Research Interests
My principle interests are science
laboratory curricular design and undergraduate student
assessment.
Institutions such as the University of Calgary, which have large student enrollments,
pose interesting challenges when designing lab exercises. Labs that promote
active participation and critical thinking through experimental design, execution
of procedures and evaluation of results have been shown to benefit student
learning better than traditional approaches. My goal is to design exercises
that stimulate interest in and deep learning of the course material for our
undergraduate students. In addition, I wish to provide our graduate TAs an
opportunity to actively participate in the education of their students and
learn sound pedagogical practices.
Assessing learning is a critical component of any lab course and has unique
challenges when this responsibility lies with graduate student TAs. It is a
particular challenge to demonstrate critical assessment techniques to a large
group of TAs who vary in their own background, experience and interest in teaching.
My goal is to develop methods that aid our TAs in learning how to assess students
in a fair and consistent manner. My major project in this area is the development
of a rubric for the grading of student laboratory reports.
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