STEM Education Scholars Program Will Model Research-Based Teaching Techniques

Katherine Friedrich

The upcoming Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education Scholars Program will take place on June 2-4 in Nashville, Tennessee. The program will offer new faculty, post-doctoral associates and doctoral students in-depth training in student-oriented teaching and learning methods that they will be able to use throughout their careers. The registration deadline is May 1.

The program will raise participants’ awareness of how students learn, pique their interest in applying research skills to teaching, and provide them with resources to enhance their teaching repertoire. 

Facilitators will prepare participants to practice active learning techniques, use research-based teaching methods, teach inclusively to reach diverse student groups, and build community with their peers.

The entire program will be interactive. Professor Diane Ebert-May, an expert in active learning in the biological sciences, will conduct a workshop in which she models the teaching methods she practices. Workshops will engage faculty, post-docs and graduate students in applying their new knowledge as they are learning it.  The program is founded on cross-disciplinary teamwork, and will provide ample opportunities for networking.

There will be many hands-on teaching and learning activities during the program. Participating faculty and future faculty will revise syllabi which they bring to the event, redesign lectures, develop assessment tools, and create reflective exercises and learning activities.  

The program has been offered at Howard University and many other institutions. In its present location at Vanderbilt University, it will benefit from the expertise of faculty who have been involved with the VaNTH program. The VaNTH program – the Vanderbilt-Northwestern-Texas-Harvard/MIT Engineering Research Center – applies innovations from bioengineering education to all STEM fields, and offers many workshops.

Untenured faculty, post-doctoral associates, and doctoral candidates may attend the program. Doctoral candidates should be pursuing a teaching career and have plans to graduate no later than August 2009. The program cost is $1000, not including travel and lodging.

3/25/2008

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