trinity college dublin, the university of dublin welcome on behalf of the dean of fems, prof. clive...

Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin

Welcome

On behalf of the Dean of FEMS, Prof. Clive Williams, welcome to the launch of the

Dean’s Awards (Teaching and Innovation) 2014-15

Please help yourself to tea and coffee

Dean’s Awards (Teaching and Innovation) 2014-15

13th Jan 2015 Global Room


Welcome

In 2013-14 the Faculty made nine teaching innovation awards, following an open call for proposals

Representatives of each project will showcase their achievements, in short, 5 minute flash summaries

The Dean will then announce the 14-15 Call


The learning assistant programme

Nóirín Nic A Bháird

Biochemistry and Immunology

Learning Assistant programmeSchool of Biochemistry and ImmunologyNóirín Nic a’ Bháird & Glynis Robinson

Based on the programme in UC Boulder http://laprogram.colorado.edu/

Peer-led teaching: JS students are learning assistants (LAs) to SF students.

Informal discussion-based tutorials; maximum of 12 students per LA.

LAs: selected by interview; given training in pedagogy; guidelines from lecturers.

No new material provided to SF students, tutorials reinforce the lecture material and do not replace it.

LAs started the tutorials with MCQs and continued in whatever way they thought best to get the students to engage in discussion.

Outcomes (Tutees)

Informal feedback was very positive: reinforced lecture material; timing of tutorials one week after the lectures was good.

Comfortable, non-threatening environment.

Approx 50% of SF students attended (almost 100% said they would go) Attendance varied depending on time and day of week.

We will quantify responses at the end of the series.

Outcome (LAs)

LAs enjoyed the experience-they were nervous at first but soon got into their stride. LAs put a lot of work into the tutorials.

LAs benefited academically from the experience.

Peer-led teaching benefits both tutees and LAs


Problem solving for Engineering students

Brian Foley (Aileen Brennan)

Engineering

PROBLEM SOLVING

A bear, starting from the point P, walked one mile due south. Then he changed direction and walked due east. Then he turned again to the left and walked one mile due north, and arrived exactly at the point P he started from. What colour is the bear?

From “How To Solve It”, G. Polya.[1]

2ND LEVEL MATHEMATICS EDUCATION

Report published in 1956 by Education Testing Service in New Jersey claiming “…mathematics has the dubious honour of being the least popular subject in the curriculum”.[2]

Declining standards from that point until present day.[3][4][5]

Closer to home, recent overhaul of the Irish 2nd Level mathematics curriculum with a view to eliminating the “rote learning” culture.[6]

First Students to have completed 5 or 6 years of “Project Maths” in it’s entirety entering 3rd Level in Autumn 2017

THRESHOLD CONCEPTS

Growing area in the last decade in pedagogic research.

Idea that certain concepts are key to grasping further areas of study in a course, but are “troublesome” to students.

Example from Electronic engineering identified by Harlow et al. is Thévenin’s theorem - the substitution of a source and resistor subject to linearity.

Variance within this as some students find some concepts more difficult than others.[7]

DESIGN OF TUTORIAL QUESTIONS

Tendency of students to stick to a “rote” learning approach, doing “drill” style problems over and over so that they can repeat the process with a similar question in the exams.

Need to encourage students to develop their reasoning and logic skills, and to develop a method of approaching any problem to attempt to find a solution.

Aspects of electronic engineering can be easily presented as logic puzzles, such as Boolean algebra.

DESIGN OF TUTORIAL QUESTIONS

Puzzles present a less intimidating problem while still stimulating reasoning and encouraging students to explore the problem and any variations that could surround it.

Once the problem solving aspect has been completed, the student can then work on the technical aspects of a problem, rather than worrying about both these tasks at the same time.

An important focus of the project is leading the students to discover the correct answer themselves. The sense of achievement in realising they are capable of coming up with answers themselves rather than be handed them is crucial in building confidence in their own abilities.

EXAMPLE QUESTION Company Safe

A safe has five locks, v, w, x, y, z, all of which must be unlocked for the safe to open. The keys are distributed among five executives in the following manner:

A has v and x B has v and y C has w and y D has x and z E has v and z

(a) What is the minimum number of executives needed to open the safe?

(b) Write down all the combinations of executives that are capable of opening the safe.

(c) Take your answer to (b) above and create the Boolean function f(A,B,C,D,E) that specifies when the safe can be opened as a function of the executives present.

(d) From your investigation so far, who do you think is the CEO? There is one member that seems to be less important than everyone else, who is it?

INVESTIGATIVE WORK

4th year Microelectronic Circuits Class Incorporate new style of questions and

document student approaches. Interview students and log changing opinions as

they encounter more problems and assess how it has impacted their approach to solving them.

Identify any particular trends with regard to problem design, engagement during sessions and relate to any associated changes in the students’ ability to solve the problems.

Attempt to identify possible Threshold Concepts in the course and investigate how students coped with them.


5BIO1 Medical Device Design “Closing the Loop in Medical Device Design

Education”

Bruce Murphy

Biomedical Engineering

2015 5BIO1 projects

P1 Craniosyntosis in Paediatric patients

Mr Dylan Murray

P2 Development of a re-entry device for

treatment of CTO’s

P3 Development of suitable footwear to

relieve diabetic pressure ulcers

Dr Mary Paula Colgan

P4 Development of a new minimally invasive

treatment for benign prostate hyperplasia


An experiential e-learning approach to Statistics

Jason Wyse

Statistics

Statistics is often taught in a domain specific manner

Form a database of examples to support teaching of statistics across disciplines

In addition build an e-learning engine through R shiny that can be used as a teaching and a study aid across college

Work to be completed by two interns during Summer 2015

Suggestions to incorporate data you use in your teaching most welcome ([email protected])

Experiential e-learning approach to statisticsJason Wyse, Department of Statistics, SCSS

mailto:[email protected]

Experiential e-learning approach to statisticsJason Wyse, Department of Statistics, SCSS

Example of some early work in R shiny demonstrating a t-test. Topics covered will include; Basic plotting, one and two sample t-tests, simple linear regression, ANOVA and k-meansclustering.


i-Geog

Gayle McGlynn

Geography

iGeog: A blended learning approach for geographical research methods

• What is it? A teaching initiative that aims to create and utilise online podcast-based material in delivering instruction in essential geographical skills.

• Why is it needed? Key geographical research skills (including statistical methods and analysis of spatial data) are essential elements of a Geography education – and also have wide-ranging relevance beyond the discipline of Geography.

• Main aim: To create a series of short (8-10 minutes) podcasts on topics related to key geographical skills, in support of both lecture- and tutorial-based teaching.

– Instruction-based podcasts will introduce key topics and provide examples of their application in a geographical context.

– Podcasts will form a valuable resource for students to consult as part of specific modules and for their own individual research projects.

• Amount received from FEMS: €8,215

FEMS Teaching Innovation Award 2014

Dr Gayle McGlynn, Department of Geography, School of Natural Sciences (and several others)

iGeog: A blended learning approach for geographical research methods

FEMS Teaching Innovation Award 2014

• Creating tailored podcast content (i.e. not recorded in a lecture setting, but created specifically for online delivery) is a very time-consuming process.

• Short podcasts are in the process of being designed and created in Camtasia 8 by a recent PhD graduate, in consultation with members of the iGeog working group.

iGeog statistics – short podcasts (8-10 minutes)Beginner’s guide to descriptive statistics in ExcelSummarising distributionsIntroduction to inferential statistics and sampling distributionsIntroduction to hypothesis testingStatistical sampling, confidence intervals and errorTesting the difference between two meansChi-squared testIntroduction to correlation

Podcasts utilise geographical data and show worked examples to highlight main points

• Podcasts are currently being completed and will be made available to students throughout Semester 2. These will form the basis of a database on which we can continue to build in the future.


Problem-based learning first-year laboratory for 1E7 Engineering Mechanics module

Ciaran Simms

Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering

Background• Laboratory programme crucial aspect to engineering education

• Sessions often tightly defined: risk of instruction following…

• Co-operative PBL: higher level of critical thinking & active engagement

• Mechanics: foundation for practical engineering (mainly 1E7 & 1E4)

24

Goals & Objectives for Lab Programme

• Cooperative PBL AND theoretical understanding• … groups given a problem, devise/implement solutions

• Adapt one Mechanics Module 1E7 Lab to encourage deep learning through more open-ended session

• To adapt a second laboratory session in the Junior Freshman Physics for Engineers module, 1E4

• To compare the learning outcomes of the adapted practical session with the traditional approach

25

Progress to Date for 1E7 Mechanics

• Lab task: – students physically make two similar structures with different mass distributions using only

simple materials. – They then develop and implement an experiment to measure the moments of inertia of the

two structures – Compare to their own theory prediction and make a video of the experiment – write a brief report

• This is not traditionally scheduled: the exp is done at home with their own equipment (we supply cylinders, foam, usb key etc)

• Prototypes have been manufactured and tested and compared to theoretical results and a video of the experiment has been made, and the lab sheet is complete

– First lab session yesterday! All good so far.

26

27

Click for video


Clickers project in FEMS

Shane Bergin

Physics

Derek Nolan

Biochemistry and Immunology

Peer Learning (Clickers)

Shane Bergin, Physics

Q. What effect, if any, did clickers have on your lectures?

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Said it Did Not Help

% of Comments that...

Referred to Engagement

Promoted Discussion

Made You Question Yourself

Q. What effect, if any, did clickers have on your lectures?

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Said it Did Not Help

% of Comments that...

Referred to Engagement

Promoted Discussion

Made You Question Yourself

All Students Engineering Engineering & Management Science (TR071) Theoretical Physics Nano Scientists

Q. Does using clickers help you learn?

10

20

30

40

50

60

10 20 30 40 50 60

10

20

30

40

50

60

102030405060

... 'applying knowledge'

... 'engagement'

% of comments that referred to 'social learning'

... 'didn't help'

All LecturesAll Lectures

All Lectures

Maths

Maths

Maths

Some Lectures

Some Lectures

Chemistry

Chemistry

Experimental Methods

Secondary SchoolBiology

Astrophysics/Other Physics

Astrophysics/Other Physics

Geography/GeologyTutorials

Senior Freshman

Engineering Combined Science & Nano Theoretical Physics0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110%

of R

espo

nden

tsYes. I would like to see them in ...

Q. Would you like to see clickers used in other lectures?

BY2203 Module (321 students)breakdown by degree

Total poll: 302

Natural Sciences (78.8%)Human Health & Disease (8.1%)Medicinal Chemistry (7.5%)Human Genetics (7.4%)Chemistry with Molecular Modelling (0.3%)

Use of polling during practical class: BY2203 Did you attend the lectures?

Did you engage with practical beforehand (Book/Website)?

Did you attend sessions with module learning assistants?

Engagement with module

nmoles O/division

10-1920-30

31-4041-50

None of these

Stu

den

t (%

)

0

20

40

60

80

100

Polling allows real time analysis of class data

To show outlying results

Respiratory Control Ratio

<1 1-3 3-5 5+

Stu

den

t (%

)

0

20

40

60

80

100

To show experimental variability

To show trend & agreement with textbook

P/O Ratio

<1 1.0-1.9 2.0-3.5 3.5+

Stu

den

t (%

)

0

20

40

60

80

100

SuccinateGlutamate/Malate

Answer

Correct

Incorrect

Stu

den

t (%

)

0

20

40

60

80

100

Polling allows analysis of improvement in class response to

questions before/after

Answer

Correct

Incorrect

Stu

den

t (%

)

0

20

40

60

80

100 Before

After: using student generated data


STEM-ERC Group

Colette Murphy

School of Education

STEM-ERC

Developments in science education

• More emphasis on nature of science (NoS)

• New ‘science of learning’

• Sociocultural approaches to learning and teaching science

New Science of Learning: (Meltzoff et al 2009)

New Science of Learning

“A convergence of discoveries…leading to changes in educational theory…key component…role of ‘the social’ in learning. What makes social interaction such a powerful catalyst for learning?...How can we capitalise on social factors to teach better…? These are

deep questions at the leading edge of the new science of learning.” (!!)

psychology

educationmachine learning

neuroscience


2015 Awards – Open Call for Proposals

Launch: 13th Jan 2015

Call Opens: 14th Jan 2015

– Email, on behalf of the Dean, to all staff members

– Awards of 2-5k normally, max of 10k. Successful proposers will be expected to join the Faculty Teaching Innovations’ Group

– Faculty website will host the presentations and hand-out from today’s seminar, timetable of Call etc.

Closing date: 12.30pm, 10th Feb 2015

– Assessment of proposals will be by panel, including nominated TCD staff and an external independent expert (Leilani Arthurs, Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska-Lincoln)

Awards announced: 24th Feb 2015

Thank You

trinity college dublin, the university of dublin welcome on behalf of the dean of fems, prof. clive...

Documents