Greetings! The Ellison Lab is pleased to announce that one of our members, Grace Connelly, has been awarded the WISCIENCE Scientific Teaching Fellowship!
The WISCIENCE Scientific Teaching Fellowship is an opportunity to integrate training in college science teaching with teaching experience, all while emphasizing inclusive and research-based approaches. This is a yearlong program, divided into three sections. The first part is a course in the spring, where the fundamentals of learning theory and practical strategies for teaching college-level science are learned. Working with a cohort, the core themes of scientific teaching are taught, guiding future teaching decisions.
The second part is during the summer, where instructional material is prepared. In this, previously learned pedagogical knowledge from the spring course is used to design instructional materials for a course taught in the fall. Units are designed collaboratively with other fellows, identifying learning objectives and creating evidence-based assessments and learning experiences to target objectives. There is also a focus on incorporating inclusive teaching principles into these units to support diverse learners.
The third and final part of the yearlong fellowship is teaching an undergraduate science course. This is a mentored and collaborative teaching experience with the other fellows. Fellows serve as instructors for a bioscience course at UW-Madison, where the material prepared during the summer is implemented. Teaching this course allows for real-time understanding and interaction with prepared materials and students.
As Grace puts it, “By participating in this fellowship, I hope to gain in-depth training in research-based teaching methods, firsthand teaching experience, as well as learn how to be more effective at supporting a broad range of students and addressing the very prevalent issues of diversity and inclusion in teaching. This fellowship will prepare me to instruct at a university level after graduation and will give me the skills to make my classes a place where all students can feel welcomed and excited to learn science.”
Congratulations Grace!