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Entries in this Group Meetings Archive are organized in reverse chronological order.
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Dr. Ayce Yesilaltay
Title: Curriculum development efforts for an inquiry-based introductory lab course or can we have it all?
Group Meeting Date & Time: Thursday, July 24, 2014 @ 2:00 pm
View the slides from Dr. Yesilaltay’s Group Meeting
Ayce Yesilaltay is an Instructor for Curriculum Development in the Biology Department at MIT where she develops curriculum for and teaches the MIT course 7.02, Introduction to Experimental Biology and Scientific Communication. In her talk titled “Curriculum development efforts for an inquiry-based introductory lab course or can we have it all?”, Dr. Yesilaltay spoke about the challenges of developing curriculum for a multi-faceted, communications-intensive, inquiry-based introductory lab course. Read more…
Dr. Brian White and Dr. Mary Ellen Wiltrout
Title: 7.00x Introduction to Biology: A Year Post-MOOC Development, Residential Applications at MIT and the University of Massachusetts, Boston
Group Meeting Date & Time: Friday, June 20, 2014 @ 2:00 pm
View the slides from Dr. White’s and Dr. Wiltrout’s Group Meeting
Dr. Brian White is an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. As an MITx Technical Instructor and Curriculum Development Specialist, Dr. Mary Ellen Wiltrout oversees all residential and world-wide bound MITx projects in the Biology Department at MIT. In their talk, titled 7.00x Introduction to Biology: A Year Post-MOOC Development, Residential Applications at MIT and the University of Massachusetts, Boston, Dr. White and Dr. Wiltrout described how the online course content is being used in residential classrooms, showed student feedback, and provided some early insights from the data collected. Read more…
Dr. Daniel Seaton
Title: Demographics and Learning Behavior in MITx and HarvardX MOOCs
Group Meeting Date & Time: Monday, March 10, 2014 @ 2:00 pm
View the slides from Dr. Seaton’s Group Meeting
Daniel Seaton, Ph.D., recently joined the Office of Institutional Research at MIT as a Data Analyst. During his group meeting, titled “Demographics and Learner Behavior in MITx and HarvardX MOOCs”, Dr. Seaton demonstrated the immense data analysis that has been performed on the first 17 MITx and HarvardX courses offered on the edX platform. Read more…
Dr. Paul Lipton and Meredith Knight
Title: Bridging the Gap, from Classroom to Bench
Group Meeting Date & Time: Friday, January 24, 2014 @ 2:00 pm
View the slides from Dr. Lipton’s and Meredith Knight’s Group Meeting
Dr. Paul Lipton, the director of Boston University’s Undergraduate Program in Neuroscience and the Program Director of BU’s HHMI Undergraduate Science Education Program, and Meredith Knight, a science educator and educational researcher who is currently a doctoral candidate in science education at Boston University, gave a group meeting titled: “Bridging the Gap, from Bench to Classroom.” The focus of their group meeting was on the new undergraduate neuroscience program at Boston University and its effectiveness in developing scientifically literate neuroscience undergraduates. Read more…
In Fall 2013, we hosted a special series of events. We screened a series of acclaimed 2 Million Minutes documentaries by Robert A. Compton on education systems around the world. More information about the 4 documentaries that we screened is below.
Movie: 2 Million Minutes: A Global Examination
Date & Time: Thursday, October 24th @ 2 pm
“Regardless of nationality, as soon as a student completes the 8th grade, the clock starts ticking. From that very moment the child has approximately Two Million Minutes until high school graduation
…Two Million Minutes to build their intellectual foundation…Two Million Minutes to prepare for college and ultimately career…Two Million Minutes to go from a teenager to an adult.”
Movie: 2 Million Minutes: A Deeper Look at Indian Education
Date & Time: Wednesday, October 30th @ 2 pm
“In 2007 the provocative documentary film Two Million Minutes: A Global Examination premiered. Comparing and contrasting the two million minutes of high school in India, China and the U.S., the film raised awareness and rattled cages from Harvard to the halls of power.
Now one year later, the students have completed their freshman year of college. In Two Million Minutes Chapter 2, we bring together the two American students and the two Indian students for a candid, compelling roundtable discussion.”
Movie: 2 Million Minutes: A Deeper Look at Chinese Education
Date & Time: Monday, November 18th @ 2 pm
Movie: 2 Million Minutes: A 21st Century Solution
Date & Time: Wednesday, December 11th @ 2 pm
“For 25 years, report after report has shown that American students are falling further and further behind the rest of the world intellectually. As the American public school system fails to adapt to this century, schools in China and India produce four times the number of high school graduates as the U.S. and educate these students to a much higher level.
Dr. Saif Rayyan
Title: edX for MIT Residential Courses: Examples and Comparison to MOOCs
Group Meeting Date & Time: Tuesday, June 25, 2013 @ 2:00 pm
View the slides from Dr. Rayyan’s Group Meeting
Dr. Saif Rayyan is a lecturer in the Physics department and the concourse program at MIT. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical particle physics from Virginia Tech before switching his interests to teaching and to physics education research. He spent two years at Beloit College as a Teaching Fellow, and then moved to MIT as a postdoc working with Professor David Pritchard and the RELATE group (Research in Learning, Assessing and Tutoring Effectively). Now, in addition to teaching introductory physics, Dr. Rayyan is working on the development of physics content on edX for use in edX courses and in MIT’s on-campus classes. Working with online platforms such as edX, Dr. Rayyan hopes to find the best practices for using online content to help students and teachers.
Dr. Anique Olivier-Mason
Title: TA Bootcamp: Preparing graduate students to teach to a diverse student body and get the most out of their teaching experience
Group Meeting Date & Time: Monday, May 6, 2013 @ 2:00 pm
View the slides from Dr. Olivier-Mason’s Group Meeting
Dr. Anique Olivier-Mason is a technical instructor in Professor Cathy Drennan’s HHMI Education Laboratory at MIT. Together with Dr. Beth Vogel Taylor, Dr. Olivier-Mason works on initiatives on “Improving Chemistry Teaching and Mentoring Nationwide.” During her group meeting, titled “TA Bootcamp: Preparing graduate students to teach to a diverse student body and get the most out of their teaching experience”, Dr. Olivier-Mason discussed her work on the development of graduate student teaching assistant (TA) training programs at MIT and Brandeis University. Read more…
Dr. Jennifer French
Title: Using Video to Tie Fundamental Concepts to Engineering Themes
Group Meeting Date & Time: Thursday, April 11, 2013 @ 2:00 pm
View the slides from Dr. French’s Group Meeting
Dr. Jennifer French is a Program Manager for MITx in the Department of Mathematics. She has a Ph.D. in math from MIT, and loves teaching elementary students the “joy of mathematics”. In her previous position as a Postdoctoral Associate for Mathematics Education in the Teaching and Learning Laboratory (TLL), Dr. French worked on a 2-year project funded by the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). In her group meeting on “Using Video to tie Fundamental Concepts to Engineering Themes”, Dr. French discussed this work on creating instructional videos designed to encourage active learning and teaching methodologies in the classroom, as well as to encourage transfer by tying fundamental concepts to engineering themes and examples. Read more…
Professor Melanie Berkmen
Title: Double-dipping and connecting the dots: How to integrate skill-building and inquiry-based research into a biochemistry lab curriculum
Group Meeting Date & Time: Friday, March 29, 2013 @ 2:00 pm
View the slides from Professor Berkmen’s Group Meeting
Melanie Barker Berkmen first became involved in Professor Graham Walker’s original HHMI Education Group in 2002 while she was a Jane Coffin Child post-doctoral fellow in Professor Alan Grossman’s lab in the MIT Department of Biology. In 2007, Dr. Berkmen became an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Suffolk University where she teaches biochemistry and chemistry and mentors undergraduate research. Her research focuses on investigating the function and localization of a putative ATPase component of the Bacillus subtilis mating machinery. Read more…
Dr. Yoav Bergner
Title: What science educators should know about psychometrics
Group Meeting Date & Time: Thursday, February 28, 2013 @ 2:00 pm
View the slides from Dr. Bergner’s Group Meeting
Yoav Bergner earned his Ph.D. in theoretical physics at MIT before becoming a sculptor and furniture-maker for five years, a public school science teacher for three years, and subsequently an education researcher. Dr. Bergner is currently a postdoc in Professor David Pritchard’s RELATE(Research in Learning, Assessment, and Tutoring Effectively) group at MIT, analyzing data from online learning environments like edX with techniques from educational data mining and psychometrics. In his group meeting, titled “What every science educator should know about psychometrics”, Dr. Bergner gave an enlightening and in-depth overview of the field of psychometrics designed to aid science educators in their development of effective educational assessments. Read more…
Dr. Daniel Seaton
Title: Do students read textbooks? E-text use in blended and online introductory physics courses
Group Meeting Date & Time: Wednesday, November 14, 2012 @ 1:30 pm
View the slides from the group meeting
During his recent group meeting, entitled “Do students read textbooks? E-text use in blended and online introductory physics courses”, Dr. Daniel Seaton gave us his expert insight on student behavior regarding online textbooks.
Dr. Seaton is a postdoctoral associate in Professor Dave Pritchard’s RELATE (Research in Learning, Assessment and Tutoring Effectively) physics education group at MIT. Read more…
Dr. Mary Ellen Wiltrout
Title: Discovery-based lab courses and teacher assistant training
Group Meeting Date & Time: Friday, November 9, 2012 @ 2:00 pm
View the slides from the group meeting
In her group meeting, Dr. Mary Ellen Wiltrout discussed her experiences as a preceptor for a discovery-based laboratory course and instituting a teaching assistant training program at Harvard University. Dr. Wiltrout’s is a preceptor for MCB52, a Molecular & Cellular Biology course at Harvard University. Prior to accepting this position, Dr. Wiltrout was fortunate to gain invaluable teaching experience and emphasis placed upon teaching through her interactions with three HHMI Professors: Beth Jones, Graham Walker and Rich Losick. Read more…
Dr. Colin Fredericks
Title: Patterns of Behavior in Online Homework Systems
Group Meeting Date & Time: Monday, June 4, 2012 @ 2:00 pm
View the slides from the group meeting
Dr. Colin Fredericks is working in MIT’s RELATE group as a postdoctoral researcher in physics education. Dr. Colin Fredericks’ work in the RELATE group includes the creation of online course materials, the analysis of homework data, and work with multimedia production. Dr. Fredericks received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and his Doctorate in Physics Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Read more…
Dr. Julie Schell and Dr. Brian Lukoff
Title: Peer Instruction 2.0: The Next Generation of Catalyzing Learner Engagement in STEM Classrooms
Group Meeting Date & Time: Thursday, May 10, 2012 @ 2:00 pm
View the slides from the group meeting
Dr. Julie Schell and Dr. Brian Lukoff are both Postdoctoral Fellows in Professor Eric Mazur’s Physics Education Research Group at Harvard University. Read more…
Professor Melissa Kosinski-Collins
Title: Tackling the age-old question “Why do I have to take Organic Chemistry?”: Designing a problem-based, interdisciplinary laboratory curriculum merging concepts and experiments in biology and chemistry laboratory courses
Group Meeting Date & Time: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 @ 2:00 pm
View the slides from Professor Kosinski-Collins’ Group Meeting
Professor Melissa Kosinski-Collins is an Associate Professor of Biology at Brandeis University. Professor Kosinski-Collins received her Ph.D. from MIT studying protein folding and aggregation in the laboratory of Jonathan King. Professor Kosinski-Collins completed a postdoc in Graham Walker’s HHMI Education Group contributing to the development of tools, Read more…
Professor Helen Donis-Keller
Title: The Portfolio Project: Helping students take more responsibility for their learning
Group Meeting Date & Time: Wednesday, March 7, 2012 @ 2:00 pm
View the slides presented at this Group Meeting
A scientist and artist for her entire professional life, Professor Helen Donis-Keller is currently Professor of Biology and Art at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Massachusetts. Professor Donis-Keller received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Harvard University and an M.F.A. in Studio Art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Tufts University. For the past ten years, she has taught the introductory biology course, SCI1210 Principles of Modern Biology, which is required of all undergraduates. Read more…
Dr. Mandana Sassanfar
Title: Engaging Young Students in Research, Problem Solving and Troubleshooting
Group Meeting Date & Time: Wednesday, February 29, 2012 @ 3:00 pm
View the slides presented at this Education Group Meeting.
Dr. Mandana Sassanfar is a Biology Instructor and the Director of Diversity and Science Outreach in the Biology Department at MIT. She holds a B.S. and M.S. degrees in Biochemistry from the University of Pierre et Marie Curie and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Cornell University. Read more…
Professor Gerd Kortemeyer
Title: The Assessment Continuum: Before, In, and After Lecture
Group Meeting Date & Time: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 @ 2:00 pm
View the slides presented at this Education Group Meeting
Gerd Kortemeyer is an Associate Professor of Physics Education at Michigan State University Lyman Briggs College, where he frequently teaches introductory physics courses for mostly life-science majors. While Professor Kortemeyer is on sabbatical in Professor David Pritchard’s group at MIT, we had the pleasure of hearing a dynamic Education Group Meeting about the LON-CAPA project. The LON-CAPA project is an open-source learning content management system, of which Prof. Kortemeyer is the Principal Investigator and Director. Read more…
Dr. Kathy Vandiver and Dr. Amanda Gruhl
Topic: Boston Public Schools Pilot: Using Tactile and Visual Models to Teach Cellular Processes
Group Meeting Date & Time: Monday, November 7, 2011 @ 3:00 pm
View the slides presented at this Education Group Meeting
More…
Professor Brian White
Topic: Warm-ups and cold calls: Getting students to engage with the lecture material
Group Meeting Date & Time: Thursday, October 27, 2011 @ 3:30 pm
View the slides presented at this Education Group Meeting
Dr. Elizabeth Vogel Taylor
Topic: General Chemistry Innovations in Five-Minute Increments
Group Meeting Date & Time: Monday, September 12, 2011 @ 3:00 pm
View the slides presented at this Education Group Meeting
Dr. Megan Rokop
Topic: Developing the Broad Institute Educational Outreach Program
Group Meeting Date & Time: Thursday, May 19, 2011 @ 1:30 pm
View a brochure about volunteering in Megan’s program
Dr. Megan Rokop is the Director of the Educational Outreach Program at the Broad Institute. In this Education Group Meeting, she spoke about the remarkable program that she has developed, which includes high school class visits to the Broad Institute, summer internships for rising high school seniors, teacher forums, and semester-long research projects that enable groups of high school students to spend their Saturdays working together in a Broad Laboratory designated specifically for this purpose. In just a few year’s time, this Educational Outreach Program has already served thousands of local high school students. Read more…
Dr. Ishara Mills-Henry
Topic: The Science of the Eye Program – History, mission, & philosophy
Group Meeting Date & Time: Thursday, April 7, 2011 @ 1:00 pm
View the slides presented at this Education Group Meeting
Dr. Ishara Mills-Henry is the Program Director of ”Science of the Eye”, a STEM education program funded by the National Eye Institute and based in Professor Jonathan King’s laboratory in the MIT Department of Biology. Her work helps to support high school biology teachers in their efforts to provide high quality, engaging, and inspiring science education about vision and the eye through delivery of inquiry-based, hands-on instruction. Read more…
Dr. Lourdes Alemán &
Dr. Stacie Bumgarner
Topic: StarGenetics – Implementation, evaluation, outreach, & development
Group Meeting Date & Time: Friday, March 11, 2011 @ 2:30 pm
View the slides and movies presented at this Education Group Meeting
The Education Group was delighted at the terrific turn-out for the first Education Group Meeting in 2011. HHMI Professor Graham Walker enthusiastically welcomed participants who joined us from MIT and other local institutions, including Olin College, Boston University, and Suffolk University. The presenters, Dr. Lourdes Alemán and Dr. Stacie Bumgarner, are research scientists in the Education Group and are engaged in Biology education technologies development and curriculum innovation. Read more…
