Drawing on Internal Strengths and Creating Spaces for Growth: How Black Science Majors Navigate the Racial Climate at a Predominantly White Institution to Succeed.

To support Black students in earning undergraduate science degrees, faculty need to understand the mechanisms that Black students use to succeed. Following an anti-deficit achievement approach, we used the community cultural wealth framework to investigate the strengths that Black undergraduates bring to their science majors. Community cultural wealth consists of capital or "knowledge, skills, abilities, and contacts" that students of color can use in their education. Through participatory action research, we studied academically successful Black science majors in the final year of their undergraduate degrees at a research-intensive predominantly white institution (PWI; n = 34). We collected data using a demographic survey and two semistructured interviews. Three themes emerged from content and thematic analysis. First, Black science majors use their capital to navigate the racial climate at a PWI. Second, Black students use internal strengths as capital to succeed in their science majors at a PWI. Third, Black science majors create virtual and physical spaces where they can share their capital and thrive at a PWI. We use our results to offer suggestions for researchers and instructors who want to take action to support the success of Black science majors.

Weekend Effect on in-Hospital Mortality for Ischemic and Hemorrhagic Stroke in US Rural and Urban Hospitals.

INTRODUCTION: Previous studies have reported a "weekend effect" on stroke mortality, whereby stroke patients admitted during weekends have a higher risk of in-hospital death than those admitted during weekdays. AIMS: We aimed to investigate whether patients with different types of stroke admitted during weekends have a higher risk of in-hospital mortality in rural and urban hospitals in the US. METHODS: We used data from the 2016 National Inpatient Sample and used logistic regression to assess in-hospital mortality for weekday and weekend admissions among stroke patients aged 18 and older by stroke type (ischemic or hemorrhagic) and rural or urban status. RESULTS: Crude stroke mortality was higher in weekend admissions (p <0.001). After adjusting for confounding variables, in-hospital mortality among hemorrhagic stroke patients was significantly greater (22.0%) for weekend admissions compared to weekday admissions (20.2%, p = 0.009). Among rural hospitals, the in-hospital mortality among hemorrhagic stroke patients was also greater among weekend admissions (36.9%) compared to weekday admissions (25.7%, p = 0.040). Among urban hospitals, the mortality of hemorrhagic stroke patients was 21.1% for weekend and 19.6% for weekday admissions (p = 0.026). No weekend effect was found among ischemic stroke patients admitted to rural or urban hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: Our results help to understand mortality differences in hemorrhagic stroke for weekend vs. weekday admissions in urban and rural hospitals. Factors such as density of care providers, stroke centers, and patient level risky behaviors associated with the weekend effect on hemorrhagic stroke mortality need further investigation to improve stroke care services and reduce weekend effect on hemorrhagic stroke mortality.

How Undergraduate Science Students Use Learning Objectives to Study.

Learning objectives communicate the knowledge and skills that instructors intend for students to acquire in a course. Student performance can be enhanced when learning objectives align with instruction and assessment. We understand how instructors should use learning objectives, but we know less about how students should use them. We investigated students' use and perceptions of learning objectives in an undergraduate science course at a public research university. In this exploratory study, students (n = 185) completed two open-ended assignments regarding learning objectives and we analyzed the content of their answers. We found that students used learning objectives in ways that reflected the recommendations of past and present instructors, suggesting that students are receptive to instruction on how to use learning objectives. Students generally found learning objectives to be useful because the objectives helped them to narrow their focus and organize their studying, suggesting that students may need additional help from instructors in order to self-direct their learning. Students who chose not to use learning objectives often found other resources, such as case studies covered in class, to be more helpful for their learning. Some of these students recognized that the concepts included in case studies and learning objectives overlapped, pointing to a benefit of alignment between instructional activities and learning objectives. These qualitative results provide the data necessary for designing a quantitative instrument to test the extent to which students' use of learning objectives affects their performance.