ORNL nuclear chemist Clarice Phelps films a general chemistry college course on a New York set in July 2023. The course, which will be available on the online education platform Outlier.org, targets marginalized students who statistically are more likely to have difficulty with first-year chemistry courses. Image submitted by Clarice Phelps
Oak Ridge National Laboratory nuclear chemist Clarice Phelps has long worked to educate the next generation of STEM scientists. A new endeavor will let her reach students entering college who need extra help mastering the basics they need to pursue careers in science.
Phelps spent three days in July in New York filming the online General Chemistry exemplar course funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help curb the interruptions that derail some minority and low-income students as they pursue higher-education degrees in STEM fields.
“When students don’t succeed at courses with general chemistry, their career trajectory can be impacted, which threatens their ability to enter well-paying STEM careers,” Phelps said. “The exemplar courses are videos with content to help at-risk students better understand courses they are more likely to have some difficulty with. They kind of level the playing field to give these students access to quality education.”
A 2019 Gardner Institute study found a higher percentage of minority students failed or withdrew from first-year general chemistry classes, compared to their white peers. The study found that more than 47% of Black students, about 42% of Hispanic and Latino students and more than 54%of American Indian or Alaska Native students failed or withdrew first-year general chemistry classes, while about 26% of white students did.
Phelps is one of several educators who, along with equity experts and technologists, are part of a group led by professors Ariel Anbar of Arizona State University and David Yaron of Carnegie Mellon University, both STEM education innovators. That group is working with online education platform Outlier.org to create an accessible, equitable general chemistry course for students in underserved and marginalized communities.
Phelps’ course will air this fall, and she has plans to film a full Chemistry I and II course next spring.
“I’m sitting down and talking about chemical concepts and using animation, real-life applications — anything to make it easier to understand,” Phelps said. She said breaking the concepts down for early college students is an extension of what she does in other types of educational outreach: “If you understand and have a passion for chemistry, you should be able to explain what you do to elementary students.”
Phelps was contacted for the course after an Outlier video producer watched her 2019 TEDx Nashville talk, “How I claimed a seat at the periodic table.”
“It’s good for students to see that a woman and a person of color, a Black American, can do certain things in certain spaces, because that’s what helped me when I was a kid — somebody reaching back,” Phelps said. “I’m saying, ‘Hey, you can do it, and here’s how I did it.’
“I just want to see everyone have an equal chance to succeed.”
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.
