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Teaching Labs and Pandemic STEM Teaching

COVID-19 has significantly altered the way we live, teach, and learn. For those of us in STEM fields, this often meant developing creative approaches to teaching labs effectively under socially distanced circumstances. You may be spending lots of time trying to develop effective teaching aids, including lecture sheets, adjusting your approaches from direct use of instrumentation and other tactile activities, or incorporating the use of lab simulation software.

This workshop will focus on developing pedagogical strategies that could support lecture/lab instruction in an online context. We will explore ways to increase opportunities for student feedback that foster students’ understanding, and consider ways to effectively engage students across lecture and lab. You will also have an opportunity to engage in a collaborative discussion of digital tools that stand in for the hands-on element of STEM classes.

This workshop was offered as part of the TLC’s 2021 Mid-Winter Institute via Zoom as an online, synchronous workshop. The workshop and materials were developed by Atasi Das, Dr. Diane Price Banks, and LaToya Anderson.

Materials

All materials on this page and in the linked google folder are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC-BY-SA) 4.0 International Public License.

This folder contains outreach materials, workshop plans, and slides: Teaching Labs Workshop Materials Folder

View Recording of Jan 2021 workshop here.

Agenda

Goals/Objectives:

At the end of this workshop, participants will:

  1. Define pedagogy and its practices
  2. Identify the various types of teaching practices and learning styles to incorporate best practices in the STEM classroom
  3. Outline lesson plans that align lecture with lab instruction
  4. Discuss the various ways to teach in the digital space whether or not autonomy for course development is present

Structure/Activities

1. Welcome and Introduce, Agenda, Orientation to Zoom (Atasi) (Time Keeper: Diane- 1:05-1:10; 5 mins)

2. Goals/Objectives (Atasi-10-15 Min) (Time Keeper: Diane; 1:10-1:20 pm; 10-15 mins)

  • Activity (in chat)- Define Pedagogy/Practices
  • Slide with definition
  • How this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners.
  • Discuss- How does this definition compare with your learning experiences or teaching approaches?(1 min or chat)
  • PollEv.com/atasidas686
  • Text this number 37607 with this message (Atasidas686) you will then be able to put in your response

3. Learning Styles: How do you learn? How do people learn? (Atasi leads, LaToya and Diane add in) (Time Keeper: LaToya) 1:20-1:35 pm; 10-15 min

  • Padlet activity (how you teach yourself) 5 mins
  • How do you learn? How do your students learn?
  • What pedagogical strategies that you have tried?
  • Brainstorm how you teach yourself and consider relationship to knowledge and process of knowing
    • Use the chat if you are having issues.
  • Introduce Learning Styles (8 styles of learning blog page)
    • Navigating between seeking and knowing how you learn and understand and the learning objectives
    • Learner Relationship to knowledge and knowing
  • Learning Style Activity-How would you teach the following students? (Choose one style and think of associate activity or method to meet this)

4.  Lesson planning: (Diane leads- 20 mins) (Time Keeper: Atasi; 1:35-1:55 pm 20 mins)

  • Steps/Components of Effective Lesson plans
    • Examples

5. Teaching in a Digital Space (LaToya leads- 20 mins) (Time Keeper: Atasi) 1:55 pm-2:15 pm; 20 mins

6. Whole group discussion (Diane leads 15 mins) Time Keeper: Atasi 2:15-2:30 pm