United States

learning assistant

general chemistry

The annual UI conference has grown from a meeting to a community of more than 6,000 researchers, program officers, evaluators, program directors, training faculty, and others within STEM, and now operates with a mission to mutually inform scholarship and practice, develop and enhance the community interested in educational interventions, and provide professional development for all STEM persons. UI held its first Virtual conference in December of 2020 in response to Covid-19 restrictions that forced the cancellation of the original March 2020 in person meeting. Born out of necessity, the virtual conference introduced a format that provided pre conference availability of symposia, Deeper Dives and Poster presentations. The 13th Annual Understanding Interventions Conference will continue with that design and we foresee future conferences adopting aspects of that format in reaching a virtual audience as well as those who attend the conferences in-person.

Attendees will experience plenaries, workshops, symposia, and poster presentations on hypothesis-based research on interventions and initiatives that broaden participation in STEM careers. The conference will continue to facilitate the dialogue among education, behavioral, and social science researchers, evaluators, and faculty in STEM fields who participate in intervention programs. Graduate students in these fields are strongly encouraged to attend. Workshops, sessions, and posters will communicate effective strategies from successful STEM intervention programs, present results from empirical research studies, and synthesize the translation of research findings into practice on STEM learning, undergraduate research, graduate education, and student retention.

The cost to attend the conference is $150. There are special rates for post-doctoral fellows and graduate students, as well as conference grants that can be provided for those with need. Registration for the conference is open, with additional information to come.

13th Annual Conference on Understanding Interventions

The annual UI conference has grown from a meeting to a community of more than 6,000 researchers, program officers, evaluators, program directors, training faculty, and others within STEM, and now operates with a mission to mutually inform scholarship and practice, develop and enhance the community interested in educational interventions, and provide professional development for all STEM persons. UI held its first Virtual conference in December of 2020 in response to Covid-19 restrictions that forced the cancellation of the original March 2020 in person meeting. Born out of necessity, the virtual conference introduced a format that provided pre conference availability of symposia, Deeper Dives and Poster presentations. The 13th Annual Understanding Interventions Conference will continue with that design and we foresee future conferences adopting aspects of that format in reaching a virtual audience as well as those who attend the conferences in-person.

The two-semester sequence of General Chemistry is a challenging course too many first-year students. One goal I have is for students to become better problem solvers, able to apply material they learn to synthesize solutions to new and challenging problems. To help develop problem solving skills I have restructured class time to allow for collaborative problem-solving sessions. I have also restructured weekly one-hour recitations associated with the course to include collaborative problem-solving sessions. I have trained a cohort of Learning Assistants (LAs) to help facilitate these in both lecture and recitations. Students who have successfully completed the General Chemistry sequence, return to the class to help as near-peer mentors. 
I want students to leave General Chemistry as better problem solvers, as this skill goes beyond just General Chemistry, this is a skill that will help students in any course or any career. During my first year of teaching, I observed that many students who struggle in General Chemistry, struggle because of the math-based problem solving. This was clear from the assessments that were done throughout the semester. This was also a compounding problem because students who struggled with math-based problem solving within the first semester of General Chemistry, but passed first semester, and struggled even more the subsequent semester. 
To help students become better problem solvers, and to help students solve math-based problems, I restructured class time to allow for mini-problem sessions. Sessions where students are presented with a problem and allowed to work on the problem with students in their area for 4-6 minutes. The LAs circulate through the room, with me, helping to facilitate the group work. Students are then polled on their response to the problem, and we review the problem with a methodical, step-by-step approach. 
Associated with the General Chemistry lecture is a weekly, one-hour recitation section that is run by a Teaching Assistant (TA). To give students extra practice with problem solving, I redesigned the entire structure of recitation. Recitation became a mandatory part of the course that counted toward the overall course grade. I designed structured problem sets for each weekly recitation section to reinforce the content that was covered in lecture. These problem sets were designed in the structure of Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) to help create a structure for group work. Each TA is given the same module for the week, ensuring that content is uniform across all recitation sections.

Developing and Implementing a Learning Assistant Program for Introductory General Chemistry

symposium

Factors that affect postdoctoral trainee persistence in academia

Impact of Course Redesign Implementation on Student Success and Ongoing Pedagogical Practices

Five-year assessment of summer academic enhancement program motivates URM students to pursue gateway programs and entry into health professional schools 

Creating STEAM Student Led Learning Experiences Rooted in Justice and Identity

So you've had your first diversity and inclusion event...Now What?

Understanding the Biology Scholars Program's Impact on UC Berkeley

Supporting STEM students through remote interdisciplinary collaboration in undergraduate research

How to transform course in biology adn chemistry using high impact practices

Mentored Learning Communities to Enhance Diversity in STEM and Medicine

poster

technical paper

https://assets.underline.io/transcript/17167/subtitle/dfe44370879f8891ba736f476f99544a.vtt

English (automatic)

Developing and Implementing a Learning Assistant Program for Introductory General Chemistry

Downloads

Next from 13th Annual Conference on Understanding Interventions

Factors that affect postdoctoral trainee persistence in academia

Similar lecture

Students Grade Evaluation, Survey Feedback, and Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparative Study of Virtual vs. In-Person Offering of Freshman-Level General Chemistry II Course in Summer at Xavier University of Louisiana as a symposium