes to an animal’s Growth and Survival, their Reproduction, or their Distribution. Our student interviewees as a whole mentioned all three of these outcomes, and most individuals mentioned all three in their responses. Additionally, we found that most student ideas were aligned with Scientific conceptions, while a third of student ideas contained some scientific conceptions but were incomplete. Only a small percent of conceptions voiced in our sample were identified as alternative conceptions that did not align with accepted scientific ideas. These findings are important for educators who teach climate change, as they suggest that undergraduate students come to our classes with productive resources; however, our findings also identify concepts where students may struggle or enter classrooms with a more incomplete understanding.

Many factors may contribute to women being underrepresented and marginalized in college-level geoscience majors. Limited research has examined students’ math anxiety as a possible factor. To address the dearth of research, we conducted a qualitative study to explore the math anxiety experiences held by students in college-level geoscience classes. Through analysis of students’ written math narratives, we identified three themes capturing students’ integrated math anxiety experiences (IMAEs), which integrated students’ feelings, physiological reactions, and thoughts. Students with Thriving IMAEs liked math and had positive assessments of themselves in math. Students with Agonizing IMAEs had negative feelings and thoughts about math and experienced negative physiological reactions. Students with Persisting IMAEs had positive and negative feelings and thoughts, but thought that, ultimately, they could persist in math. A higher percentage of women than men held Agonizing IMAEs, and a lower percentage of women than men held Thriving IMAEs. Students in introductory geoscience classes had a range of IMAEs, which may have an important role in their success in class and in their decisions to take additional geoscience classes.

The full extent of gender discrimination in university settings remains uncertain. More research is needed to understand the scope of gender discrimination experiences in universities and to develop effective prevention approaches. However, Title IX and Institutional Review Board policies may hinder researchers’ abilities to study gender discrimination in university settings. In this paper, we describe our experience working with the Institutional Review Board and Title IX offices to obtain approval for researching gender discrimination in university settings. We provide recommendations for how universities can enable gender discrimination research and follow Title IX policies.