Porter Bischoff is an undergraduate student who spent months in the hospital as a child. They worked with Anette Lewis, Dr. Joshua Premo, and Dr. Brittney N. Wyatt on this educational study funded by NSF. They presented their work at ASMCUE 2022 as a recorded poster session entitled “Medical Experiences’ Influence on Science Motivation.” Bischoff explained that there isn’t much literature on the impact medical experiences can have on student motivation. I had not thought about this! Bischoff designed an experiment using surveys. Bischoff hypothesized that “view of science as more communal may be higher in students. that have more medical experiences as they have more exposure to the science community.” They surveyed non-majors, intro biology, and advanced majors in the fall of 2021 an spring of 2022 and reached over 1000 students at their institution (Utah Valley University). They found that their hypothesis was supported: medial experiences were associated with higher intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, and science engagement. Interestingly, around half of the students given the survey said they had a medical experience! As for educators, Bischoff recommended “flexible instruction and awareness that students who have/currently battling medical experiences may need more support (burnout associated with medical experiences). The next steps of this study will be surveys and focus groups. The question Bischoff is asking and its implications for motivation and pedagogy are intriguing! I want to follow this work.
