Skip to main content
Center for Mathematics, Science, and Technology

Professional Development Opportunities for STEM Faculty

To request one of the following professional development opportunities (workshop, book club, or Lunch and Learn) for your department or unit, please complete the Professional Development Request Form, and someone will be in contact with you.

 

Workshops

Strategies to Support Student Success in Your STEM Courses

Workshop Description: Many students struggle to learn and succeed in early STEM courses, but there are some simple, quick, and research-based actions you can take that will improve student learning. We will look at some of the structures, supports, and actions we can put into our courses that will help all learners succeed in our STEM courses and future courses as well.
Expected Outcome: A ready-to-implement action plan for at least one of your courses.
Required Time: 12 hours (action plan completed) or 3 hours (action plan not completed)

Strategies for Teaching Laboratory Courses

Workshop Description: Traditionally, especially in introductory laboratory courses, students are provided with a topic and procedure for a laboratory experiment that they complete. They then provide some sort of report in the form of lab notes, lab report sheet, or written lab report as directed. However, there are a variety of other strategies that can be used in the laboratory to help enhance students’ skills and understanding of scientific work and content. These strategies can center the student in the work more while still being directed by the instructor toward course goals. These include:

  • Science Writing Heuristic (SWH)
  • Inquiry-Guided Strategies (POGIL, SCALE-UP, etc.)
  • Strategies for Effective Group Work
  • Course-based Undergraduate Research (CURE Pedagogical Framework)

In this workshop, the focus topic will be introduced, experienced (at least in part), and analyzed by participants for the components. Participants will also brainstorm where and how to use the strategy in their course(s) with colleagues.
Expected Outcome: Leave with an outline of a lab or activity using the focus strategy of the workshop that you can implement in your STEM course.

Required Time: 3 hours per strategy. Longer workshops with more than one strategy are possible.

Local Learning Community of the Inclusive STEM Teaching Project

Workshop Description: The 6-week online asynchronous course is designed to advance the awareness, self-efficacy, and ability of STEM faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and staff to cultivate inclusive learning environments for their students. Participants will engage in deep reflection and discussion around topics of equity and inclusion across a variety of institutional contexts. The modules cover the following themes designed to help instructors construct classroom environments that support the complexities that contribute to student persistence: social identity and its impact on learning; power, positionality, and privilege in STEM and how in impacts learning; inclusive course design; interruption of oppression and microaggressions your classroom; and evidence-based teaching. One module a week with synchronous weekly meetings to discuss and apply the content.
Required Time: 6 weeks, asynchronous online work (~1 hour per week) with weekly 50-minute meetings.

Customizable Professional Development

Don’t see what your group needs related to effective STEM teaching and learning? If not, let’s chat! You are encouraged to request professional development that meets your faculty’s needs. Please fill out the Professional Development Request Form, and we will be in touch.

Also, as a reminder, the Center for Integrated Professional Development (CIPD) offers great workshops and professional development on different topics, including customizable workshops.

 

Book Clubs

Create a department book club or partner with another department to offer one for both. These groups could be led by a CeMaST person, or we can provide you with a reading schedule and discussion questions if someone in the department wants to run it in-house. The structure is set up to be six 50-minute discussions, with approximately 40–50 pages of reading for each session, but could be spread out or condensed as the group wanted.

Books We Suggest

Books at Milner: All these books have electronic copies at Milner that can be accessed by at least 10 people simultaneously.

Other Books: Department or book club members must provide the text.

  • 10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People: A Groundbreaking Approach to Leading the Next Generation―And Making Your Own Life Easier by David Yeager
  • Limitless Minds: Learn, Lead, and Live Without Barriers by Jo Boaler
  • Uncommon Sense Teaching: Practical Insights in Brain Science to Help Students Learn by Barbara Oakley, Beth Rogowsky, and Terrence Sejnowski

To request a book club or get more information, please fill out the Professional Development Request Form, and we will be in touch.

 

STEM Teaching Lunch and Learns

Departments provide the space and the interested instructors, choose your content, and we will provide the content. While you eat lunch, chat and learn about STEM teaching. CeMaST will provide someone to give an overview and resources related to the topic and, depending on the topic, even an ISU STEM instructor who is using it to discuss the ups and downs. Although the presenter will give an overview, information, and resources, this will also be a chance for discussion and questions.

We ask that any department requesting Lunch and Learns commit to having at least three 1-hour lunches in a semester (but no more than six lunches). These could all be organized around the same topic, or each could be on different topics, depending on the department’s needs. The following are Lunch and Learn topics to select from:

  • Active Learning
  • Active Learning in Large STEM Courses
  • Non-Traditional Grading Systems in STEM
  • The ISU STEM Student
  • Formative Assessments
  • Student Feedback to Improve Teaching
  • Group Work
  • Learning in Lab Courses
  • Use of Case Studies
  • Student Metacognition
  • Peer-Led Team Teaching or SI Instruction

To request Lunch and Learns or get more information, please fill out the Professional Development Request Form, and we will be in touch.