summer_aacs_2016.pdf |
I recently had the honor to participate in a start-up panel at the inaugural Sloss Tech conference organized by Tech Birmingham. While I felt like I adequately addressed a number of questions, got a few laughs, and dropped some of the limited bits of wisdom I had in regards to startup life... there was one question that haunted me long after the event was over: "What advice do you have for 'in'trepreneurs?" .. meaning those who risked jobs at stable, albeit less exciting, ventures in order to work tirelessly behind the scenes to help make their bosses' vision a reality. I think in all honesty, the question stumped us, and we gave some feeble Hallmark-esk response. As the entrepreneurs ourselves, we know what we want in an employee (dedication, flexibility, creativity, loyalty, ability to grow and learn) and we know what we should do in order to attract and retain such talent (provide flexible work schedules, incentives to learn, involve them and give them a voice in the development of the company, reward them when the company succeeds)... but did we truly give advice to those who are seeking or starting careers in the rapidly growing tech startup economy as intrepreneurs..? Well in all honesty.. I don't think the advice I would give is much different than the advice I would give to a budding entrepreneur.. or any millennial seeking a startup centered career in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math). 1. Set an end game goalDo you want to be the CEO of Google? Cure cancer? Become Program Director for the NIH or the CDC? Whatever it is, make a concrete goal. Don't just say "retire at 60 with $10M in the bank".. that is not enough incentive.. money is never enough of an incentive.. you have to truly have a passion to do something in order to actually make progress towards a goal. Once you have a goal in mind, walk backwards in order to plan out the steps you need in order to achieve said goal. But don't be arrogant (or naive).. you're not going to walk out from under the arches of Prestige University, degree in hand, and walk directly into Google's CEO office. There are other skills, experiences, and growth a person needs beyond classroom education that is needed to achieve your end game goal (if not, then you didn't set a challenging enough goal and you are selling yourself short). Once you start on that path, be appreciative and open to all that you can gain from each step, even if it is serving and busing tables at PaPa's Italian Bistro, or cold calling customers via Telemarketers-R-Us in order to simply make ends meet while you are in college. Because waiting tables can teach you how to multitask, listen, and respond; and calling complete strangers to sell them something can teach you how to communicate quickly and effectively. Also, remember to be open not only to the opportunities you seek out, but also to those that fall into your lap; and try your best to never burn bridges. 2. Get out there and networkGet involved in your local young professionals group, your professional association or groups if applicable, church groups, anything that helps you branch out and meet new people, and don't be shy about it. You never know when you will meet that pivotal contact that can help propel you on your path, even if it is not blatantly obvious at the time you meet. And while you are out there meeting people, work on your pitch. Just as entrepreneurs have to work on their pitch to investors, intrepreneurs need to craft a pitch that demonstrates both their value and skill they can bring to the table in a way the generates excitement and enthusiasm. In the Birmingham area, there are a number of young professional groups such as YPBirmingham or the Junior League of Birmingham designed specifically for women. In addition, Startup Drinks Birmingham, is a great way to both network specifically in the startup arena, as well as also get opportunities to practice and receive feedback for your pitch. But while you are busy hitting the pavement and honing those networking skills, don't forget about your professional online presence (or POP as coined by my colleague Carolyn Garrity at BSC). Create a LinkedIn profile, an online portfolio, and clean up that Twitter feed and Facebook page. You don't need to be fake or impersonal, but the keg stand pictures probably need to go private. Then get all of that information on a business card (c'mon vistaprint is pretty cheap) and make sure to bring those cards with you EVERYWHERE. While the majority of your contacts will be made face to face, you can help solidify that connection with a card that allows the person you just met to follow up on social media or learn more about you on your efolio site. And while you are at it, be sure to follow up on LinkedIn yourself after meeting someone new, ask them to connect and let them know that it was great to meet them the other night at Good People. One important thing to remember, don't stop networking or updating your resume. The number one mistake young professionals make early in their careers is to stop looking for opportunities for improving their skills, which means they typically stop networking and get comfortable (or complacent) in their current position... And then suddenly when they are, for one reason or another, let go from their current position, they do not know where to start in order to move on to the next step in their path. Make sure you are able to recognize when you have outgrown your current position... or worse, the current position has outgrown you. 3. Reflect and adaptAs much as we all relish when our best laid plans work out just as we had hoped... life is chaotic, unpredictable, and shit just plain happens. So be prepared for both the bad and the good. Also, be prepared for you to realize that your end game goal may change (and accept it).. typically that 16 year old's dream of becoming a world class surgeon doesn't seem as wonderfully fulfilling to the 28 year old ER resident working on 4 hours of sleep in 2 weeks who would rather be at home sculpting clay.
One of the best ways we can ensure that we listen to our true calling and adapt to an ever changing environment is to critically reflect on both ourselves and our goals. So journal, blog, sing, something. just make sure you take the time to reflect on 1) do you still want to do what you want to do, 2) have the reasons for why you want to do what you want to do changed, and 3) how are the things currently in your life helping you to achieve you end game goal. And if you are unable to check each box, reflect on ways in which you can change either your goal or your path in a way that is both healthy and constructive. And above all, don't be afraid to ask for help, better yet find a mentor or a career coach that you can meet with periodically who has nothing but your best interests at heart. Now., while I freely admit I do not have the answers for everything, I hardly have answers for my 3 year old son.. But I can say with certainty that if you listen to your gut, take some risks while also learning when to say no.. you can earnestly enjoy both the path life takes you as well as when you reach your final end game goal (whatever it may be). You just have to be both brave and honest. Incorporating service learning into undergraduate chemistry curriculumFor the last couple years, I have toyed with the idea of incorporating a service learning component into my 400 level Medicinal Chemistry course. In past years, I have utilized a guest speaker series, which has been very successful , but I also wanted the course to be a way in which students could become directly engaged in the community through a meaningful project. Fortunately, this year, my class held my feet to the fire and encouraged me to go ahead and dive in head first. But the beauty of this project? My students really did all of the work for me! I just gave them a general timeline of events and a strategic path and they ran with it! In order to help facilitate future faculty to incorporate service learning into their own courses, I have laid out the basic steps we took in CH418: 1. Finding a need.The first step of a service learning project is to pinpoint a need in the community that could be addressed within the time frame of the course and is aligned with the course learning goals. I felt that if I really wanted my students to be engaged in the project and take ownership, then I should allow them the opportunity to come up with their own proposals. To facilitate this process, the class was divided into groups of three and given the following prompt during the first week of the term: I am asking you to develop a community service project that we can implement this term. This project must:
I expect this proposal to be NLT 5 pages typed, include sufficient detail on how the project can be implemented and managed, provide an explanation of the broader impacts of this project and how they align with this call for proposals. Students are given approximately 2-3 weeks to complete their proposals and then each group gives a short 10-15 minute presentation to the class summarizing their proposals. In order to help facilitate both the assessment of the proposal and guide the students, this rubric should also be provided. During their initial research of the surrounding areas my students recognized: 1. In the areas surrounding campus, the illiteracy rate is as high as 23% (NCES) which can make reading directions on how to take mediciations difficult 2.The closest authorized drug drop off location for the city of Birmingham is almost 30 miles away which could increase the risk of illicit use of prescription drugs, as well as increase the risk of polluting our natural resources due to improper disposal. 3. While the state of Alabama has one of the highest vaccination rates, there are still rural areas in the state in which as much of 18% of children are either unvaccinated or have expired vaccination records. We believe that this isn't necessarily due to an increase in support of the anti-vaccination movement but possibly is a result of language barriers and access to cheap or free vaccinations for under-served or uninsured families. As each group presenting their findings and their proposals of how to alleviate these challenges, they quickly recognized how each of the groups' proposals could be merged into one holistic class project and began incorporating each other's ideas and assigning roles to facilitate their project: 1. Participate in the National Drug Take Back Day with local BPD and DEA, 2. Create easy to read, graphically driven flyers in both English and Spanish describing proper drug disposal techniques, common myths concerning vaccinations, and information on how to get free or low cost vaccinations. 3. Create a magnet with a free 24/7 hotline of registered nurses that people can have on hand if they have ANY health related questions. 2. Developing an assessment strategyThe next phase of the project was for us to develop and agree on an assessment strategy in order to both measure student progress throughout the project and to assign an objective grade. Since this course does not have a wet lab component, I asked my students to think of this project as the substitute for the lab, both in the amount of work and the time commitment. No obviously, I could have came up with this assessment strategy on my own, but this way the students could again take ownership of the project and develop a way to hold themselves and each other accountable. This activity took approximately 20 minutes to complete, and occurred immediately following the various group proposal presentations. For this term, the students decided on the following assessment strategy: The total project was to be 200 points ( or 20% of the total course grade): 1. The final product, which in this instance was the printed materials (flyers and magnet), would account for 75 points. 2. Each student would keep a running journal (at least 1 entry per week) to document progress, time spent on each activity, and allow for reflection for a total of 50 points (5 points per journal entry for 10 entries). 3. Each student is expected to spend 20 hours total on the project, this includes time spent planning, preparing, working on-site with the community partner, and writing in the journals. Time would account for 25 points. 4. Each student would be evaluated by 3 peers on their professionalism, creativity, teamwork and contribution for a total of 25 points 5. Each student would be evaluated by a community partner as well for 25 points. Once we developed the strategy, I typed it up and posted it to our course management page. I also developed/tweaked/borrowed some various rubrics and created a grade sheet which you can find here. 3. Implementing the projectDuring this phase, except for checking in periodically with both the class and individual students to ensure forward momentum (and a 1 time mid-term journal check to make sure they didn't get behind on their notebooks); I basically stepped back and let them go! With seniors who are already very involved with various clubs and organizations, it was easy to allow them to take charge. Through out the term I watch them continue to evolve the project, raise funds, plan and organize meetings, create products, and implement their day of service all on their own. And from reading their journals, I found that this aspect: the ability to lead their own project from inception, was what they found to be the most valuable. That's not to say there wasn't conflict, disappointment, or frustrations; but they each did a great job communicating as a team to alleviate and resolves these issues as best they could. And I can't imagine a better learning experience for my students, who in just a few short months from starting this course would be leaving to enter the "real world". 4. Reflecting and growingNear the end of the term, I encouraged my students to spend time reflecting on the project; not just on how successful the project seemed to be in impact or what could be done differently in the future, but on how it may have impacted their own learning, their beliefs or values, or their understanding of the community around them. In order to help them reflect, I gave them a prompt that led them to look at their experiences through three different lenses or levels. While for this term, the reflection assignment was not a required component of the assessment strategy, I think it is something I will require in future terms, and something that I will require them to do more than once in order for them to see how their own understanding can evolve over time.
Overall, I am so very thankful my students insisted on doing this project; because now I am no longer resistant to implementing service learning in my courses. I hope that this may also encourage you, the reader, decide to incorporate service learning in your own courses. Check out the newest edition of our local ACS newsletter for upcoming events and information. Want to join? Email me at [email protected] today! I have been waiting to do this post so that I could look at my student evaluations in order to formulate my newest plan of action. For those of you who have been following this journey with me through my previous posts: Flippn' Biochemistry, In Defense of the Flip, and Flippn' Biochemistry Part II, I hope that you have discovered that completely flipping a course successfully can not be done in just one iteration. Instead, I have learned that it is a constant cycle of implementation, surveying and reflection, and adjustments.; and I am hoping by keeping a record of the challenges and strategies I have ran across in the last couple years, I can help encourage my colleagues to incorporate more active learning into their own classrooms while alleviating some of the stress. As I mentioned in my previous post, I implemented a number of changes the second time around including finding a TA, moving to a classroom that facilitated group work versus a fixed chair lecture hall, embedding quizzes into the lecture videos forgoing the online homework, emphasizing the learning objectives both in the videos and in class and directly correlating those objectives to the in-class activities; and redeveloping the exams such that they reflected more of the activities and less rote memorization. My main objective for this term was to overcome the student perception that a course "lecture" must be a lecture by stripping away the typical lecture environment and embracing the components of a laboratory that emphasis problem based learning. I was also fortunate this year that two colleagues (Dr. Pete Van Zandt and Dr. Melanie Styers) and I were awarded a grant from the Associated Colleges of the South to assess the impact of blended learning and flipped teaching in our student's ability to think critically. For this study we utilized the Critical Thinking Assessment Test (CAT) developed and validated by Tennessee Tech in a pre/post test format in three of our classes that to some degree utilize flipped teaching. We also employed pre/post SALG surveys to assess student perceived gains in hopes of discovering correlations between categories in which the students believed they gained and in what the CAT test measured. While we are still waiting on the results from the CAT test, both my student evaluations, the technology survey that I utilize each year and the SALG responses indicate that we are headed in the right direction. Technology Survey:In 2014 (light blue) and 2015 (dark blue) students were surveyed about halfway through the term with the following prompt: Throughout the term we have utilized a variety of tools to help deepen student understanding on a variety of biochemistry related topics and to facilitate the development of critical thinking skills. To help further develop this course, please rate the tools that we utilized on a scale of 1 to 10 (1: you found this tool to not beneficial at all or even distracting and 10: you found this tool to be very beneficial). The results of that survey are found below (note that in 2014 I goofed and forgot to ask students what they thought of the textbook... so that result was not included for 2014). As you can see, students' evaluations of each tool (except for the previous year's exams) all increased or stayed the same from 2014 (light blue) to 2015 (dark blue). Of particular note are the large gains in appreciation of the POGIL activities, the video lectures, and the lecture quizzes (which was compared to the online homework assignments through sapling last year). I believe these gains in appreciation are due in large part to stripping away the lecture environment to facilitate group work and communication while decreasing the expectation that lectures are for passive learning at the onset of the term (such as we do in the laboratory). My other goal in the course this term was to redesign the in-class exams such that they better reflect the POGIL activities which is why we see a significant decreases in appreciation for the previous year's exam, because they were dramatically different in structure with short answer versus fill in the blank and multiple choice. But still we see that, the highest rated tool for "promoting critical thinking" again this year was the course management page on Moodle... which again makes me question whether or not students truly understood the question "Which tools did you find were beneficial in facilitating critical thinking". But I was happy to see that the POGIL activities and case studies came in close. Student SALG Survey ResultsIn addition to the comparison of technology between the class in 2014 and 2015, I also looked at how the class of 2015 perceived their changes in the various skills tested by the CAT: (pre=blue and post=orange) As we can see in the results above, all of the students felt that they made gains in all of the various skills and based on a two sample with unequal variance T-test, we found the majority of the above gains to be significant. Again, I am anxious to see if and how these results correlate with the CAT test findings! Student EvaluationsIn comparing my student evaluations between 2014 and 2015, I also have found significant improvements particularly in the categories such as "The course improved my ability to think critically and reason effectively", "The course was organized in a way that enhanced my learning", and "The instructor's overall teaching effectiveness"; which I also hope is a reflection of the adjustments I made in approaching the flipped class between 2014 and 2015. Below are some of the comments and feedback provided by the students: Comments that made me smile: "Pretty well organized for how much stuff was needed. Lots of thinking by the students that was then reinforced by the teacher". (2015) vs "I think the class should be more lecture based. While the flipped idea is fun, I think that for a class with this much information, we need a lecture." (2014) "She has made students think critically every class period. She created a new spin to the science department at BSC". (2015) VS "A better focus on making sure students are learning rather than memorizing metabolic pathways" (2014) "I liked how she supplement the videos with some in-class explanations. The activities were pretty solid too; very helpful. The objectives were AWESOME". (2015) VS "POGIL activities - some concepts, actually most, were too complicated for the score of this course" (2014) "Forced us to reason through problems rather than simply memorizing facts"(2015) vs "More teaching in class" (2014) Comments that demonstrate challenges still exist: (besides the "I learn better with straight lecture" comments "Narrow the learning objectives to better match the exams, make the exams have stuff on them that we learned in class before taking it, link the activities in class with the material more" "I also never felt prepared for test despite strenuously studying" "What was on the test always took me by surprise" So while the above comments lead me to believe that the students do realize that the flipped model is improving their ability to reason and think critically, I think they are still very unsure of themselves when it comes to the exam and believe that they should still rely on rote memorization. Now I do have to defend myself, because in re-creating the exams, I pulled questions directly (and sometimes literally) out of their in-class POGIL activities. And from the first exams where the average test grade was a D, to the third and even the cumulative final exam grades averaged around a high B; i'd have to say that the students improved DRAMATICALLY on what are very challenging exams! Changes for next yearIn order to continue improving this course, I have came up with three modifications to test next year:
1. In the first week of class try to better model how the group should work together and the pattern of the activities. I think if we walk through the first two activities as a larger group step by step, it may help alleviate some of the stress and give them a rhythm to work with the rest of the term. 2. Consistently remind them that the videos are there to help introduce or explain course content while the in-class meetings are designed to help them see how that content is applied. (And they need not rely on just the videos, they have a text book and internet resources at their disposal as well). 3. Instead of requiring students to complete the video quizzes for credit, I will now have students write out their muddiest points for each video lecture/topic and submit them online (either through facebook or moodle) for a muddiest point lecture at the start of each class. While I consistently tell my students that I will address questions in my "muddiest point" mini-lectures every class meeting, I rarely actually get questions. Then at the end of the term, my students always ask that I do this more. So this way, by requiring the questions for credit, hopefully I can increase the engagement and help better address their needs for clarity. In terms of the exams, it is my hope that now, with the redesigned exam format from last year freely available to the students to analyze and study, some of the frustrations the students voiced will decrease. I have also implemented an objective alignment activity between the video learning objectives and the in-class learning objectives to help them see how they build and grow with each other to lead them to higher order thinking and then how those higher order critical thinking skills are what I test for in the exam. Overall, I am really pleased with how that class has progressed and am excited to see how it goes next year!! Also, stay tuned for the CAT results soon to come! Below, please find the pilot issue for the local Alabama section of the American Chemical Society! Interested in contributing to our new quarterly newletter? Please let me know at [email protected]! We will continue to take contributions for the spring issue till April 14th. Interested in joining the ACS, contact me as well for more information!
At the end of last fall term, I sat back and reflected on my student evaluations. Naively, I assumed my all students loved the structure and applauded my non-traditional teaching styles... lets just say my perceptions and my students' perceptions did not quite line up during or immediately following the course (even though I have had countless students admit to me now that the course helped them immensely on the new MCAT and in courses since and they now have a great appreciation for the structure).
As I sat looking at my evaluation ratings I noticed something interesting: Nearly all my students from the 2 Organic laboratories I taught that same term rated me as excellent in almost every category, while my Biochem students were widely spread between excellent and satisfactory. The two categories that had the biggest (and most alarming) disparities between the two courses were "Rate the instructors overall teaching effectiveness" and "The course improved my ability to think critically and reason effectively", where the vast majority of my lab students rated me as excellent and my biochem students gave me an average of "good", (and who wants to be just "good"?!). The interesting thing I realized, however, is that I approach my flipped biochemistry course much like I do a laboratory course in terms of teaching pedagogy. In both classes, students work in groups to solve a problem or reach an objective by applying content they learned outside of that room, and I circulate from group to group to facilitate their progress and answer any questions. And it was at this moment I realized I may know why my biochem students' perceptions where not lining up as my laboratory students' were...I thought: It may be possible that my students have an ingrained perception of how a "lecture" course should be approached by the instructor and of how a "laboratory" course should be approached, and the two should not overlap. So with that hypothesis in mind.... I made a number of environmental changes. 1. Get rid of the lecture hall environment
In this room there is a large touch screen MondoPad, two large HD TV's, a remote hosting/conferencing interface with two rotatable cameras, and modular tables and chairs on wheels that allow you to easily rearrange the room however you need it. It is perfect for my blended and active learning course. The three screens allows me to either transmit one screen throughout the whole room so that as I am working at the mondopad, all of the students in the room can follow me regardless of how they are sitting in the room. Or I can use each screen to house something different, for instance I can have a lecture video running on one, a guest speaker remoted into the class on another, and the mondopad can be used for notes or open to the class' Facebook page, or a web browser. Typically the three screens are all projecting what is on the mondopad and it has been verify helpful as I circulate from group to group to answer questions (which typically are all the same question) and I can easily refer to a figure or graph on the screen for each individual graph. I can also remotely access the mondopad from anywhere using my tablet... which allows me to hand off my tablet to a student and let them "write on the board" without physically getting up to the "board". In addition, with the ability to host and control the mondopad from my tablet and the ability to remote host into the classroom, I can still teach if I or my son is home sick. At BSC we actually had a faculty member who was in a pretty bad car accident teach his class for half a term from the hospital using this system (now that is dedication to our students!).
2. Get a Teaching Assistant
Having a previous year's student help facilitate the class has been immensely beneficial! Not only am I helping to solidify the TA's understanding of the material (teaching is at the top of Bloom's Taxonomy of learning), but I am also giving my students an opportunity to hear first hand how this method of learning has completely reshaped how this TA now tackles learning and problem solving in his current courses. During the very first class, my TA stood up and admitted that he didn't get it at the time, that he didn't 'buy in' immediately, and was worried that he wasn't getting what he felt he needed from the course. But now that he has taken the MCAT, and is taking more advanced senior level courses, he sees the value and relevance of the teaching method, that I wasn't just teaching him facts and bits of information for him to parrot back, but that I was teaching him how to solve problems, think more critically, and work within a group to discover something new. For a previous student to stand up in front of your new class and say that is like winning the gold medal in the Olympics for me! And at that moment, I think my students decided to "buy in" from the very start.
3. Continue to improve your lecture videos
Last year I made over 20 lecture videos while muttering the matra "its good enough". When you start from scratch, that is about all you can do. Those original videos were made using one take with a screen capture application on my tablet, are hosted on YouTube and would have resembled what an in-class lecture would be like. This year, I selected 11 videos that I will re-do in order to improve the quality and embed a quiz directly in the video.
These new videos are scripted, recorded, and edited using Camtasia and are now hosted through Screencast.com so that I can use, score, and aggregate data from the embedded quizzes in my videos. At the moment, hosting my videos through Screencast.com is costing me $10/month, where YouTube was free, but you can not track the quiz participation in YouTube and that is an important aspect in this approach for me.
Scripting the videos allows me to stay on topic ,which is always a little bit of a problem with me when I am just lecturing freely, and allows me to streamline my videos. Through scripting I can often take what was a 45 minute lecture video and compress it to 30 minutes with minimal "um's", "uh's" and other distractions. I also find my sound quality is better in these videos as I am using a headset now to record, minimizing background noise. The post recording editing allows me to further polish the videos by cutting out excessively long pauses (again, shortening the video and keeping the pace consistent), and inserting graphics and text to emphasize or point out aspects of the powerpoint. I can also splice multiple videos together if I decided to add something later. Next year I hope to re-do the remaining 12 or so videos. And then the year after that? Well, I am sure I will continue to select a handful of videos each year to improve and modify, because like I said... who wants to be "just good enough"? 4. Make sure your learning assessment reflects your learning objectives.
Last year my exams consisted of a take home short essay and an in-class multiple choice, fill in the blank and short answer exam. While I felt the take home short essay and short answer sections aligned well with my learning objectives to help increase the application of course content through critical thinking, problem solving and self-teaching in my students, the majority of my in-class exam fell short of that and reflected mainly content memorization. So in an effort for my learning assessment to reflect student learning, I am redesigning the in-class exams so that they resemble more of the in-class activities where one question builds upon the other and applies the content so that not only do they need to know the information, but that they know how to apply it in a more relevant context. The take home short essay portion of the exams have been pulled out and combined into a semester long literature review where students select a disease to study in depth throughout the term. This project incorporates peer review as well to help share information and give the students some experience in providing constructive feedback. My hope is that by increasing the alignment between the course structure and how they are assessed for a grade, they are more likely to find the in-class activities more relevant to their learning and become more invested.
5. Don't give up.
Flipping a very content heavy course such as Biochem is not easy, and at most institutions this course is typically very large in terms of enrollment, which by nature gives it a high workload. And by adding video quizzes, daily graded in-class assignments, a literature review term paper, and short answer heavy in-class exams, it may seem unfeasible, but it isn't. Is it harder? Yes. Hell yes. But in the end if it is done well and the students have invested themselves in this approach, you will have a group of students who will begin to see the merit and their capability in becoming life-long learners equipped with the critical thinking skills that is now required for any post-baccalaureate career. And that my friends is worth the effort.
Overall, I feel that the changes I made this term have helped tremendously to keep student frustration low and engagement high! And to ensure that we are indeed improving critical thinking skills of our students, my colleagues (Dr. Pete VanZandt and Dr. Melanie Styers) and I are assessing the impact of flipped teaching on critical thinking in our students using the CAT test developed by Tennessee Tech. This study was funded through a Blended Learning Grant from the Associated Colleges of the South and the results should be available next spring! Until then, happy flippn' teaching to you all and may your fall semesters continue to be challenging but exciting! You may have recently seen this Fortune article floating around on social media where Katharine Zaleski, President of PowerToFly, publicly and honestly apologizes "to all the mothers I worked with". Her article details her own embarrassingly discriminatory treatment and perceptions of working mothers in which she admits: "For mothers in the workplace, it’s death by a thousand cuts – and sometimes it’s other women holding the knives. I didn’t realize this – or how horrible I’d been – until five years later, when I gave birth to a daughter of my own." I hope this article simultaneously disturbed and resonated with you as much as it did me. I, much like one of the women her article describes, proudly display artifacts of my life outside and within my office which do include numerous photos of my toddler son. And why not? His picture adorns the bulletin board by my door just as my recently published articles, news clippings I find interesting, and flyers for campus activities I find beneficial for my students. And I cringe to think that a colleague, student, parent or administrator would judge me incompetent for a project or a job just because I also happen to be a mother. Fortunately, I have found myself in a working environment that embraces all walks of life, encourages individuality, and is fully supportive and flexible for the working parent! (I say parent because at my college, our administration and colleagues recognize that parenting does not start and end with the mother, but also impacts and enhances the life of the father... something we tend to forget and take for granted). Now while I have been fortunate to work in an environment that supports the working mother, I am fully aware that other mothers do not. Time and time again I have heard egregious statements in which working mothers were passed over for promotions based on the assumption they could not travel or were unable to handle extra responsibilities, or not encouraged to go after promotions because they are perceived as unreliable. I have heard of young, recently married women not getting hired for the job because it is assumed they will get pregnant soon after and then take maternity leave, then quit. I have had women express to me concern about telling their employer that they are pregnant because it may negatively impact their career. I even had a recently unemployed friend struggle about whether or not to tell potential employers that she was pregnant during the interview for fear that it would cost her the job, because" who wants to invest in training a person who is just going to take maternity leave and maybe not come back". As the article mentions, this pervasive perception of working mothers is not only held by men, but by women as well. I know women who can not fathom "giving up their career for children". For some reason they feel immediately following the birth of a child, a woman becomes unreliable, ineffective and unable to handle the immense responsibility of a career and therefore can only stay at the entry level position or just stay at home all together. Therefore, the woman feels she must choose between her career and her children. Again, part of this misconception is due in part to the misconception that parenting starts and stops with the mother because in no way do working fathers traverse this perceptual landscape of choosing one or the other. And again, I must say, this is where I am fortunate; because not only does my husband help out at home by picking up our son from daycare, by cooking dinner on most nights, and with other chores, he is constantly supportive of my career choice, When I travel for work (which I do at least 3 times a year) or work late to meet with students, colleagues or community partners, I never have to worry "what will I do with my kid?"... because my kid has his dad who is just as capable of parenting as I am. So it seems, despite laws preventing discrimination in the hiring, promotion and firing of working mothers in the workplace, the public mis-perceptions that working mothers are unable to handle careers is still pervasive enough to force women to place limitations on themselves. It forces them to feel that they must make a choice "Career or Children". So in an effort to help encourage women who are struggling with this choice themselves I came up with the PROMOTE Challenge. In this challenge, I am asking working moms, who work at all levels and in all disciplines, to create a photo diary following one day in their lives. Using these photo diaries, we are showing other women what a work day is like for a variety of working mother and we can then dispel some of these unfounded and unfair misconceptions. The PROMOTE Challenge will also create a supportive network of working mothers who love and find purpose in their careers as much as in their families, reminding all of us that although the life of a working mom is far from easy, it is exceedingly rewarding. Below, you will find my photo diary, and although my day to day is hardly reproducible because the life of an academic in the sciences is hardly consistent, I feel that it is still a good representation that not only am I a freaking fantastic and dedicated mother and wife, I am also a fabulous and hardworking scientist, educator and mentor. My PROMOTE Photo Diary:So there is a day in my life as a professional working mom. Is it busy? Yes! Do I ever feel overwhelmed? Yes.. often and sometimes daily! Don't things get neglected? Yes.. I cant remember the last time I vacuumed. Its not perfect, no life is because we are by nature not perfect. But I am blessed to have a great and wonderful supportive husband, a career I find immensely full-filling and exciting, and now a son who gives me even more purpose and drives me to be the best human being I can be.
If you would like to participate in this challenge you can either send me your photo story, or create your own and share on social media with #PROMOTEchallenge . Lets encourage all women to lead the lives they feel called to lead regardless of public misconceptions and maybe we can challenge the world to promote working moms! #PROMOTEchallenge As Chemistry faculty in a small private liberal arts college just miles from a medical school that ranks 22nd in the nation, I have noticed that 90% of my chemistry and biology majors are pre-health. When I accepted my position at BSC, I was asked to continue the Medicinal Chemistry course (CH418) within our department. In my previous experience as a student I have found that a traditional MedChem course consisted mainly of the in depth analysis of various organic chemistry reaction mechanisms, sprinkled with a little discussion on drug targets, drug sources and pharmacokinetics. Although I believe the traditional Medicinal Chemistry course is valuable for graduate school bound chemistry majors, I wanted to focus on some different learning goals. The following learning goals are ones that I felt would benefit my pre-health majors as they continued on to become nurses, doctors, physical therapists and dentists. And of course, still sticking to my flipped style of teaching, this course is designed very much around active learning, discussion techniques with pre-assigned readings from the text and peer-reviewed literature. From initial hit to market, a new compound has a long and arduous path that almost everyone in our society takes for granted. The number of various agencies, individuals and monies involved to develop safer and therapeutically more effective drugs is quite astounding. One day my students will be doctors prescribing these medications to patients; or nurses and pharmacists packaging, administering, delivering and counseling on these medications; and I want to ensure that they (1) understand the drug's pathway to the market, (2) understand why the drug is effective and how it works, (3) are able to evaluate and relay the pertinent information of that drug to a wide range of patients and (3) are able to effectively answer patient questions. Currently, our society is plagued with an ever increasing amount of scientific illiteracy and public distrust in modern medicine, our emerging generation of health professionals will be at the forefront of this battle, and we as their instructors and teachers need to equip them with sufficient knowledge and skills to be effective in this battle. In order to approach this learning goal, I have designed CH418 as a discussion based class with pre-meeting reading assignments. Our typical class meeting utilizes a variety of active learning techniques such as "Think-Pair-Share", POGIL, case studies, and "2-minute papers" in order to facilitate classroom discussions. At the end of class, I will sometimes assign a discussion board reflection to continue our conversation. For example, after creating a timeline of events for a drug's path to the market through classroom discussion, I then assigned each student a different stakeholder's role (e.g. Chemical Engineer, FDA Agent, Patent Attorney, Clinician, or Patient) and had them write a short summary of that stakeholder's role and responsibilities and a reflection of how interactions with that stakeholder may impact their own lives or careers. These reflections were then posted on our course management page and students were encouraged to read and respond to each other's posts. In order to measure students' success in reaching this learning goal, students will be given 3 take home exams consisting of short answer and multiple choice for content testing, and short essay questions to further explore their understanding and ability to evaluate, apply and communicate complex processes. In addition, I also utilize Sapling Online Learning to create weekly online homework assignments, as Sapling does not yet have a Medicinal Chemistry unit, I am working with my TA to help design a bank of questions.
Overall, I have arranged a guest speaker series bringing in 5 different professionals through out the semester, giving my students the opportunity to learn directly from the source, make new network connections, and discuss their questions with someone other than me. To see the schedule of speakers for Spring 2015, click here. To prepare my students for our guest speakers, I will assign one or two published peer-reviewed articles authored or recommended by our speakers and then have them post at least one question to our course message board prior to the event. Often questions in the take home exams will arise from these talks or assigned readings. In order to further understanding (and allow me another opportunity to assess their learning) students work on a literature review paper and prepare an oral presentation detailing the path to the market of a drug of their choosing. This project is assigned at the beginning of the semester and students are given detailed guidelines, rubrics and a timetable of assignments to follow and opportunities for peer review in order to help keep them on track. During the last week of class, students then give oral presentations summarizing their findings to the rest of the class, and questions from these presentations do show up in the final take home exam.
Although this class strays from the path of a traditional medicinal chemistry course, it does so to service my non-traditional students. In this course students are able to utilize a variety of resources from peer reviewed literature, texts, and guest speakers to explore in-depth current topics related to medicinal chemistry. So far, the students seem to enjoy the course, they have found the guest speakers engaging, and our classroom discussions have been pretty productive! I will report back at the end of the term how the course reviews go! Till then, happy studies everyone! |
Kate HaydenAs an educator, researcher, wife and mother, I am dedicated to developing and assessing innovations in chemistry education, medical diagnostics, and the biophysical characterization of non-helical DNA structures found in the non-coding regions of the genome. Archives
February 2019
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