Science Atlantic is excited to announce our 2023 Webinar Series for Faculty!
“Science Atlantic Sessions for All” (SASA) are informal gatherings where faculty members can discuss the triumphs and tribulations of academia with their colleagues. The first discussion will be hosted by Dr. Stevan Springer (UPEI). Advanced registration is welcome but not necessary.
We look forward to continuing Science Atlantic Sessions for All throughout the year. If you or someone you know has an idea for a future session, please let us know! We welcome you to share your ideas to ensure that these valuable and engaging discussions can continue!
Date and Location:
Thursday, February 23, 2023
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. (ADT)
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Teach students, not classes: Creating (and managing) learning incentives to promote individuality and innovation
How can we individualize student learning and feedback in small and large classes? I will describe challenges teachers face when helping students learn to think like scientists, drawing inspiration for possible solutions from evolutionary theory. We will discuss three central topics.
1. How difficult it is to set healthy incentives for intelligent goal-driven students (and a counter-intuitive but effective solution).
2. Strategies for creating objectives and evaluations that treat students as individuals (and how to cope, even in big classes).
3. The growing societal importance of fostering student individuality (and why all innovations arise fundamentally from individuality).
Speaker:
Department of Biology, UPEI
Dr. Stevan Springer
I grew up in British Columbia and did a BSc at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) where I was lucky to have the chance to start doing research. I completed an MSc at Simon Fraser University (SFU) and a Ph.D. at The University of Washington (UW) studying how sperm and egg surface proteins influence reproductive compatiblilty. My postdoctoral work was at the University of San Diego (UCSD) studying how sugars on the cell surface guide the immune response. At UPEI, I study how the availablity of mutations controls the outcome of protein evolution. I teach Genetics, Evolution, Animal Behaviour, and Computational Biology, and I run a lab of very enthusiastic and inventive students.