Week 4

Teaching Assignments based on my Teaching Philosophy

Based on my teaching philosophy my assignments will endeavor to prepare students to successfully address the unique challenges associated with STEM careers.

Above all assignments should be pertinent to my students’ interests and goals. Within the assignments students will be able to select topics that are of interest and of value to them. This serves a twofold purpose – first, once out of school very few tasks are explicitly laid out, so students should learn to deal with ambiguity. Second, critical thinking will be strengthened because independent effort will be required for success in this type of course.  

I assume that students will come from a variety of scientific disciplines and therefore want students to be able to select materials that are related to their discipline of study and examine them with a critical eye focused on composition. When examining cutting edge science textbooks are inadequate because they are outdated the day that they are published, subsequently this course will rely heavily on journal and magazine articles. This is also beneficial to students as these are the materials that they will be relying on as professionals not textbooks.

This course will also incorporate technology as part of the assignments, knowing how to use technology to effectively disseminate information is almost as important as the knowledge itself.

Specific assignments will include:

1.    weekly blog postings on recent research from the primary literature or general audience sources.

2.    Verbal presentation on recent research from the primary literature or general audience sources.

3.    Comparing and contrasting primary literature with articles describing it in general audience news outlets.

4.    Drafting press releases.

5.    Examining various sides of a controversial topic.

6.    Writing a full length research or magazine article.

It is my hope that this variety of assignments will provides students practical and applicable experience, as well as writing samples that they can use for future training or job applications.