STEM Ed Announcement: STEM_Tuesday_Seminars

[Stem Account <stem@k12s.phast.umass.edu>]

Spring 2013 STEM Tuesday Seminars
 
STEM seminars are held at 4PM on the first and third Tuesdays of
each month during the academic year in Hasbrouck 138. Everyone is
welcome; no reservations are needed, and there is no charge.
Parking is available in the Campus Center Garage.
 
February 5
 
Dr. Brian Lukoff
Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences,
Harvard University

"Using Learning Catalytics to Create an Interactive Classroom"

Peer instruction and other interactive teaching methods have  been
shown to dramatically improve conceptual understanding.  While no
technology is necessary to take advantage of these teaching
methods,  technology can enable the instructor to better understand
student  understanding, prompt students to engage in deeper
thinking, and  facilitate more productive student discussions in
the classroom.  In  this talk, I will introduce Learning
Catalytics, a cloud-based platform  for interactive teaching that
allows students to use web-enabled devices -- laptops, smartphones,
and tablets -- to engage in rich, authentic tasks in class.  With
Learning Catalytics, instructors can go beyond clickers and other
response systems to create a rich interactive  environment that
integrates assessment with learning.

February 19

Justin Fermann
Professor, Chemistry, UMass

"The Science of Craft"

Learning scientific principles and skills needed to understand and
master the crafts of blacksmithing, ceramics, brewing, and
glassblowing."  I'd like to talk about what motivated the
development of a GenEd curriculum that was such a radical departure
from
what is traditionally offered in Chemistry, the design work we did
leading up to the first offering of the class, the challenges we
faced in running it, and some ideas from either successes or
failures that we can take away.

March 5
Richard Brady
Founder and Director of Minding Your Life; Mindfulness in Teaching
and Learning

"Learning to Stop, Stopping to Learn: Discovering the Contemplative
Dimension in Education"

Contemplative pedagogy is a young and growing approach in American
education. It invites  new  possibilities for the emergence of
creativity  and  promotes depth  of  understanding and a more
personal relationship with  course content. The path to
contemplative learning is different for each educator who travels
it. I will relate experiences that led me to develop a personal
contemplative practice and describe how, over time, my practice
affected my teaching.  I will focus especially on contemplative
methods I used in teaching a tenth grade mathematics course. In
the  process I will  discuss the dimensions of centering,
questioning, awareness, and community  that were  central to the
contemplative  element of  the  course.


April 2
Linda Slakey 
Former Dean, Commonwealth College, National Science Foundation
Division Director

"Improving STEM Undergraduate Education"

April 23
 
Wayne Kermenski
Science Teacher, Mohawk Trail Regional School District

"Project Based Learning, the Fifth Academic Class"

A few years back, Mohawk Trail Regional Middle School created a
course entitled, Project Based Learning or PBL.  It became one of
five academic classes for middle school students.  The goals for
this course included inquiry-based projects that enforced skills
students learned in their other courses.  In addition, the course
was responsible for implementing social curriculum, math and
reading literacy remediation, and authentic learning opportunities. 
The benefits from this course included an increase in student
attendance, a well-rounded education for our students, and a letter
of acknowledgement from the Governor for our achievement in our
MCAS math scores.  Come find out about this dynamic course and
learn what has been successful for us.