Friday, February 7, Noon - 12:50 PM (Lunch will be served at 11:45 AM)
720 Sciences Library
Virtual Reality (VR) environments have the potential for offering a unique dimension to experiential learning by bringing distant, imaginary, and otherwise inaccessible experiences to the classroom. Please join Kelly Egan (Instructional Multimedia Coordinator), Leo Selvaggio (Instructional Media Specialist), and faculty for a demonstration and discussion of the uses of VR in Brown classrooms.

Are you in charge of a recitation section as a UTA? Do you come up with your own lesson plans for tutoring? Are you interested in knowing how to create an effective lesson plan as a teacher? Then this workshop is for you! This workshop is for undergraduate students who teach in any capacity at Brown (e.g. UTAs, tutors, mentors, etc.) and want to learn more about how to create effective lesson plans for their role. Come prepared to design a lesson for an upcoming recitation, problem-solving session, office hours, etc. Registration is required.

This weekly English conversation group uses news articles and commentaries from the Brown Daily Herald as launching points for discussions about U.S. culture, idiomatic language, and English vocabulary. Lunch provided! Register for this workshop.

Not sure what to do to create an inviting learning environment? Are you interested in learning more about how to work with students? Through interactive activities, this orientation will cover professionalism, creating inclusive learning environments, effective teaching strategies, and best practices for continual improvement as a UTA. Breakfast will be served from 9:30-10:00 and registration is required. It is necessary for UTAs to discuss attendance to the orientation with instructors to inform them that departments will need to compensate their UTAs for 2.5 hours of training, at the hourly rate. Registration required.

Are you teaching for the first time this semester? In this hands-on, interactive workshop designed for faculty and postdocs who are new to teaching at Brown, we will review strategies for creating an inclusive environment during the first days of class, discuss opportunities for reflection in one’s teaching, and answer questions about teaching for the first time. Lunch will be provided. Space is limited; please register.

This weekly reading and conversation group uses articles from the Brown Daily Herald as launching points for discussions about US culture, idiomatic language, and English vocabulary. All are welcome. Pizza provided! Please register.

This weekly reading and conversation group uses articles from the Brown Daily Herald as launching points for discussions about US culture, idiomatic language, and English vocabulary. All are welcome. Pizza provided! Please register.

This weekly reading and conversation group uses articles from the Brown Daily Herald as launching points for discussions about US culture, idiomatic language, and English vocabulary. All are welcome. Pizza provided! Please register.

When we teach with objects in a museum, we are building on the museum’s history of collecting and curatorial decision-making. That history shapes what’s available for study and teaching, the way it’s presented, and, to some extent, the stories that can be told. This workshop will offer a peek behind the curtain at museum practices to reveal the assumptions that go into collecting and display. What makes an object museum-worthy? How do museum rules about presentation shape storytelling? How can teachers find out more about collections and their history? How might we use museum history to teach with objects? This session will be facilitated by Steven Lubar, Professor of American Studies, History, and History of Art and Architecture and is part of the Sheridan Center-RISD Museum collaborative series on teaching with objects. Space is limited. Please register.

This weekly reading and conversation group uses articles from the Brown Daily Herald as launching points for discussions about US culture, idiomatic language, and English vocabulary. All are welcome. Pizza provided! Please register.

Are you interested in teaching with objects, but don’t know where to start? Do you need a “refresher” on object-based teaching practices? Are you curious about the CultureLab, a hands-on space in Brown University’s Haffenreffer Museum, and how to visit with your students? Join Leah Burgin, Haffenraffer’s Manager of Museum Education & Programs, for this back-to-basics workshop. Participants will engage with objects from the collection and help the Museum develop a new object-based teaching kit. Space is limited. Please register.

This weekly reading and conversation group uses articles from the Brown Daily Herald as launching points for discussions about US culture, idiomatic language, and English vocabulary. All are welcome. Pizza provided! Registration required.

Want to turn your interest into a class? Don’t quite know how to start designing a syllabus? We’ll help you learn how to plan and successfully complete your (G)ISP/AI proposal! You will learn how to draft your course objectives, come up with creative assessments, and plan activities. Registration is strongly encouraged so we know how many to plan for and to provide you with resources following the workshop. There will be snacks! Please register for this event.

A variety of proposals require STEM faculty to write about their educational work in addition to their laboratory research. These include the NSF CAREER Proposals, Cottrell Scholar Awards, and the Camille-Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. In this workshop, facilitated by Dr. Andrew Feig from The Research Corporation for Science Advancement, we will discuss how to use needs assessment, logic models, and backwards design to create synergy between research and educational components of proposals. Please register for this event.

While the Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) pedagogy can be used at different places within the undergraduate curriculum, the research expectations and student learning outcomes can vary dramatically between foundational and upper-division courses. In this workshop, facilitated by Dr. Andrew Feig from The Research Corporation for Science Advancement, we will evaluate realistic expectations for your CUREs for both student development as well as research productivity. We will also explore types of learning assessments that are appropriate for students at each level and across different disciplines. Please register for this event.

This weekly reading and conversation group uses articles from the Brown Daily Herald as launching points for discussions about US culture, idiomatic language, and English vocabulary. All are welcome. Pizza provided! Please register.

This four-part series aims to help participants write clearly and effectively when using English for academic purposes. The workshops will be held on 9/27, 10/4, 10/11, and 10/18. Topics include cohesive writing, concise expression, and paraphrasing. Register on the Sheridan Center website or email [email protected] with questions.

The majority student population in US higher education is increasingly diverse and instructors must provide equitable educational opportunities for a broad variety of learners. Transparent instruction shows great promise for increasing the confidence, sense of belonging, persistence, and success of non-traditional and underserved students. In this workshop facilitated by Dr. Mary-Ann Winkelmes, we will apply the Transparent Framework to the design of your own in-class activities and assignments to help you provide equitable learning experiences for your students. We’ll also consider the framework as a tool for discussing course design ideas with mentors and faculty–even when you are not the primary designer of the course.
Please register for this event.

Transparent assignment design has been shown to increase students’ success with greater gains for historically underserved students. In this interactive presentation, Dr. Mary-Ann Winkelmes will discuss the concept of transparent teaching and learning (which involves faculty/student discussion about the relevant knowledge, skills to be practiced, required tasks, expected criteria and examples before students begin working), share data from an AAC&U study of students’ learning at seven Minority-Serving Institutions that identifies transparent assignment design as a replicable teaching intervention, and discuss examples. Participants will leave with a concise set of strategies for designing transparent and equitable assignments that promote students’ learning. Please register for this event.