2.1 Teaching for Increased Student Engagement: Experienced Faculty Share Gems of Wisdom with Newer Faculty
Room: McCormack Hall, 2nd floor, Room 116
P.1: Strategies for Graduate Teaching to Promote Active Learning and Engagement with Issues of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
- Presenter: Michael Johnson, Public Policy & Public Affairs
P.2: Crafting Different Kinds of Writing Assignments to Meet the Needs of Different Learning Styles and Small/Large Enrollment Courses
- Presenter: Bonnie Miller, American Studies
Students can be engaged through their real-world actions and associations, as well as through critical reflection in coursework. Roundtable Presenters share pedagogical wisdom on teaching for deeper engagement with and about the world. The aim is to promote teaching that recognizes the multiple threads of humanity of both faculty and students, feels less burdensome to teachers, and builds community among students. All are welcome to attend and share experiences, insights and questions; we especially welcome graduate students who teach.
2.2 Managing Your Money/Managing Your Robot: Applied Learning in Math and Engineering
Room: McCormack Hall, 3rd floor, Room 407
P1: Real World Math
This presentation focuses on making the topic of learning math relevant to students’ current and future lives outside the classroom. Using the topic of compound interest, Ann shows how students learn about its effects on wealth building by comparing the different returns on a Roth IRA based on principal, rate and time of their investment. They also explore the present and future value of money, including the value of taking a lump sum versus a yearly payout if one wins the lottery.
- Presenter: Ann Evans, Mathematics
P2: Bringing Theory to Life: Introducing Engineering Design and Experiments into a Theoretical Lower-Level Engineering Course
This presentation shows how student engagement was introduced in a theory-based sophomore engineering class that is traditionally lecture-based with no experiments. Using dynamics concepts taught in the course, student teams brought robotic applications to life with an egg-catching robot and 3D modeling and printing. Through semester-long ‘eggbot’ team design projects, high-level engineering topics that are traditionally a part of upper-level courses (teamwork, design, 3D printing, analysis of experimental data and comparison to theoretical predictions, technical writing) are introduced early in the engineering curriculum.
- Presenter: Joanna Dahl, Engineering
2.3 Reclaiming the Human Dimension in Online Learning: Strategies for Staying Connected to Your Students
Room: McCormack Hall, 3rd floor, Room 430
P1: The Affective Dimension in an Online Class
This presentation identifies and proposes methods of incorporating socio-affective strategies which are effective in compensating for the lack of direct human interaction in an online class. Using socio-affective strategies enriches the acquisition of skills and improves the effectiveness of instruction.
- Presenter: Diego Mansilla, Latin American/Iberian Studies
P2: Integrating In-class Teaching with Online Learning
This presentation focuses on the teaching approaches adopted by a new interdisciplinary program which offers its curriculum in face-to-face, online, and hybrid courses. Aroon introduces the various strategies developed by program course instructors to provide similar learning experiences to both in-class and online students. These included discussion boards, and VoiceThread among others. He also shows how in-class lectures were captured by the Echo 360 active learning platform, and live-streamed to online students. The presentation will also discuss general perspectives and trends in online teaching and learning, as well as some of the challenges faced by both students and faculty.
- Presenter: Aroon Manoharan, Public Policy & Public Affairs
2.4 Learning Arts and Humanities from the Inside Out: Experiments in the Teaching of Orchestration and Poetry
Room: McCormack Hall, 2nd floor, Room 404
P1: Arranger-In Residence: Bridging Traditional Coursework with Practical Applications
This session shows how a course was created to go beyond having students read about a subject (orchestration), and then complete worksheets. Instead, the newly designed course provided a space where students could connect their understanding of the course materials, and interact with middle school students in the community that are deemed “struggling” by the district. On campus, students were introduced to software and orchestration techniques, while engaging in philosophical discussions about access and equity, and urban music education. This hands-on presentation will feature practical examples of the curricular initiative including unit design, teaching strategies, and samples of students’ final podcasts. The presenter will engage attendees in a discussion about how curricular strategies can bridge the theory practice divide, while examining urban education in practical and meaningful ways.
- Presenter: Sommer Forrester, Performing Arts
P2: The Art of Poetry in the Real World of the Classroom
There is much talk in academia now about “bringing the class to the students,” making their own experiences relevant to what they learn in the classroom. This presentation shows how it was made an essential component of a general education course, the art of poetry intermediate seminar, by sharing some of the methods used to do so. Deb will explain the tools she used in the classroom, and in the online version of the class, to bring the students together, but, even more importantly, to bring the study of poetry TO THEM.
- Presenter: Deb Budden, English