Please join us on the following Fridays for discussions focused on teaching and learning at Smith. Unless otherwise indicated, we will meet in Neilson Browsing Room from noon to 1 p.m., with lunch provided.
Fall 2012
September 14
A New Approach to Teaching Math for Engineers and Scientists
Gary Felder (Physics)
Kenny Felder
Many science and engineering curricula, including physics and engineering at Smith, require a "math methods" course that briefly covers a large grab-bag of math topics useful to engineering and science students. Unfortunately, spending a week on an unfamiliar math topic with no physical context and then being asked to recall it a year later when you need it for another class is not always a successful strategy. We are developing a new approach in which students work through exercises where they solve physical problems and uncover the need for mathematical techniques, are guided through their own discovery of the math, and then apply the techniques to physical problems. Our conjecture, supported by educational and cognitive research, is that their later recall will benefit both from learning the material in the type of physical context where they will need it, and from developing the ideas themselves through active-learning exercises. These exercises will form part of a new math methods textbook that we expect to publish in two years. We would strongly welcome ideas and feedback from anyone interested in the engineering and science curriculum or in the general educational issue of transfer of learning from one course to another.
September 21
Optional Department Teaching Discussions
September 28
Informal Teaching Discussion and Potential Teaching Circle Meeting Time
October 5
Assessing Student Learning in the Chemistry Major: the pHunger Games
Betsy Jamieson (Chemistry)
Dave Gorin (Chemistry)
Carrie Read (Chemistry)
We will describe our pilot implementation of the "pHunger Games", an examination given to graduating seniors to assess learning in the chemistry major. Designed to test specific learning outcomes, our assessment required students to referee a research manuscript by providing written feedback on the presented experimental design, data analysis, and conclusions.
October 19
Teaching Social Justice, Activism, and New Media on Otelia Cromwell Day
Lisa Armstrong (Study of Women & Gender)
Kevin Rozario (American Studies)
The theme for this year’s Otelia Cromwell Day is "Social Justice, Activism, and New Media." We will detail the presentations, workshops, and events offered for students and (exclusively) for faculty. We will also talk about how digital media is transforming the political imaginations, commitments, and activities of students today.
October 26 - CAMPUS CENTER CARROLL ROOM
Informal Teaching Discussion and Potential Teaching Circle Meeting Time
November 2 - FORD HALL 240
Blending Online Learning and Liberal-Arts Classroom Interaction
Jennifer Spohrer (Bryn Mawr College)
Nicholas Horton (Mathematics & Statistics)
Bryn Mawr and Smith Colleges are part of a consortium funded by the Next Generation Learning Challenge with the goal of introducing open-source courseware modules into traditional courses to improve course and college completion. The project aims to assess if targeted use of this technology, blended with the traditional intimate classroom setting, will free up time for more in-depth coverage of complex material and create a more engaged learning environment. We will briefly introduce some of the open-source courseware modules that are available, as well as providing an overview of Massively Online Open Courses (MOOC's) and discuss their relevance at selective residential colleges.
November 9
Psychology Assessment Update
Patty DiBartolo (Psychology)
Measuring student learning is a daunting task. What are the possible concerns and opportunities emerging from a department's attempts to capture student knowledge within its discipline? A Teaching Arts Lunch last year described the work of some faculty in the Psychology Department to develop a tool assessing disciplinary knowledge, especially related to research methods, within our student majors. The pilot tool we created is an open-ended assessment that measures transfer and application of disciplinary knowledge aligned with our collective learning goals. We will provide an update on our work, sharing pilot findings from students assessed at various stages of our curriculum (from students taking our introductory course to majors nominated as the "best" in our department), describing how these data have begun to shape our understanding of student learning and subsequent revision of our curriculum. With this update, we will once again discuss the possibilities and pitfalls of our work and invite faculty discussion focused on the essential question of how best to measure what students know.
November 16
What is it Like Being a Smith Student Today? How are we preparing our students to enter the Knowledge Age?
Kevin Shea (Director, Sherrerd Center for Teaching & Learning)
Come join us for an open-ended discussion about teaching strategies that enable our students to ask and address important questions. We will begin the session by watching a TEDx talk by Michael Wesch, Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, entitled "From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-able". We will then see how Wesch’s ideas resonate with what we are currently doing at Smith and how his ideas could transform our teaching in the future.
November 30
Informal Teaching Discussion and Potential Teaching Circle Meeting Time
December 7 - CONFERENCE CENTER OAK ROOM
Teaching with the Museum
Maggie Lind (Museum of Art)
Ann Musser (Museum of Art)
Join staff from the Smith College Museum of Art to learn more about incorporating visual material across the curriculum, with tips for encouraging close-looking and observation. We will engage in our own guided looking session with a work of art and talk about ways to discover the relevant connections to your own course topics within SCMA’s collection of approximately 25,000 objects.
