Goals, Expectations, Format of the Summer Institutes

The goal of the Summer Institutes for Undergraduate Education is to transform education at colleges and universities by improving classroom education and attracting more diverse students to research. We undertake to train faculty and instructional staff in a scientific approach to teaching that reflects the way we work as researchers. The target group is comprised of both new and experienced instructors who teach introductory or survey courses. introductory molecular biology/genetics, and introductory ecology/evolution courses. Approximately 36 (18 pairs of) faculty and instructional staff from 18 different colleges and universities attend each institute.

The theme for the Summer Institutes is "scientific teaching." Participants learn practical strategies for enhancing student learning. The institutes model the scientific teaching principles of active learning, assessment, and diversity, which are integrated into all aspects of the week’s schedule. Activities include reflective writing, planning, reading, researching, discussing teaching methods and philosophy, interactive presentations, and developing teaching materials. By the end of an institute, participants will have observed, evaluated, and collected a portfolio of innovative teaching approaches and instructional materials that are ready to be adopted and adapted to their own teaching environments.

In addition to developing teaching skills and materials, participants learn how to teach workshops and seminars about scientific teaching and mentoring. Scientific teaching workshops can be used to foster dialog with faculty and instructional colleagues about teaching, to train TAs in teaching, and to enrich the graduate curriculum in teaching. The mentoring seminar is designed for graduate students and postdocs supervising undergraduates in the research lab. In both cases, seminar materials are well-developed and tested, making them easy to present with little preparation or time commitment.

Assessment tools accompany the instructional materials and the mentoring and teaching seminar materials. Results of all the campus initiatives are shared with institute participants and published.

Requirements of individual participants:

• Write a short teaching philosophy before arriving at the institute
• Stay for the entire institute
• Participate in follow-up evaluation during the academic year after attending
• Use one or more of the instructional materials developed at the institute in your teaching during the academic year after attending
• Coordinate, or recruit a colleague to coordinate, a scientific teaching workshop and a mentoring seminar for faculty, postdocs, or graduate students during the academic year or following summer after attending the institute
• Evaluate the instructional materials, scientific teaching workshop, and mentoring seminar taught at your home institution and report the findings to the summer institutes

Requirements of participant campuses:

• Travel, lodging, and meal expenses for participants to attend the summer institute and the winter one-day follow-up meeting at the institute site
• Support and encourage participant activities in their departments and on campus
• Ensure that activities associated with the summer institute are regarded favorably by tenure committees

Provided by the National Academies Summer Institutes:

• On-site meeting expenses, materials, and IT
• Resources, instructors, and evaluators to help participants develop and evaluate teaching skills and instructional materials
• Facilitators to work with groups, providing advice and expertise to help participants develop and hone teaching modules
• Internet access for participants
• Shared workspace on the Web for participants to develop and store teaching materials
• Data about implementation at the end of the academic year following the institute

Participant activities at the Summer Institutes:

• Engage in teaching and learning through interactive presentations, mini-seminars, group work, and discussions with other participants
• Work in small groups (six per group) with peers from other colleges and universities to develop instructional materials for one general topic area.
• Design and adapt instructional materials with clearly defined learning goals that integrate themes of active learning, assessment, and diversity
• Present instructional materials to other participants for feedback and review; revise and post the materials to the institute’s workspace