First-year students get a head start on intro chem thanks to summer bridging program

What assistant professor Lydia Chen was seeing in her first-year chemistry courses was cause for concern.

Chen’s taught chemistry to thousands of students at Brock University, Toronto Metropolitan University and McMaster since 2013. She noticed that, year over year, students were showing up less prepared for both her courses and university overall. The transition to university isn’t easy but Chen was worried by how many students were struggling right out of the gate. They not only seemed overwhelmed – Chen says students weren’t waiting until the academic withdrawal deadline to drop courses.

“Earlier withdrawals mean we need earlier interventions. We can’t wait for students to reach out for help or for us to notice they need help – they’re already gone.”

So Chen offered to find a way to help students arrive better prepared. She built a bridging program from scratch during her parental leave in 2024. “I wasn’t getting much sleep with a newborn and two-year-old at home but I had a lot of time on my hands.”

MacSPARK (McMaster Accelerating Chemistry Success Preparation and Review of Knowledge) – is a four-week online program offered at no cost to every incoming student in all four of the Faculty of Science’s gateway programs – Chemical and Physical Sciences, Environmental and Earth Sciences, Life Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics.

The Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology debuted MacSPARK this summer and Chen was floored by the response from students – just shy of 390 students signed up.

Chen shouldn’t have been surprised by the registration numbers – she’d done her homework prior to launch to create a student-friendly program. For inspiration, she looked to assistant professor Caroline Junkins in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics who’d launched a similar bridging program four years ago called MacPRIME – the McMaster Peer-Run Inclusive Math Experience.

Chen studied the bridging programs offered to incoming students at other universities, including the University of Toronto. She reached out to science teachers at the Grand Erie District School Board to identify what was tripping up their students in their classes.

And Chen consulted with colleagues who also teach introductory chemistry courses – Chen said Linda Davis, the department’s Level 1 undergraduate chemistry coordinator was an invaluable sounding board.

Getting MacSPARK up and running was a team effort.  Chen secured a Leadership in Teaching and Learning Fellowship from the MacPherson Institute – she’d applied during one of her son’s naps. She used the funding to hire a teaching team of four stand-out senior students– third-year student Sarina Gill, fifth-year students Anumta Amir and Shuoyang Wang (who’d had the same role with MacPrime) and graduate student Nicole Malette. Chen had taught all four students and knew what they’d deliver. “The program couldn’t have run without Sarina, Anumta, Shuoyang and Nicole.”

The same was true for assistant academic department manager Natasha Hillier and undergraduate academic program advisor Sarah O’Dwyer. “The smooth onboarding of such a large group of students wouldn’t have been possible without Natasha and Sarah.”

Students were assigned to smaller groups. Each week from July 21 to Aug. 14, they studied a different lesson in chemistry for around six hours. The week started and ended with a quiz, with a pre-recorded lecture and a live tutorial led by the teaching team in between.  

Chen dropped in during every group’s first tutorial – she’d wolf down dinner, put her kids to bed and then log in to welcome first-year students. 

MacSPARK is both a review and preview for students, says Chen. Students get a refresher of key concepts they learned in high school that’ll serve as the building blocks for what they learn in their intro chemistry courses at Mac. Students are introduced to Avenue to Learn and iClicker so they’re already comfortable using the university’s learning platform and student engagement tool. It’s one less thing for students to worry about during their first weeks at Mac, says Chen. They also get to meet other students ahead of Welcome Week and ask the teaching team any and all questions about university life student to student.

All of this makes MacSPARK a competence and confidence builder and stress reducer, says Chen.

Of the 388 students who registered, 287 completed all four weeks. “Most faculty would love to see that kind of attendance rate in our courses.” Feedback’s been overwhelmingly positive – 89 per cent of students strongly agree or agree that they feel more prepared for CHEM 1A03 and CHEM 1AA3 after completing the MacSPARK program while 88 per cent say they feel more confident and comfortable about starting university.

The department will keep tabs on MacSPARK graduates to see how well they perform in their courses. In November, Chen will showcase the program at the Science Teacher Association of Ontario Conference.  And thanks to funding from the McPherson Institute, MacSPARK will return next summer.  

In helping students have a stronger start, Chen says she learned a lot about herself. “I discovered how much I enjoy doing program development. It’s the perfect job for me.”

She also thought a lot about what she wants and expects for her own children, even though they’re still many years away from heading off to university. The Golden Rule was very much on Chen’s mind.

“I built MacSPARK so that incoming students will be supported in exactly the same way I expect my own kids when they’re first-year students. Every student deserves to go to a university that’s serious about helping them start strong.”