Topics & Speakers | Agenda | Registration | Hotel Information | Driving Directions

• Keynote: Keeping Non Science Undergraduates Awake and Interested
  Iain Campbell, University of Pittsburgh
• Using MasteringChemistry™ for Effective Homework Assignments and Personalized Tutoring
  Ann Verner, University of Toronto at Scarborough
• Teaching Non-Majors Biology Students with Stories and Analogies
  Virginia Borden, Rochester Institute of Technology
• Prescribed Active Learning Increases Performance in Introductory Biology
  Scott Freeman, University of Washington
• Tips and Tricks of the A&P Trade
  Judi Nath, Lourdes College
• An Integrative Strategy to Include the G, O, and the B in Allied Health Chemistry
  Todd Deal, Georgia Southern University
• Strategies to Draw Students Into Your Most Difficult Lectures
  David Eakin, Eastern Kentucky University
• Using Cases to Engage Students in Introductory Biology
  Kathrin Stanger-Hall, University of Georgia
• Engaging Students Using in A&P: Tip for using PAL 2.0
  Leslie Hendon, University of Alabama at Birmingham
• Motivational Games and Activities to Enhance Student Engagement in Large General Chemistry Courses
  Dr. Klaus Woelk, Missouri University of Science and Technology
• Writing Effective Exam Questions
  Mimi Bres, Prince George’s Community College
• Using the Interactive Software Program DyKnow to Help Enhance Your Students' Success In the Classroom and Out.
  Pamela Moolenaar-Wirsiy, Georgia Perimeter College

KEYNOTE: Keeping Non-Science Undergraduates Awake and Interested
The prospect of teaching science to masses of intended majors or hordes of undergraduates seeking to fulfill their general education requirements might make even Hercules quake in his classical sandals. The principal goal of this talk is to convince you that not only can you discharge such assignments well, but you can have fun and find great and lasting satisfaction in the process.

Iain Campbell is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry in the Biological Sciences department at the University of Pittsburgh. His principal research interest is industrial microbiology, which he pursues academically and as a private consultant. He is active in undergraduate education, has won the University of Pittsburgh Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award, and serves on the board of the Semester at Sea Program. He is a regular speaker on the academic, business, and general education circuits.

Using MasteringChemistry™ for Effective Homework Assignments and Personalized Tutoring
This hands-on workshop will introduce participants to MasteringChemistry™, the most advanced chemistry tutorial and homework system available. It is the first to tutor students by responding with feedback specific to their errors and simpler questions when they get stuck. The system automatically processes the step-by-step work of every student to provide instructor diagnostics that pinpoint areas of difficulty for individuals or for the whole class. The session will begin with an overview of the presenter’s experience teaching with the program, followed by hands-on practice for creating homework assignments of ideal difficulty and duration, checking the work of an individual student, and comparing results against the “national average.” Session attendance limited to 24.

Ann Verner is a Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at the University of Toronto at Scarborough. She is the coordinator for the first year chemistry courses and one of the instructors. In addition, she is also responsible for the development of the experiments and lab manuals for the first year chemistry undergraduate laboratories. Professor Verner is always striving to improve the educational experiences of first year chemistry students. Ann has received two awards for outstanding teaching, the APUS University of Toronto Undergraduate Teaching Award in 1996 and the University of Toronto at Scarborough Faculty Teaching Award in 2004..

Teaching Non-Majors Biology Students with Stories and Analogies
Non-majors students often fear or dread their required science class. These students can be more readily engaged by using stories with a human-interest element and through the use of analogies. An example analogy, using Mr. Potato Head dolls to introduce some fairly complex genetic topic, will be shared with the group.

Virginia Borden teaches general biology at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and has taught non-majors biology, plant biology, ecology, and evolution. Along with her co-author Colleen Belk, she has written the text Biology: Science for Life and its accompanying lab manual. .

Prescribed Active Learning Increases Performance in Introductory Biology
In an attempt to reduce the traditionally high failure rate in an introductory course for prospective majors, we compared an array of course designs that featured graded or ungraded active learning exercises, including practice exams that students completed by themselves or in groups, daily questions answered with cards or clickers, daily reading quizzes, and weekly checks of class notes. When active learning exercises were graded, student performance on exams and overall course grades improved significantly. This research has important implications for the design of introductory courses in the STEM disciplines and for efforts to increase the number of underrepresented minority and disadvantaged students in the sciences.

Scott Freeman received his PhD. in Zoology from the University of Washington and was subsequently awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Postdoctoral Fellowship in Molecular Evolution at Princeton University. His current research focuses on the scholarship of teaching and learning—specifically, how active learning and peer teaching techniques increase student learning and improve performance in introductory biology, and how the levels of exam questions vary among introductory biology courses, standardized post-graduate entrance exams, and professional school courses. He has also done research in evolutionary biology on topics ranging from nest parasitism to the molecular systematics of the blackbird family. Scott teaches introductory biology for majors at the University of Washington, is author of Biological Science and co-author, with John Herron, of Evolutionary Analysis.

Tips and Tricks of the A&P Trade
This session will provide instructors with simple analogies, easy mnemonic devices, and quick classroom demonstrations to help students remember facts and concepts. Other tips and tricks include how to use interactive PowerPoint lectures to enhance learning, alleviate boredom, and convey important concepts along with utilizing the “Redemption Exam” to provide students with an opportunity to improve test scores. Participants will walk away with useful suggestions and hands-on techniques to improve the classroom experience and create an environment for knowledge acquisition and real-world application.

Judi Nath, Ph.D., is a biology professor at Lourdes College, teaching courses in the health sciences. She received her bachelors and masters degrees from Bowling Green State University and her Ph.D. from the University of Toledo. Dr. Nath has been the recipient of the faculty excellence award and is an active member in several professional organizations, including the Human Anatomy & Physiology Society (HAPS), where she serves on the board of directors. Judi Nath is the co-author of Fundamentals of Anatomy & Physiology, 8th edition and the sole author of Medical Terminology: A Practical Approach.

An Integrative Strategy to Include the G, O, and the B in Allied Health Chemistry
The majority of Allied Health Chemistry courses are billed as introductions to general, organic, and biochemistry. The facts are that most of these courses spend the majority of the instructional time focused on the concepts of general chemistry with as much organic chemistry jammed in as possible. Biochemistry, the topics of which are most relevant to allied health students, is often covered minimally, if at all. We will discuss strategies for integrating the topics of general, organic, and biochemistry throughout the course to facilitate coverage of topics relevant to allied health students. This workshop will also introduce you to a capstone-type project for the course that we have used to integrate many of the major concepts.

Todd Deal is Professor of Chemistry at Georgia Southern University. A couple of years after earning his Ph.D. at Ohio State University, he had the chance to return to his undergraduate alma mater and has been on the faculty at Georgia Southern for 16 years. His teaching has been recognized with awards of excellence at both the college and university levels, and the students of Georgia Southern selected him as Professor of the Year. Dr. Deal is a member of Project Kaleidoscope's Faculty for the 21st Century and the American Chemical Society’s Division of Chemical Education. He has been active in chemical education reform since the mid 1990s.

Strategies to Draw Students into Your Most Difficult Lectures
There are some lectures presentations every professor dreads! Material so complex, so hard for beginning students - and yet so necessary to our overall understanding of life - that it would constitute intellectual negligence to overlook it! But these lectures - usually at the level of molecules and biochemical pathways - simply cannot complete with our stirring and stimulating sermons about finite resources, global warming, and the destruction of the tropical rainforest! This session will present you with ideas to make even your most dreaded subject come alive! Using cellular respiration as our example, you will go home with some tangible, practical ideas for drawing students into the most difficult of subjects. Come with some ideas of your own for sharing ideas with your fellow instructors!

David A. Eakin received his Ph.D. from the University of Florida in Botany. As coordinator of non-majors biology for Eastern Kentucky University he works with nearly 650 students per semester. As a part of this work, he is responsible for teaching 11-15 graduate students how to teach the 26 + laboratory sessions. "Dr. Dave" to both students and colleagues, Dr. Eakin is a highly acclaimed and respected professor, recognized for excellence in teaching and his genuine love for his students; both non-majors and those within Eastern Kentucky University’s highly acclaimed honors program.

Using Cases to Engage Students in Introductory Biology
Student engagement plays a key role in successfully teaching introductory biology courses. This workshop introduces cases as a teaching tool that promotes student engagement while conveying content knowledge and allowing students to practice their critical thinking skills. After a brief introduction to cases, we will explore how different types of cases can serve different teaching goals. It is the goal of this workshop to help participants identify the type(s) of cases best suited for their teaching needs, and to provide the necessary resources to get started in case-teaching.

Kathrin Stanger-Hall is an Assistant Professor of Plant Biology at the University of Georgia, where she teaches introductory biology courses to biology majors and to non-science majors. Dr. Stanger-Hall, who received her Ph.D. in animal physiology from the University of Tuebingen in Germany, has taught introductory biology, behavioral ecology, and animal behavior at Duke University, Wake Forest University, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Georgia. She has taught classes ranging from 20 to 300 students. Her two main research interests focus on how to promote active learning and critical thinking in large introductory biology classes, and the evolution of light signals in North American fireflies.

Engaging Students Using in A&P: Tip for using PAL 2.0
This session is a hands-on opportunity to explore Practice Anatomy Lab (PAL™) 2.0 and to discuss strategies for the use of this software to enhance student learning. PAL™ 2.0 enables students to access multiple types of lab content (models, cadaver, cat, fetal pig, and histology) outside of the traditional laboratory setting. In addition to exploring the content, Professor Hendon will demonstrate how to customize content and how to upload and use this software within a course management environment (WebCT, Blackboard, CourseCompass). She will also share ideas for motivating students to use this software and its use for on-line assessment of student learning.

Leslie Hendon earned her B.S. in Biology at Birmingham Southern College and Master’s Degree at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She has been teaching in the biology department at UAB since 1996. Leslie takes an active and engaging approach to teaching human anatomy, ecology lab, environmental science, and several other biology courses. Though she is enthusiastic about all of her courses, human anatomy is her favorite. When not teaching at UAB, Leslie is actively engaged in medical missions as advisor and volunteer and she coordinates an ongoing community outreach program for teaching hands-on human anatomy in high schools. Hendon has received several awards for outstanding teaching including the Colin Davis Award in 2006 and a Distinguished Faculty Award in 2005.

Motivational Games and Activities to Enhance Student Engagement in Large General Chemistry Courses
Student motivation plays a key role in successfully teaching large-enrollment introductory courses. In this play-and-learn workshop, multiple games and activities will be presented aimed at motivating both major and non-major university students to discover the principles of chemistry. The workshop is highly interactive and engages the audience into experiencing the motivating effect of physical activities as well as tile and matching games. Successful activities will be compared to examples of lesser educational value.

Dr. Klaus Woelk is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T), where he teaches introductory chemistry in courses of up to 200 major and non-major students. He coordinates chemistry freshman education with an annual enrollment of up to 1000 students and has been awarded the 2006 Wilbur Tappmeyer Excellence in Teaching Undergraduates Award. He also teaches upper-level physical-chemistry courses, such as thermodynamics and quantum chemistry. Dr. Woelk, who received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry and experimental physics at the University of Bonn, Germany, is part of a team that considerably redesigned introductory chemistry at Missouri S&T. In 2005/06, he was the acting director of UMR’s New Faculty Teaching Scholarship program.

Writing Effective Exam Questions
Testing is one of the basic components of teaching, yet often leads to frustration for both students and professors. Are you looking for strategies to improve your exams? Reduce negative feedback from students? Join us to discuss the art of constructing test questions. The workshop provides practical suggestions for tailoring your exams to accurately evaluate your course objectives while also addressing differing student needs. Participants should bring a brief lesson outline for a topic they'd like to assess.

Mimi Bres, a Professor at Prince George's Community College, has over 20 years experience in the development of curriculum materials designed to stimulate interest in science and to improve critical thinking skills. Of particular note is her recent work developing an interactive web and video-based curriculum, including a virtual field component, to teach environmental concepts without the need for students to travel. Dr. Bres received a 2001 National Award for Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Technology by the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning. She has also been nominated for “Outstanding Freshman Professor of the Year,” the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, and the Faculty Senate Excellence Award.

Using the Interactive Software Program DyKnow to Help Enhance Your Students' Success In the Classroom and Out.
The presentation will discuss how DyKnow's Interactive Software can help you poll your students (to determine immediate understanding of the material) as well as provide immediate feedback as to their drawings of topics using the panel submission portion of the program. Examples of quizzing, power point slide use and posting of materials after class (for ease of student access) will be provided.

Pamela Moolenaar-Wirsiy has been at Georgia Perimeter College since 1994, first as an Adjunct Instructor of Biology, then as a full-time member of the Science Department on Clarkston campus. She currently serves as Assistant Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) in the Educational Affairs Department. As a tenured associate professor, Pam enjoys the benefit of serving in the district office at GPC, which serves all 5 campuses by providing faculty development programs, as well as program development. She believes that education ends only with life, this would ensure that she’ll be constantly teaching! Interacting with faculty and exposing them to development opportunities keeps Pam’s thirst for teaching alive!

Special Thanks To:

Special Thanks To: Dr. Carl McAllister, Dr. Jonathan Lochamy and The Science Department, Clarkston Campus, Georgia Perimeter College.