Using Active Learning in Your STEM Course: Designing Writing Activities to Solve Teaching and Learning Challenges

Register here
Date and time: Wednesday July 24, 9:00-11:30am
Location: 6191 Helen C White Hall
Facilitator: Brad Hughes

This workshop is offered in partnership with The Writing Center

Well-designed writing assignments can help students learn the subject matter of a course more deeply, increase students’ engagement with complex topics, and give course instructors valuable insight into what students understand—and what they don’t. But it can be difficult to design writing assignments that advance specific course goals and encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning.

In this interactive workshop, we’ll share advice, examples, and best practices for using writing to its full potential in SBE and STEM courses. We’ll discuss research about interactive writing assignments that advance learning and help students develop disciplinary ways of thinking; analyze effective examples of syllabi and assignments from a range of SBE and STEM courses at UW–Madison, including small seminars, large lecture courses, and labs; and consider how writing can be used to develop community in your classroom.

During this workshop, you will have a chance to draft and get feedback on a new writing assignment to use in your own teaching–now or in the future. Registration is required.