I share this not because I think everyone needs to read all of it before they're allowed to do the work — plenty of excellent practitioners build strong instincts without ever opening a journal article. But if you're the kind of person who wants the theory underneath your practice, who wants to know why the things that feel right actually work, this is where I'd point you.

There are five things I wish someone had told me before I majored in STEM.

The research on who attends office hours and why points somewhere more structural: attendance tracks comfort and prior exposure far more than it tracks need.

A friendly starting point for STEM instructors — whether you're ready to dive in or just curious what the fuss is about.

I'm Tess, a STEM education researcher and practitioner at Dominican University and College of the Sequoias, and this is the first post in what I hope becomes a long and generous conversation.