The College Classroom: Teaching in the Liberal Arts, UW System and Technical College classroom

Dates: Tuesday and Thursday 9:00-11:00 am (June 3, 2008 through July 24, 2008)
Instructors:Don Gillian-Daniel and Brian Manske (UW-Madison), Anj Petto (UW Milwaukee) and Ken Walz (Madison Area Technical College)
Location: TBD

• Learn about the connections between teaching approaches and student learning
• Develop and practice new teaching skills
• Visit different college and university campuses to explore teaching
• Network during these campus visits
• Become a GREAT TEACHER!

The purpose of this course is two-fold. First, it aims to provide graduate students and post-docs with foundational knowledge of a wide range of pedagogical theories, ideas and practices. Second, it provides students with an opportunity to explore this pedagogy through the lens of different campus cultures and missions. To accomplish this, we emphasize a learner-centered classroom approach and in turn highlight the interconnected cycle of teaching, assessment and learning. This focus on pedagogy will be coupled to visits to different college and university campuses (e.g. Carroll College, Edgewood College, Madison Area Technical College, and UW-Milwaukee). One of the main goals is to help participants become reflective practitioners, so that they come to view their classrooms as sites of ongoing research into their own teaching and assessment in order to increase student learning and understanding.

NOTE: The pedagogical material in this course overlaps with that presented in Delta's standard College Classroom course. The frame will be the different campus cultures mentioned combined with campus visits. Campus visits will  be scheduled during class time and may take longer than 2 hrs.

Credits: 2 credits
Contact / Registration information: Summer course in session.

Research Mentor Training Seminar

Dates: To be determined by participant availability
Facilitators: Chris Pfund, Andrew Greenberg, Eric Hooper, Bob Mathieu, Trina McMahon, Janet Branchaw, Jo Handelsman
Location: Various campus locations - TBD

Course Description:

• Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your mentoring
• Help provide your mentees with a better research experience
• Improve your mentees' research productivity
• Reduce your frustration in mentoring

The success of undergraduate or graduate research experiences depend largely on a positive relationship between the student and the research mentor. Therefore, it is vital that current and future faculty be effective mentors. The mentor training seminar, originally developed by The Wisconsin Program for Scientific Teaching, is a seminar focused on helping participants become more effective research mentors.  Seminar discussions focus on different mentoring styles and strategies for developing confidence, independence, creativity, and communication skills in your mentees. Rather than adding to the time you will spend mentoring, this seminar is designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your mentoring.

The mentor training seminar consists of 8 weekly one hour sessions in which participants address issues in mentoring through facilitated discussions led by faculty or staff using a format based on collaboration and collective problem solving.   Participants will read articles and case studies, write biographies of their mentees, compare their goals with those of their mentees, explore time management strategies, and write mentoring philosophies.  This is a terrific opportunity for new mentors to get off on the right foot, and for experienced mentors to share their wisdom.

This summer we will focus on future faculty mentoring.

Credits:If you are a graduate student (or a post-doc, who can enroll as a special student), please let us know if you would like to take the seminar as a 1-credit course.  Priority will be given to those participants who are actively engaged in mentoring an undergraduate or graduate student.

Contact / Registration information: Our summer sessions have started, but if you are interested in Mentor Training, we will be offering it again this fall.

 

Faculty Teaching-as-Research Group

Dates: To be determined by participant availability
Facilitator: Kristyn Masters, Biomedical Engineering
Location: TBD

Course Description:

This Teaching-as-Research group of six to eight faculty will be driven by the needs and questions of the participants, with a focus on issues such as implementing changes in participants' courses or performing education research in STEM classes.  It will be facilitated by Kristyn Masters, a faculty member in Biomedical Engineering.  The group will meet weekly throughout the Summer and rotate through each person leading a discussion about their ideas for changes in their class or educational research questions they would like to investigate in their class.  These initial discussions will be followed by peer input and feedback of the proposed changes, and a classroom observation if appropriate.  The goal is to have each person go through at least one iteration of discussing their ideas for change followed by implementation and peer review of their new idea.

Contact / Registration information:

CLICK HERE to begin registration for this discussion group.

 

The College Classroom
Dates: Wednesdays 4-6pm
Instructors: Mitchell Nathan (Education Psychology) and Michel Wattiaux (Dairy Science)
Location: To be announced
Course Description: Gain knowledge in the basics of learning theory and effective teaching methods so you can operate at the forefront of ideas in college education.  Explore what your teaching philosophy might be and how it will impact your future classes. Design a course curriculum accordingly and learn how to monitor and investigate the effectiveness of the learning environment.
Credits: 2-3
Registration information:

EPD 654 - #14669
InterL&S 701 - # 24728
InterCALS 875 - #11493
Ed Psych 711 - #33296
Dairy Sci 875 - # 33583

REGISTRATION IS FULL: To be added to the waiting list for this course, please email Brian Manske at bfmanske@wisc.edu

The College Classroom Online
Dates: Wednesday 1:30-2:30pm
Instructor: Sandy Courter, Engineering Professional Development

Course Description: In the CIRTL Network* course, learn the basics of effective teaching as well as the forefront ideas in college education.  Explore what your teaching philosophy might be and how it will impact your future classes. Design a course curriculum accordingly and learn how to monitor and investigate the effectiveness of the learning environment.The fifteen-week learning experience will consist of weekly, hour-long conversations on-line plus another hour on your own campus of interaction with three to four students also enrolled. The course will use WisLine Web conferencing that allows effective and easy communication and collaboration in real-time. WisLine Web uses a web browser and a phone.
Credits: 1-3
Registration information: EPD 654 - #15355

CLICK HERE to begin registration for this course.

 

Diversity in the College Classroom
Dates: Thursday 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Instructors: Chris Pfund, Delta; Manuela Romero, Wisconsin Alliance for Minority Participation (WiscAMP); and Angela Byars-Winston, Center for Women's Health and the Center for Education and Work
Location: Science House - 1645 Linden Drive

Course Description: Consider the complex issues of diversity and how to address them effectively in your courses. Current graduate students and faculty are recognizing that we must consider that the way we teach differentially impacts the success of all our students. This course is designed for graduate students who have an interest in becoming better college instructors, and in advancing diversity issues in their future classroom practice.  Participants in this course will take a critical yet practical look at how we define diversity and for what purposes, and discuss the ways different definitions of diversity might influence what and how we teach our disciplinary topics.  Part 1 of this course will focus on foundational knowledge on the topic of diversity, research on bias, literature on ways of knowing, ways of learning and ways to address diversity in our own teaching of science. Part 2 will entail applying this knowledge to an individual diversity-focused project.
Registration information:

Part I ONLY (Register for 1 credit) - EDP 690 #34441
Part II ONLY (Register for 1 credit - prerequiste Part I) - EDP 690 #34442

CLICK HERE to begin registration for this course.

Teaching & Learning Science - Online
Dates: Wednesdays - 12:00pm ET / 11:00am CT / 10:00am MT
Host Campus: University of Colorado at Boulder
Instructors: Mike Klymkowsky, UC Boulder, Prof. Molecular, Cellular,
and Developmental Biology

Course Description:
This CIRTL Network* course is designed to help participants explore how undergraduate students understand their disciplines. Participants will discuss issues about student misconceptions and conceptual gaps. Each course participant will be called upon to customize their work to focus on their own academic area (e.g. physics, geosciences, etc).    All participants will engage in research to understand undergraduate conceptions, using Ed's Tools system (bioliteracy.net). Click here to view the syllabus.

Note:  This course, with a synchronous component, will make use of an online course management system as well as interactive web and teleconferencing technology. Each student will need: 1) individual access to a computer in a quiet location with a high speed internet connection; 2) a phone line with a speaker phone or headset (a speaker phone may be shared with other participants) and 3) a webcam (recommended but not required).

CLICK HERE to begin registration for this course.

Internship Seminar
Dates:To be announced...
Instructors:Don Gillian-Daniel (Delta)
Course Description:This seminar will be offered for internship participants as a way to connect, share, and support each other
Registration information: ELPA 502.

CLICK HERE to begin registration for this seminar.

Program Offerings
Non-credit programs Expeditions in Learning and Creating a Collaborative Learning Environment are listed on the Programs page.
For more information Click here...

Biology 375 Special Topics - Engage Children in Science
DATES: Mondays 7:00-8:15 pm
(Service component will be scheduled at various sites between 2:30-4:00 pm)

Instructor: Sarah Wright
(Teaching faculty and staff include UW faculty and staff as well as representatives of partner organizations and other community organizations.)

Course Description: This is a year long course offering 2 credits per semester.  Each semester, students will lead an After School Science Club in the community. The first semester, they would work in teams using materials already developed. The second semester they could work in teams or individually and will develop some of their own activities based on their particular area of interest.

CLICK HERE for more information or to register.

 

HHMI Teaching Fellows Program, Fall 2008-Spring 2009
Dates: September 1, 2008-May 31, 2009
Instructor:  Sarah Miller
 
Course Description: The HHMI Teaching Fellows Program is an exciting opportunity for graduate students and postdocs in the life sciences to learn about and practice scientific teaching. During the program, fellows develop, teach, evaluate, and disseminate a "teachable unit" in biology at UW-Madison. This is a great chance to develop innovative and effective ways of teaching biology. The program is designed to provide fellows with skills and knowledge in scientific teaching and to translate them directly into the classroom.
 
Fall semester:  Fellows meet in weekly two-hour sessions from September through December to learn about scientific teaching and develop instructional materials in partnership with a biology course at UW-Madison (typically a one-three week unit).
 
Spring semester: Fellows continue to meet in weekly one-hour sessions, teach the instructional materials in the biology course, evaluate student learning, and disseminate the instructional materials.

CLICK HERE for more information or contact Sarah Miller.

NOTE: There is no stipend for participation in this program.

Application deadline: August 1, 2008 - CLICK HERE to obtain the application.

Instructional Materials Development
Dates: To be announced...
Instructors: Lillian Tong, Center for Biology Education
Course Description: Work in partnership with faculty/staff to design and implement high quality instructional materials. In this project-based course, you will develop instructional materials for a real course together with a faculty/staff teammate to address a student-learning problem. In the process, you will use a teaching-as-research (TAR) approach to learn more about analyzing student learning problems, finding resources, assessing effectiveness of the materials, and seeing student problems through different lenses.  Past participants have valued the structure of the course with multiple teams of faculty/staff and graduate students/post docs from across the STEM disciplines giving feedback to each other.  
Credits: 2-3
Registration information:

Effective Teaching with Technology
Dates: To be announced
Instructors: Jack Blanchard (Engineering Physics) and Alan Wolf (DoIt)
Course Description: Effective Teaching with Technology is designed for graduate students, post-docs, and faculty who desire to develop new approaches to effective use of instructional technology in their teaching practice.
Location: To be announced
Credits: 2-3
Registration information:

Effective Teaching with Technology - New Online Course
Dates: To be announced
Host Campus: Howard University
Instructors: Folahan Ayorinde, Howard University, Prof. Chemistry, and Gregory Moses, UW-Madison, Prof.  Engineering Physics
Location: On-line

Diversity in the College Classroom - New Online Course
Dates: To be announced
Host Campus: UW-Madison
Instructors: Don Gillian-Daniel, Ass. Director, Delta Program, Brian Manske, Asst. Director, Delta Program
Location: On-line

Course Description: This CIRTL Network* course is designed for those who have an interest in becoming better college instructors, and in advancing diversity issues in their future classroom practice.  Participants in
this course will explore how we define diversity, and discuss the ways different definitions of diversity might influence what and how we teach our disciplinary topics. The course culminates in creation of a diversity-focused plan of action.
Credits: 3
Registration information:

Informal Science Education for Scientists: A Practicum
Dates: TBA
Instructors: Steve Ackerman, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and Greta Zenner, Materials Research Science & Engineering Center
Course Description: Communicate your work to a wide array of audiences by examining informal communication strategies. Make no mistake about it. One of the most important skills you need to develop during graduate school is the skill of communicating your scientific work to a wide array of audiences. That facility will serve you across audiences, from your scientific peers to students to your neighbors and the general public. This project-based course seeks to familiarize you with concepts and processes important to communicating science successfully to a variety of audiences and through a variety of settings. On both Saturdays (April 5 and 26), students will present interactive science displays that they will have spent the semester designing and testing. April 5 is Science Expeditions day here on campus. On April 26, the students will present their displays to visitors at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
Credits: 3
Registration information:

Delta Internship Seminar
Dates: TBA
Instructors: Don Gillian-Daniel
Course Description:This seminar will be offered for internship participants as a way to connect, share, and support each other
Registration information:

*The CIRTL Network, a National Science Foundation Center for Learning and Teaching, consists of six research universities, which include the University of Colorado at Boulder, Howard University, Michigan State University, Texas A&M University, Vanderbilt University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  CIRTL is designed to develop a model professional development program for graduate students, post-doctoral scholars, and faculty in the STEM (including SBE) disciplines.