Ben Smith, Christopher Paton, Prashanth Ramaraj
Teaching Basic Surgical Skills Using a More Frugal, Near-Peer, and Environmentally Sustainable Way: Mixed Methods Study
JMIR perioperative medicine
workingclass firstgeneration fg college students underrepresented higher education stem using longitudinal quasiexperiment tested impacts living learning community llc biological sciences fg students first year college semester 1 n 243 semester 2 n 199 across three cohorts 20182019 20192020 20202021 participation llc enhanced fg students belonging confidence motivation grades knowledge social relevance biology reduced stem anxiety compared control group fg students llc llc participation also increased retention biological science majors oneyear postintervention compared control fg group moreover llc participation closed academic gap fg students llc honors students collegeeducated families separate honors llc benefits llc intervention remained stable despite covid19 pandemic living together became impossible producing positive effects across cohorts prepandemic inpandemic results suggest affinitybased learning communitieswith without shared housingin transition college enhance academic thriving persistence reduce social class driven achievement gaps stem