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Recombinant Teaching: STEM Education Office Hours with Dr. Justin Shaffer: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Justin Shaffer | STEM Education Expert and Professor
This is not your typical higher education interview podcast.Recombinant Teaching: STEM Education Office Hours is a call-in advice show dedicated to YOU, the instructors, professors, TAs, and administrators in the trenches of STEM higher education. Whether you are teaching a large gateway STEM course or a small senior seminar, this show is for you.With over 13 years of experience and having taught more than 10,000 students, your host, Dr. Justin Shaffer, has seen it all. Each week, he (and sometimes with guest co-hosts) unpacks your listener-submitted questions to provide practical and actionable strategies on STEM pedagogy, student success, academic careers, and everything in between. Let’s work together to keep on improving STEM education.Have a question? Click the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofo
Latest Episodes
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- Today13 min
What is yoru advice on online quizzes for instructors and students?
Justin answers a great question about the use of online quizzes by both instructors and students. As always, the answer depends on the situation, but Justin tries to give advice on using them in a variety of contexts.Get some of Justin's teaching materials including reading guides here.Want to be a part of the show? Submit a question!Learn how you, your department, or your institution can work with Justin to improve STEM education together.www.recombinanteducation.com
- 4 days ago22 min
How do I scale up authentic assessments in my course?
Noah Courtney joins Justin to discuss how to scale up the use of authentic assessments (including having your STEM students write the NSF GRFP) in undergraduate courses.Noah A Courtney is a second-year Ph.D. student and NSF Graduate Research Fellow at the University of Rhode Island. At URI, he conducts Biology Education Research under Dr. Lisa Limeri, focusing on leveraging quantitative methods to investigate ways to support community college STEM student persistence. Additionally, he focuses heavily on mentorship, and serves as a mentor to multiple undergraduate students, who have gone on to give successful conference presentations, earn graduate school admission, and write successful NSF GRFP proposals.If you would like to chat further with Noah or receive his 'email guide to the GRFP', feel free to reach out at noah.a.courtney@uri.edu or through his LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/noahcourtneyHere is a link to more info on authentic assessments.Here is Justin's LinkedIn article on how he used AI to help him with his NSF GRFP assignment.Here is the paper on the FINER method (the I stands for Interesting!)Want to be a part of the show? Submit a question!Learn how you, your department, or your institution can work with Justin to improve STEM education together.www.recombinanteducation.com
- Aug 12, 202621 min
STEM Course Design Series: Feedback, Reflection, and Iteration
In this final episode of the STEM Course Design Series, Justin discusses the importance of getting feedback on your teaching, reflecting on said feedback, and iterating to improve you and your students’ experiences and success. Just dives into student midcourse and end-of-course feedback, peer observation protocols, and keeping a teaching journal, and more.Here is an article Justin wrote discussing why we need to up our games as instructors as students are paying too much for less-than-stellar experiences.Here is a link to the peer observation system Justin helped develop at the Colorado School of Mines.Want to be a part of the show? Submit a question!Check out Justin's book on High Structure Course Design to learn more about feedback, reflection, and iteration.Check out Justin's card decks to help with course design and student learning.Learn how you, your department, or your institution can work with Justin to improve STEM education together.www.recombinanteducation.com
- Aug 5, 202622 min
STEM Course Design Series: Labs and Online Courses
We’ve covered how to handle traditional face-to-face classes, but how do you use structure in labs and online situations? In this episode of the STEM Course Design Series, Justin discusses how to use high structure in labs, online synchronous, and online asynchronous courses and just how important it is. Listen in for his thoughts on lab prep, online proctoring, breakout rooms, and more!Want to be a part of the show? Submit a question!Here is an article discussing Justin’s QBE field session course (a type of CURE) at the Colorado School of Mines.Check out Justin's book on High Structure Course Design to learn more about labs and online courses.Check out Justin's card decks to help with course design and student learning.Learn how you, your department, or your institution can work with Justin to improve STEM education together.www.recombinanteducation.com
- Jul 29, 202618 min
STEM Course Design Series: After-Class Homework and Practice
You've had students prepare before class, had a great lesson during class, but now what to do after class? In this episode of the STEM Course Design Series, Justin breaks down after-class homework, practice quizzes and exams, draft project assignments, and more.Want to be a part of the show? Submit a question!Check out Justin's book on High Structure Course Design to learn more about backward design and LOs.Check out Justin's card decks to help with course design and student learning.Learn how you, your department, or your institution can work with Justin to improve STEM education together.www.recombinanteducation.com
- Jul 22, 202621 min
STEM Course Design Series: In-Class Teaching and Engagement
How do you plan timing for a lesson, balance active learning with lecture, and get students engaged and excited to be in class? Listen to this episode of the STEM Course Design Series to get answers to these questions and more!Check out the lesson plan template here on Justin’s website.Here is a link to the DART decibel-analysis tool. And a link to the active learning meta-analysis paper by Scott Freeman.Want to be a part of the show? Submit a question!Check out Justin's book on High Structure Course Design to learn more about backward design and LOs.Check out Justin's card decks to help with course design and student learning.Learn how you, your department, or your institution can work with Justin to improve STEM education together.www.recombinanteducation.com
- Jul 15, 202619 min
STEM Course Design Series: Pre-Class
What do you do when students don’t want to read before class? On this episode of the STEM Course Design Series, Justin breaks down the critical importance of pre-class reading and assignments and how to develop them do that your students actually do read before class.Check out the reading guide template and samples here. And check out Justin’s paper on the efficacy of reading guides.Want to be a part of the show? Submit a question!Check out Justin's book on High Structure Course Design to learn more about backward design and LOs.Check out Justin's card decks to help with course design and student learning.Learn how you, your department, or your institution can work with Justin to improve STEM education together.www.recombinanteducation.com
- Jul 8, 202620 min
STEM Course Design Series: Syllabus and Course Schedule
On today's episode in the STEM Course Design Series, Justin tackles the importance of the syllabus and the course schedule by looking at how to put them together, what to add to them, and how to handle them when things go awry (snow day!).Here is a link to the student-centered syllabus rubric tool developed by Michael Palmer and a link to the study on STEM syllabi from Brian Sato.Check out the syllabus template and course schedule excel sheet here.Justin's AI syllabus poilicy: You are permitted to use AI whenever you want to help you with your learning and I will model how to use AI effectively in this manner in class. However, mindset and karma are important to consider here. Please try to have a positive and productive mindset when using AI and do not fall into the trap of having it do some (or even all) of your work for you (including writing) as this takes away from your humanity and the pride that you should have in your own learning. Karma is also real – if you do fall into this trap, you will find yourself in trouble when it comes time to take the quizzes and exams as you will not have AI available to help you then. Treat AI as another tool in your toolbox and use it carefully, responsibly, and wisely!Want to be a part of the show? Submit a question!Check out Justin's book on High Structure Course Design to learn more about backward design and LOs.Check out Justin's card decks to help with course design and student learning.Learn how you, your department, or your institution can work with Justin to improve STEM education together.www.recombinanteducation.com
About Recombinant Teaching: STEM Education Office Hours with Dr. Justin Shaffer
This is not your typical higher education interview podcast.Recombinant Teaching: STEM Education Office Hours is a call-in advice show dedicated to YOU, the instructors, professors, TAs, and administrators in the trenches of STEM higher education. Whether you are teaching a large gateway STEM course or a small senior seminar, this show is for you.With over 13 years of experience and having taught more than 10,000 students, your host, Dr. Justin Shaffer, has seen it all. Each week, he (and sometimes with guest co-hosts) unpacks your listener-submitted questions to provide practical and actionable strategies on STEM pedagogy, student success, academic careers, and everything in between. Let’s work together to keep on improving STEM education.Have a question? Click the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofo
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