RSS| September 2010 |
| Carl Wieman to take up White House Post |
| The United States Senate has confirmed University of British Columbia professor and Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman for the position of Associate Director for Science in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. |
| January 2010 |
| Google founding investor gives $2M to the CWSEI |
| UBC announced a $2M gift from Google founding investor David Cheriton to the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative. |
| July 2009 |
| SEI Video page |
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New webpage with the videos produced by the CU-SEI and CWSEI. Currently has videos on why to use clickers and using clickers in upper division classes. More videos on various topics are in production.
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| June 2009 |
| Update of Departmental Activities |
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The web pages for the department CWSEI programs have been updated to show the current activities and progress.
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| May 2009 |
| CWSEI End-of-Year Event |
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The CWSEI End-of-Year event on April 29, 2009 featured 3 talks, about 40 posters, and 3 workshops. Most of the materials from this event are available online, and include details on what what’s happening in the Earth & Ocean Sciences, Physics & Astronomy, Computer Science, Life Sciences, Chemistry, Statistics, and Mathematics CWSEI programs.
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| March 2009 |
| New addition to CWSEI Instructor Guidance |
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Recently added to the CWSEI Instructor Guidance page:
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| March 2009 |
| UBC Reports Article on the EOS-SEI Program |
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The Joy of Teaching: EOS Profs Find New Ways to Enrich the Classroom Experience — a story on the Earth & Ocean Sciences Dept. CWSEI program, where about 70% of tenure track faculty members are currently engaged in some form of pedagogical reform.
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| Feb 2009 |
| Clicker Resources Page added |
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New Clicker Resources page includes video, SEI clicker guide, links to collections of clicker questions, and other useful links and articles. Clickers are wireless personal response systems that can be used in a classroom to anonymously and rapidly collect an answer to a question from every student. Clickers are useful when the questions are designed to increase student engagement with the material. This web page contains resources to help instructors use clickers effectively in a classroom.
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| Jan 2009 |
| New additions to CWSEI Instructor Guidance |
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Recently added to the CWSEI Instructor Guidance page:
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| Jan 2009 |
| CU-SEI paper published in Science: Why Peer Discussion Improves Student Performance on In-Class Concept Questions |
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When students answer an in-class conceptual question individually using clickers, discuss it with their neighbors, and then revote on the same question, the percentage of correct answers typically increases. This outcome could result from gains in understanding during discussion, or simply from peer influence of knowledgeable students on their neighbors. To distinguish between these alternatives in an undergraduate genetics course, we followed the above exercise with a second, similar (isomorphic) question on the same concept that students answered individually. Our results indicate that peer discussion enhances understanding, even when none of the students in a discussion group originally knows the correct answer.
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| Jan 2009 |
| CU-Boulder Researchers Show Why Peer Discussion Improves Student Performance on 'Clicker' Questions |
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A news item from the University of Colorado on the CU-SEI research on peer discussion.
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| Jan 2009 |
| Earth & Ocean Sciences EOS-SEI Newsletters |
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The monthly newsletter aims to keep all faculty, staff and students up to date with our work. Topics relating to results of research into learning in our courses, pointers for "best practices", observations about curriculum or pedagogy will be covered.
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| Jan 2009 |
| Life Sciences LS-CWSEI Newsletters |
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We have started a monthly newsletter for faculty and staff in the Life Sciences Departments to give updates on LS-CWSEI's progress, upcoming events, and various tips for teaching
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| Dec 2008 |
| CWSEI research paper: What is the Value of Course-Specific Learning Goals? |
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Beth Simon, UBC CWSEI STLF in Computer Science, and Jared Taylor, STLF in Life Sciences, conducted a study of student and faculty perceptions of the usefulness of learning goals. This paper is accepted for publication in the Journal of College Science Teaching.
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| Dec 2008 |
| Dec. 2008 poster presentation: Engaging non-science students in large classes |
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Poster on changes in EOSC 310 - The Earth and the Solar System - presented at the Dec. 2008 American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco by Sara Harris, EOS-SEI @UBC
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| Nov 2008 |
| Nov. 2008 poster presentation: Improving Metacognitive Skills of 2nd year Environmental Science Students: What to Measure? |
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Francis Jones' poster presentation at the Nov. 2008 workshop on the Role of Metacognition in Teaching Geoscience at Carleton College: Improving Metacognitive Skills of 2nd year Environmental Science Students: What to Measure?
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| Oct 2008 |
| Poster presentations at the ISSOTL 2008 Conference on learning and attitude studies conducted in UBC biology courses |
3 posters were presented at the October 2008 International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference (ISSOTL 2008) in Edmonton, Alberta:
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| Oct 2008 |
| Oct. 2008 poster presentation: Measuring student gains in an Introductory Geoscience Lab |
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Brett Gilley & Sara Harris's poster presentation on introductory Geoscience lab changes at the October 2008 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Houston.
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