Physics labs provide a unique opportunity for students to grow their physics identity and science identity in general since they provide students with an opportunity to tinker with experiments and analyze data in a low-stakes environment. However, it is important to ensure that all students are benefiting from the labs equally and have a positive growth trajectory. Through interviews and reflexive ethnographic observations, we identify and analyze two common modes of work that may disadvantage female students in introductory physics labs. Students who adopt the Secretary archetype are relegated to recording and analyzing data, and thus may miss out on much of the opportunity to grow their physics and science identities by engaging fully in the experimental work. Meanwhile, students in the Hermione archetype shoulder a disproportionate amount of managerial work, and also may not get an adequate opportunity to engage with different aspects of the experimental work that is essential for helping them develop their physics and science identities. We use a physics identity framework to investigate how students under these modes of work may experience stunted growth in their physics and science identity trajectories in their physics lab course. This stunted growth can then perpetuate and reinforce societal stereotypes and biases about who does physics. Our categorization not only gives a vocabulary to discussions about equity in the physics lab, but may also serve as a useful touchstone for those who seek to center equity in efforts to transform physics instruction.

Some of the reasons for the underrepresentation of women in physics are evident in the reflections of two undergraduate women. Leia is a chemistry major who loves college-level physical chemistry and quantum mechanics but does not identify with the discipline of physics, partly because she has a low level of self-efficacy as a physicist and has received very little recognition for her work and learning in physics. Paulette is a physics major who loves physics but feels isolated by the current physics learning environment. She reluctantly dropped honors introductory lab after being snubbed by her male classmates who partnered with one another, leaving her to work alone. Paulette's experiences with condescending male professors activated a stereotype threat about who can succeed in physics that caused her to disengage in class. We also discuss what these women felt has helped them so far and explore their suggestions for what would help women in physics courses as they pursue their quest for a physical science degree.

Imagine two groups of students in your physics class or lab. In Group A, the students each take on a different task but invest an equal amount of time, energy, and effort in what they do. For example, one student might be the note-taker, while another operates the calculator, computer, or experimental apparatus, and a third keeps everyone on track and makes sure the group is completing assignments correctly. In Group B, on the other hand, the students divide up the work equitably, making sure that each group member participates in every aspect of the various types of work that need to be done. In this case, each student takes a turn operating the apparatus, records their own data, and does some of the analysis. Survey results that we analyzed show that students prefer to work in Group A, but that their physics interest and self-efficacy are boosted most by Group B-style work.

There is a wide variety of ways for instructors to seek to improve diversity, equity, inclusion, and respect (DEIR) in chemistry through their instruction. One way is to talk with students explicitly about equity and injustice in science. We propose a curricular framework for teaching about equity as a way to improve DEIR in science classes at the high school and college levels. The framework has six parts, including expansive framing, buy-in, active and collaborative learning, action, flexible content, and science as a context for learning. We also present the Underrepresentation Curriculum as an example of the framework for teaching about equity in science in action. The Underrepresentation Curriculum (underrep.com) is a flexible set of lesson plans that aims to help students learn about and take action to improve equity in science.

Understanding student views about learning physics in the lab context can be invaluable for efforts to improve student learning. In an ethnographic study in which two researchers observed introductory physics labs, we found that many women in mixed gender groups adopted the role of group leader or project manager and ensured that the group stayed on task and completed the lab work as expected throughout the semester. Here we report on an investigation of the views about the physics lab of four such female pre-medical students with high agency who came across as group leaders in a traditionally-taught introductory physics lab course for bio-science majors, and who strived to ensure that their group did well in the lab. Our findings are based on semi-structured interviews with these students. The interviews focused on diverse issues including the role of their male lab partners, other peers and the teaching assistant in their learning in the physics lab, their views about learning physics in lecture and lab courses, the role of physics labs in promoting conceptual understanding, learning in physics lab compared with other science labs, and the role of bio-inspired labs in their learning. We find that these female student group leaders had surprisingly similar views about these issues pertaining to the physics lab. We recommend that departments trying to revamp their physics lab courses reflect upon these findings in order to make the labs more effective.

There is a growing recognition of the need to replace "cookbook"-style introductory labs with moremeaningful learning experiences. To identify the strengths and weaknesses of a mix of cookbook-style and inquiry-based labs, an introductory lab course currently being reformed was observed following a reflexive ethnographic protocol and pre and post E-CLASS surveys were administered. We analyzed data to identify shortcomings of the current labs and to determine areas for improvement.

In 2020, many instructors and students at colleges and universities were thrust into an unprecedented situation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic disruptions. Even though they typically engage in in-person teaching and learning in brick and mortar classrooms, remote instruction was the only possibility. Many instructors at our institution who had to switch from in-person to remote instruction without any notice earlier in the year worked extremely hard to design and teach online courses to support their students during the second half of 2020. Since different instructors chose different pedagogical approaches for remote instruction, students taking multiple remote classes simultaneously experienced a variety of instructional strategies. We present an analysis of students' perceptions of remote learning in their lecture-based, active learning, and lab physics classes at a large research university in the USA, focusing on positive and negative aspects including collaboration, communication, and assessment. Student reflections emphasized the importance of grade incentives for out-of-class and in-class work; frequent, low-stakes assessments; community-building activities; and opportunities to study with peers. Reflecting on the challenges and successes of different types of remote instructional approaches from students' perspective could provide useful insight to guide the design of future online courses as well as some aspects of in-person courses.

There is some evidence that conceptual inquiry-based introductory physics lab curricula, such as RealTime Physics, may improve students' understanding of physics concepts. Thus, these curricula may be attractive for instructors who seek to transform their physics labs to improve student learning. However, the impact of conceptual inquiry-based lab instruction on students' attitudes and beliefs about experimental physics, as measured by the E-CLASS survey, is not yet fully understood. We present data from three curricular approaches over four semesters (n=701). We saw no change in E-CLASS scores in the first implementation of a conceptual inquiry-based introductory physics lab. However, the addition of questions that asked students to reflect on issues relating to experimental physics was associated with E-CLASS outcomes that are comparable to other effective approaches to lab instruction.