Summary and Setup
Welcome to our workshop! We’re so glad you’re here.
As you advance in your scientific careers, one of your responsibilities will be to pass your skills and knowledge on to others. You could do this in a formal academic setting, a semi-formal workshop like the one we’re in now, or via one-on-one instruction. In any setting, there are a series of principles and techniques that will help you teach in a way that others find effective and engaging.
This one-week training session is designed to help you learn these principles and techniques. Our five days together will involve a mix of lectures, discussion, small group work, and teaching practice. Due to our limited time, we will focus on helping you develop a brief lesson with your peers, but these skills can be extended to longer and more complex courses.
As we designed this course, we utilized the very concepts that we will be discussing over the next one week.
Logistics
We will meet every day from November 24th to 28th. Class will run from 9am to 4pm every day, with lunch break around 1pm. We will meet at the MAP office - Conference room.
Pre-Course Survey
Before we begin, please take a moment to fill out the pre-course survey.
Post-Course Survey
Before you leave the room on the last day of the course, please take a few minutes to fill out the post-course survey.
Schedule (Subject to change)
| Day | Subjects |
|---|---|
| Monday November 24 |
Welcome and Introduction |
| Tuesday November 25 | |
| Wednesday November 26 |
Lesson Plans & Crafting Content |
| Thursday November 27 | |
| Friday November 28 |
Group presentations |
Group Work for Live Coding
Over the course of this workshop, you will collaborate with your peers in small groups to develop a short lesson from start to finish. This includes how to identify your target audience, determine what content to teach, and create an assessment-based curriculum for that content. Because much of our work involves programming, you will also learn how to effectively teach using the live coding method. Over the last two days of the session, groups will lead the class through their short lesson and receive feedback.
Take some time today or tomorrow to create a group of two people. Make sure all of your are familiar with the same programming language (R). Begin to think about something you really enjoy about your programming language that you might like to share with others. Whatever it is, it must be small! Examples include:
- how to make a specific type of plot (line, scatter, bar, etc)
- how to customize the color scheme of a plot
- how to convert from one date-time type to another
- how a single function can help solve a common data cleaning problem
In the coming days, you and your group will decide on a specific thing you’d like to teach and begin building your curriculum from there.
Over the course of the workshop, when you see a section labeled Group Work, it’s a sign for you to assemble with your group members to develop a new part of your curriculum.
On Friday, each group will take us through their lesson. You will have 30 minutes total to introduce your topic, teach it with live coding, and deliver a brief assessment. Afterwards we will have 10 minutes of feedback before moving on to the next group. This is a short amount of time, so the topic of your curriculum must be very concise. We will work together to pick an appropriate topic for each group.
Code of Conduct
To make clear what is expected, everyone participating in The Carpentries activities is required to abide by our Code of Conduct. Any form of behaviour to exclude, intimidate, or cause discomfort is a violation of the Code of Conduct. In order to foster a positive and professional learning environment we encourage you to:
- Use welcoming and inclusive language
- Be respectful of different viewpoints and experiences
- Gracefully accept constructive criticism
- Focus on what is best for the community
- Show courtesy and respect towards other community members
If you believe someone is violating the Code of Conduct, we ask that you report it to The Carpentries Code of Conduct Committee by completing this form.
Learning Objectives
After attending this training, participants will be able to:
- teach with a growth mindset, and encourage a growth mindset in students;
- comfortably lead live coding sessions;
- design lessons and assessments using the principles of backward design.
Prerequisites
Before joining this training, participants should:
- have the latest versions of R and RStudio installed (see below).
- have some familiarity with programming in R, especially making plots in either language.
Software Setup
Please make sure you have a stable internet connection, then follow these steps:
R and RStudio
If you have not already done so, please follow the R setup instructions to download or update your R and RStudio.
Acknowledgment
This lesson was built using The Carpentries Workbench by Amelia Bertozzi-Villa and Punam Amratia. Much material was adapted from the Carpentries courses Collaborative Lesson Development Training and Instructor Training, while other material is original.