Recombinant Teaching: STEM Education Office Hours with Dr. Justin Shaffer

Jim Hutchins returns to the show to ask a provocative question: are learning objectives dead? Listen up to see how this one goes! Jim Hutchins spent 45 years teaching medical and allied health students. Now he tries to bring beneficence and justice to students by creating free learning materials. You can follow him and find his materials on SubStack and LinkedIn . Jim welcomes collaborations. A le...

On this episode Justin chats with Akshata Naik about how to use interleaving and other techniques to improve student learning, especially in an anatomy and physiology course. Dr. Akshata Naik, an assistant professor and physiology educator at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, located in Michigan, roughly 30 miles north of Detroit. Learn more about her at the links below. http...

Alison Roth joins the show to discuss the pertinent question of building accessibility into our digital course materials given the upcoming ADA deadline. More importantly, though Alison and Justin how this should be a normal part of your coursework and how this will leave lasting impacts once done. Alison Roth is a Clinical Assistant Professor in Medical Physics at Purdue University. Check out her...

On this episode Justin answers a time-old question about how to add active learning without taking up a lot of time to do a complete course overhaul. Want to be a part of the show? Submit a question ! Learn how you, your department, or your institution can work with Justin to improve STEM education together. www.recombinanteducation.com

Jim Hutchins joins the show and chats with Justin about a host of issues related to proper course design and Edtech. Listen up, but bring your acronym dictionary with you! :) Jim Hutchins spent 45 years teaching medical and allied health students. Now he tries to bring beneficence and justice to students by creating free learning materials. You can follow him and find his materials on SubStack and...

Murray Jensen from the University of Minnesota joins the show to poke and prod Justin with the question of is PowerPoint bad for teaching? As an avid PPT user, Justin pushes back but who wins the argument? Murray Jensen is at the University of Minnesota's College of Biological Sciences, where he teaches introductory physiology and oversees a dual-enrollment program. Email him at msjensen@umn.edu f...

Justin answers a great question about the use of online quizzes by both instructors and students. As always, the answer depends on the situation, but Justin tries to give advice on using them in a variety of contexts. Crystal Uminski is an assistant professor of biology at Towson University and you can find out what she is up to at the links below. LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/crystal-um...

Noah Courtney joins Justin to discuss how to scale up the use of authentic assessments (including having your STEM students write the NSF GRFP) in undergraduate courses. Noah A Courtney is a second-year Ph. D. student and NSF Graduate Research Fellow at the University of Rhode Island. At URI, he conducts Biology Education Research under Dr. Lisa Limeri, focusing on leveraging quantitative methods...

In this final episode of the STEM Course Design Series, Justin discusses the importance of getting feedback on your teaching, reflecting on said feedback, and iterating to improve you and your students’ experiences and success. Just dives into student midcourse and end-of-course feedback, peer observation protocols, and keeping a teaching journal, and more. Here is an article Justin wrote discussi...

We’ve covered how to handle traditional face-to-face classes, but how do you use structure in labs and online situations? In this episode of the STEM Course Design Series, Justin discusses how to use high structure in labs, online synchronous, and online asynchronous courses and just how important it is. Listen in for his thoughts on lab prep, online proctoring, breakout rooms, and more! Want to b...

You've had students prepare before class, had a great lesson during class, but now what to do after class? In this episode of the STEM Course Design Series, Justin breaks down after-class homework, practice quizzes and exams, draft project assignments, and more. Want to be a part of the show? Submit a question! Check out Justin's book on High Structure Course Design to learn more about after-class...

How do you plan timing for a lesson, balance active learning with lecture, and get students engaged and excited to be in class? Listen to this episode of the STEM Course Design Series to get answers to these questions and more! Check out the lesson plan template here on Justin’s website. Here is a link to the DART decibel-analysis tool. And a link to the active learning meta-analysis paper by Scot...

What do you do when students don’t want to read before class? On this episode of the STEM Course Design Series, Justin breaks down the critical importance of pre-class reading and assignments and how to develop them do that your students actually do read before class. Check out the reading guide template and samples here . And check out Justin’s paper on the efficacy of reading guides. Want to be...

On today's episode in the STEM Course Design Series, Justin tackles the importance of the syllabus and the course schedule by looking at how to put them together, what to add to them, and how to handle them when things go awry (snow day!). Here is a link to the student-centered syllabus rubric tool developed by Michael Palmer and a link to the study on STEM syllabi from Brian Sato. Check out the s...

How do you pick course materials that are worth it for you and your students? In this episode of the STEM Course Design Series, Justin gives his advice and thoughts on this question through discussing the pros and cons of paid vs OER materials, how to use rubrics to choose a textbook and courseware, and what to think about with adopting AI tools for your courses. Check out the textbook and coursew...

In this episode of the STEM Course Design Series, Justin goes over the big picture of summative assessment design and how to make sure they are aligned to your learning objectives. Justin also discusses a few types of assessments including traditional quizzes and exams, group quizzes, and how to make your assessments authentic and gives examples of how he uses them in his STEM courses. Here is a r...

As we continue on in the STEM Course Design Series, in this episode Justin gives an overview of the critical importance of starting your course design experience with learning objectives and backward design. Justin also discusses how to write SMART learning objectives, how to scale them up and down Bloom's taxonomy, the importance of both content- and skills-based LOs, and how to unpack LOs. Here...

In this episode Justin walks you through the basics of high structure course design, what it is, where it came from, and how to start thinking about designing or re-designing your own courses. This episode will serve as a foundation for future episodes in the series. Check out Justin's book on High Structure Course Design Check out Justin's card decks to help with course design and student learnin...

This is an introduction to the forthcoming summer STEM course design podcast series! Listen in over the next two months to learn all about STEM course design and how to give your courses a strong foundation so that your students can have an outstanding experience. Want to be a part of the show? Submit a question! Learn how you, your department, or your institution can work with Justin to improve S...

Taylor Darwin joins the show to talk with Justin about how to engage your students in the classroom – not necessarily about what to do in a typical 50 minute class, but rather how to engage them in the subject matter writ large (especially if it is a mandatory class that they have little interest in). Want to be a part of the show? Submit a question! Learn more about expectancy value theory here ....

Justin is joined by SPECIAL GUEST HOST Kelsey Metzger Metzbertsel to answer an age-old question about the best way to form student groups! Justin was sure glad to have Kelsey as a group partner to work through this toughie! Want to be a part of the show? Submit a question! Kelsey Metzger – Dr. KJAM to her students – is a professor in the Center for Learning Innovation and the director of faculty d...

Justin is joined by Lauren Stoczynski to discuss the age-old question of how to handle student resistance when it comes to active learning and structured course design. While a tough nut to crack, I guarantee you won't face any resistance with enjoying this episode! :) Want to be a part of the show? Submit a question! Lauren Stoczynski is an assistant professor of biological and environmental scie...

Brian Shmaefsky joins to show to share how he engages his students through community work and asks Justin how to do this in a way to match students interests and motivations. Listen in for some great examples of community-based learning that Brian is doing! Want to be a part of the show? Submit a question! Brian Shmaefsky is an environmental scientist who’s spent more over 30 years making complex...

Justin is joined by Christin Monroe to discuss how courses can be designed best to support neurodivergent learners. This is not Justin's area of expertise, so it was a good challenge to think through this idea together with Christin! Want to be a part of the show? Submit a question! Dr. Christin Monroe holds a PhD in Chemistry from Princeton University and is an Educational Research Associate at t...

Jessamyn Neuhaus joins the show to ask Justin how adding structure to college STEM courses can help everyone, students and faculty alike, do better and feel like they belong. Lots of great tips and advice in this one! Want to be a part of the show? Submit a question! Jessamyn Neuhaus is Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning and Professor of Education at Syracuse University. Jessamyn hol...