How do we keep students engaged and curious? Asking questions like scientists? Being brave to make mistakes and explore new ideas? Students can not experience growth if they are concerned about getting the ‘right’ answers. They will not make discoveries if they ask questions like ‘What do I need to know for the test?‘ I focus on giving my students permission to make lots of mistakes and explore new ideas by asking questions. Below are examples of projects and ideas I am exploring.
My EvoDevo Teaching Story, TEDx After teaching at liberal arts colleges for 15 years, I learned that if I wanted my students to take more risks, think creatively and ask good questions, then I was going to have to challenge myself in the same ways. At Union’s first TEDx, I shared my story of how I learned to evolve and develop (evodevo) as a teacher and shared examples of the risks I took.
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Science Can Save Democracy We can promote AGENCY by having students discover the impact of legislative policies on science (research, education, public health, environment) and linking these issues to their communities of origin. In this video I describe a project in my introductory biology course where students studied legislative bills from their home states, and wrote OpEd articles. Students had 7 publications in their hometown newspapers, and 71% of students identified that they were more likely to vote in the next election.
Electric City Tiny House for Science Communication Byron A. Nichols Fellowship for Faculty Development 2020-2023. She will use the fellowship to create a mobile learning center and develop a course on science communication that integrates these many disciplines and deliver creative learning modules to urban and rural areas in need. Students will collaborate to determine community need, generate and prototype ideas, execute build and launch, and make new and bold choices about how they will engage and relate to their world going forward.
