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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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- 3 days ago18 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
- 1 weeks ago21 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
- 2 weeks ago19 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
- 3 weeks ago20 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
- Jul 1, 202618 min
STEM Course Design Series: Choosing Course Materials
How do you pick course materials that are worth it for you and your students? In this episode of the STEM Course Design Series, Justin gives his advice and thoughts on this question through discussing the pros and cons of paid vs OER materials, how to use rubrics to choose a textbook and courseware, and what to think about with adopting AI tools for your courses.Check out the textbook and courseware adoption rubrics here.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
- Jun 24, 202621 min
STEM Course Design Series: Summative Assessment
In this episode of the STEM Course Design Series, Justin goes over the big picture of summative assessment design and how to make sure they are aligned to your learning objectives. Justin also discusses a few types of assessments including traditional quizzes and exams, group quizzes, and how to make your assessments authentic and gives examples of how he uses them in his STEM courses.Here is a resource for more info on assessment from the UVA Teaching Hub.Here is a resource on authentic assessment from the University of Indiana.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
- Jun 17, 202619 min
STEM Course Design Series: Backward Design and Learning Objectives
As we continue on in the STEM Course Design Series, in this episode Justin gives an overview of the critical importance of starting your course design experience with learning objectives and backward design. Justin also discusses how to write SMART learning objectives, how to scale them up and down Bloom's taxonomy, the importance of both content- and skills-based LOs, and how to unpack LOs.Here is a resource on writing SMART LOs.Here is resource for different verbs to use for writing LOs based on Bloom's Taxonomy.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
- Jun 10, 202617 min
STEM Course Design Series: Overview
In this episode Justin walks you through the basics of high structure course design, what it is, where it came from, and how to start thinking about designing or re-designing your own courses. This episode will serve as a foundation for future episodes in the series.Check out Justin's book on High Structure Course DesignCheck out Justin's card decks to help with course design and student learningHere is a link to some free resources on high structure at the UVA Teaching HubHere is the "original" structure paper by Scott Freeman and Mary Pat WenderothAnd another great one by Scott and Mary PatWant 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
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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