7 September 2023

The Quantitative Reasoning for College Science Study Needs Your Help!

Katherine Follette Amherst College

Sample visualizations from a QuaRCS instructor report, which all participating instructors receive. These reports give a big-picture view of students' attitudes toward math and performance on a range of numerical skills. Other visualizations show distributions of student scores, self-reported effort level, and level of math anxiety.


Calling all Gen Ed science instructors! The NSF-funded Quantitative Reasoning for College Science (QuaRCS) study team is looking for your help. We are working to gain insight into college students’ quantitative reasoning skills, sense of belonging, numerical self-efficacy, and math anxiety, particularly as it relates to science content. If you are an instructor of undergraduate general education/introductory science courses (i.e., science courses for non-STEM majors), we invite you to participate in our study. Your participation would entail five minutes to complete our intake form (see below) and 10–15 minutes to complete a short survey at the end of your course. Your students’ participation would entail completing our assessment outside of class once at the beginning and once at the end of your course (15–25-minute time commitment each time).

Once students fill out the assessment, our team analyzes all data to include in our study and prepares a report for participating instructors. Previous participants have found these reports very informative for their teaching. If you are interested in participating in the study, please complete this form to enroll. If you would like more details about the study and your role in it, please visit our website. We are also happy to answer questions or concerns via email at [email protected]. Thank you, and best wishes for a great term!