October 26, 2016

The Center for the Advancement for STEM Teaching and Learning Excellence developed a new program, PROFESS, through a NSF-NRT-IGE pilot program to provide a mechanism to allow any Drexel STEM PhD student to learn about pedagogical approaches appropriate for teaching STEM undergraduates. The core PROFESS faculty include Drs. Cox, Dandekar, DiNardo, Fontecchio, Goldberg, Kim, Marenda, Murasko, Silverman, and Stanford. This program provides a mechanism for interested students to develop additional competencies in STEM teaching, education assessment, and education research, to diversify the career prospects of these students.

To train STEM graduate students in evidence-based pedagogical approaches, CASTLE listed a new course for graduate students titled “Foundations in Teaching and Learning of STEM Undergraduates.” This course is open to any STEM PhD student, at any point in their graduate career and will be offered for the Winter 2017 quarter.  Students can take the course concurrent with their PhD research or in series with this research.  This course will give graduate students a basic understanding of pedagogical approaches that have been demonstrated to be effective in teaching STEM undergraduates.

Along with the Foundation course, three other core courses were developed: Advanced Pedagogical Techniques for Undergraduate STEM Education, STEM Education Research, and STEM Program Evaluation/Assessment. These additional three courses will provide students with rare, practical skill sets for academic careers.

Attend an information session on Thursday, November 17 at the CASTLE IDEA Lab to learn more about PROFESS and the Foundations in Teaching and Learning of STEM Undergraduates.