written by Austin Calder and Emily A. West

This brief report compared the performance by gender and ethnicity of 6720 students in an introductory course for the life science majors: Physics 7A and 7B. We compared performance between ethnicities and genders using Z scores taken by quarter. We also performed a binary analysis with achievement of a high grade in 7B as the dependent variable. The results indicate that on average males score higher than females in every ethnic group, and that the only statistically significant ethnic differences in our binary analysis were White and African American, The model indicated that being female reduced odds of achieving a high grade in 7B by one half. Odds were reduced by more than half for African Americans and increased by three halves for White. We also compared gender equity over 18 quizzes. Equity favored quiz questions that are more open ended; this is consistent with some earlier findings in studies of gender equity in introductory physics courses.

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Published September 1, 2005
Last Modified July 8, 2013

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