SUU has a unique cadaver based anatomy lab structure allowing students to attend multiple labs per week. Students, however, often do not take advantage of this time by leaving lab early and not attending additional review sessions or labs. Early evidence from our research suggests those who leave lab early tend to have lower success in the course than those who stay the whole time or those who come to multiple extra lab sessions and attending extra sessions of labs and reviews will increase overall student lab grades from .5% to .7% per session. While many faculty observe students leaving their assigned lab early, their motivations as to why is typically based in external factors related to life and other courses. Research on science lab courses suggests missing lab, even when it can be made up, results in poorer overall student performance in lab and lecture (Moore & Jensen, 2008), with those students who miss three or more labs in a semester having a 20% chance of passing both the lecture and lab (Moore & Jensen 2008). To explore this, the researchers administered a 20-question survey to n = 145 students in general anatomy labs during the spring 2018 and fall 2018 semesters. Researchers asked students to identify if/when they left their weekly lab early, why they left early or stayed the entire time, if they attended extra help sessions provided by the teaching assistants, and to self-report stress levels. Our poster will present our continued efforts in identifying the factors affecting student performance in lab including stress, perceived benefit, and any potential pedagogical changes including restructuring lab, lab materials, and the amount of content covered in lab.
