October 2021 NIST Newsletter

Many of us spend some time reflecting after end-of-term course evaluations, but checking in with students at the half-way through the term can provide powerful feedback and allow instructors to make changes to accommodate students during the present term.

There are many reasons to utilize feedback from students during the term:

• Support student interest and connection to the course
• Make sure the objectives you outlined for the course are being met
• Determine if students are feeling anxious or apprehensive about course concepts
• Let students know you are invested and concerned about how they are doing

 
You can do this in a variety of ways:

• Survey instruments with Leikert scale, closed or open ended questions in your LMS
• Have them turn in a response to a question at the end of class i.e. "What is one way I could provide additional support to help you learn the concepts from this week?".
• Use the discussion function of your LMS to allow students to post anonymously to open-ended questions about the course and things they might like to change. Providing the ability for students to upvote specific comments can also give you additional information about how students are feeling.

 
Providing an opportunity for students to share their thoughts, concerns, or suggested changes for the rest of the course can be empowering for students, and a useful guide for instructors looking to make changes. Students can feel more a part of the construction of the course, increasing a sense of belonging and inclusivity in the course as well. We have included a few publications that discuss the implementation and importance of student feedback during the quarter in the newsletter. Want to read a little more? Here is some information and ideas from the UT Austin website that may help: https://facultyinnovate.utexas.edu/mid-semester-feedback 
 
You may already be someone who has done surveys at the half-way point for your courses for some time, or someone who isn't sure about how to implement this type of instructional practice. Whatever your perspective is, it is the perfect opportunity to communicate via Twitter. Here's our handle:

@NISciTeaching

 We would love to hear from you and keep this conversation going!

Are you looking for a way to get more involved in NIST? Interested in helping us shape the organization and its future? This opportunity is for you! The NIST Executive Committee is looking for four individuals to join the 2021-2022 Nominations Committee. Our task is to develop the slate of candidates for President-Elect (term begins in early 2022) and later on for Secretary and two Members-at-Large (term begins in early 2023). The synchronous time commitment will be minimal. Outreach to recruit candidates will be an important part of the role.
 
From the NIST by-laws (Article VIII, Section 8.1): “In keeping with the mission of the Institute, the Executive Committee and Nominating Committee will be attentive to issues of diversity and equity in developing the Nominating Committee and a slate of candidates for election.” This committee provides an excellent opportunity to include fresh perspectives in the governance of NIST.
 
To volunteer for this opportunity or ask questions, please contact Past President Jenny Frederick (jennifer.frederick@yale.edu) by November 2. Please include a brief statement of interest (no more than 300 words).

Things are definitely in full swing for all of us in our courses if we are teaching this term. Right now you are balancing new and returning students that spent the last year online, and helping them adjust to life back in the classroom. We are also having to do a bit of adjusting ourselves. Now is an important time to remember that the classroom is a community of individuals that are sharing one specific experience, but that responses and contributions to the classroom are made more rich through the diversity of experiences we have all had over the past year.

This month's newsletter includes some important information on upcoming workshops, and an update on the FALCON Friday workshops for the coming weeks. We have also provided links to references to help instructors with student anxiety and sense of belonging in the classroom. 

As always, we at NIST are doing our best to provide resources and information that helps all of us grow in both personal and professional contexts. We hope the month of October has brought new insights and ideas for moving through the term with continued enthusiasm, and look forward to the next time we see you in one of the workshops or FALCON events hosted by NIST.

The sixth annual SABER West conference will be held face to face on January 15-16, 2022 with pre-conference workshops on January 14, 2022.

The goals of the meeting are to:

1. Increase interactions among STEM educators and education researchers.

2. Foster collaborations between 2 year and 4 year institutions.

3. Provide professional development to conduct education research and implement evidence-based teaching practices.

4. Create an inclusive conference space that fosters the growth of attendees and presenters as STEM educators and education researchers.

Registration opens late October. See the full description here.

Registration now open for October!
This NSF-funded initiative holds a six-week course through EdX. Participants will engage in reflection and discussion of topics related to equity and inclusion across many contexts. The course offers a unique opportunity to reflect in a meaningful and productive way on DEI issues relative to your classroom, and then guides faculty through different exercises to help with classroom transformations that help in achieving an inclusive classroom.

Register at this link for the session beginning October 13th. You can still get started with the course and participate in this important professional development opportunity.

The 2021 AAC&U Virtual Conference on Transforming STEM Higher Education will continue to grapple with the undeniable truths, paradoxes, and peculiarities of what is at the core of undergraduate STEM reform and its potential for impact—us. By reflecting on and reckoning with ourselves—and the myriad ways in which science disparately influences our lives and those of our students—we set in motion a daring course of action for re-imagining and re-engineering not only what STEM reform must achieve, but also how soon and for whom it must be achieved. 

At this conference, you will gain a deeper understanding of institutional levers of reform and help to outline a national agenda for manipulating those levers to drive discovery, innovation, and social change in STEM higher education—especially for those who have been historically marginalized from STEM.

Register today and add your voice to those committed to pursuing undergraduate STEM reform.

Featured Articles

• Improving performance and retention in introductory biology with a utility-value intervention.  https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000244
• Success with EASE: Who benefits from a STEM learning community?.  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0213827
•  “I Like and Prefer to Work Alone”: Social Anxiety, Academic Self-Efficacy, and Students’ Perceptions of Active Learning.  https://www.lifescied.org/doi/full/10.1187/cbe.19-12-0271
• “I don’t know why they make it so hard here”: Institutional factors and undergraduate women’s STEM participation.  http://genderandset.open.ac.uk/index.php/genderandset/article/view/435

STEM Education Job Opportunities

• Academic Program Manager  - University of California at Berkeley
• Associate Professor Psycology Education  - University of Utah, Salt Lake City
• Assistant Professor Department of Biological Sciences - Cal State University San Bernardino

Questions about the National Institute for Scientific Teaching?  Contact us at  or nationalinstituteonst@gmail.com.

Please contact us at Deb Pires (debpires@ucla.edu) and Peggy Brickman (brickman@uga.edu).