Autumn Quarter 2011 - 2012

Each year, Stanford is invited to nominate students for a variety of merit-based national scholarships and fellowships for undergraduate or postgraduate studies and research. Opportunities include the Beinecke (arts, humanities, social sciences), Goldwater (engineering, mathematics, natural sciences), Truman (all fields), Udall (environmental studies, Native American/Native Alaskan health care or tribal policy), and the Carnegie Junior Fellows Program (international affairs).  

If you have encountered students with outstanding accomplishments in academics, research, the arts, or community service, please encourage your students to meet with a professional advisor in the office of Undergraduate Advising and Research early in Autumn Quarter. Advisors will assist these students in identifying opportunities and guide them through the application process. Further, if you are interested in working with campus partners in selecting the campus nominees for this year's scholarship and fellowship competitions, UAR warmly invites you to participate in one of the selection committees. For additional information, please contact Vivienne Fong at vivienne@stanford.edu.  

CTL Faculty Fellows Program

The Center for Teaching and Learning is delighted to announce a major new resource for our faculty users and for CTL programs--an expanded Faculty Fellows (FF) Program. Faculty Fellows serve several roles--working with CTL staff on projects to enhance the teaching and learning resources and community for Stanford faculty, TAs, and students; acting as informal advisors on CTL programs, services, and new initiatives; and serving as contacts for faculty here on campus and for colleagues elsewhere. We invite faculty to contact the Fellows regarding their area(s) of focus and also to consider, for the future, whether they would like to spend time on a teaching-related project along with the Fellows or as a Fellow themselves.  

The 2011-2012 CTL Faculty Fellows and their areas of focus are: 

• Robert (Bob) Calfee: uses of tablets, digital pens, second-language acquisition software and other technology to enhance teaching and learning
• Thomas (Tom) Ehrlich: the Study of Undergraduate Education at Stanford (SUES) and its implications for the culture of teaching on campus and a new CTL initiative, "How Learning Works" (further details in the next newsletter).
• Sheri Sheppard: the teaching development of both early career faculty (through Course Design Boot Camp) and graduate students/postdocs (through E312/CTL312: Science and Engineering Course Design) and the "How Learning Works" initiative.
• Lee Shulman: conversations and projects on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL), the application of research-based approaches to teaching practice
• Jennifer Summit: designing teaching orientation and course design programs for new humanities faculty; promoting curricular revision and innovation in humanities departments; and exploring the constructive use of learning outcomes and assessment for improving student engagement in the humanities.   

Quarter-Long Programs - Each quarter, one Stanford professor serves as Faculty-in-Residence in each of the BOSP program locations. These faculty teach classes in their own disciplines, developing courses that incorporate unique features of the local culture and environment or that provide comparative perspectives on a particular topic. General information about teaching overseas is available on the BOSP website; after December 15, 2011, information on applications for the 2013-2014 academic year will be available on the web site. Applications for Faculty-in-Residence appointments are accepted from any current Stanford faculty member who belongs to the Academic Council. For questions, please contact Trudi Reinhardt at (650) 725-0232 or treinhardt@stanford.edu.

Three-Week, Faculty-Led Seminars - Faculty-led Seminars have been re-instituted by BOSP and will be offered on a limited basis in Summer 2012. The 2012 faculty leaders have already been selected for seminars in:  Brazil, India, Netherlands, Tanzania, and Turkey.  Information on applications to lead a seminar in Summer 2013 will be available on the BOSP web site after December 15, 2011. For these seminars, faculty leaders design and deliver a course in their own discipline in an overseas location where they have prior experience. These BOSP Overseas Seminars are two-unit classes offered for three weeks during the summer. For questions, please contact Naoko Sakata at (650) 725-0236 or nsakata@stanford.edu. 

Over the past few years, student demand has far outstripped the supply of Introductory Seminars in the fields of engineering, business, law and education. If you are interested in teaching a Freshman or Sophomore Seminar, especially in one of these targeted areas, we encourage you to begin planning now and in Autumn 2011. The February 1, 2012 deadline comes so early in Winter quarter that many faculty have regretted that they missed out on this teaching opportunity due to the timing of the proposal process.

Effective seminars provide students an opportunity for intensive intellectual engagement without prior advanced specialization, and they produce unexpected fresh perspectives on the subject as well as lasting relationships between faculty and students. For seminar development information, check the Introductory Seminars website or contact Russell Berman, director of the Introductory Seminar Program at berman@stanford.edu. Funding is available for course development assistance.

Video - Technology-Enhanced Teaching: Clickers 

Midterm Student Feedback 

You have your calendar in one hand and your content in the other. Are you ready to design your course? Join CTL staff and Stanford faculty colleagues on Tuesday, November 1, and Tuesday, November 15, 2011, noon-2:00 p.m. as we discuss strategies for course design that maximize student learning opportunities and help resolve conflict between content coverage and short calendars. Bring an existing course or ideas for a new course. We'll apply concepts from the November 1st discussion to course materials or syllabi on November 15th. You will leave the sessions with insights and improvements specific to your own courses. Pre-register online, for questions, contact Robyn Dunbar at robyn.dunbar@stanford.edu.  

The Center for Teaching and Learning's lecture series, Award-Winning Teachers on Teaching, invites faculty winners of Stanford's major teaching awards to deliver a lecture on a teaching topic of their choice. On Thursday, October 13, 2011, from noon-1:00 p.m. in the Hartley Conference Center, Mitchell Earth Sciences, Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor Andrea Abernethy Lunsford will give the first AWTT lecture of the academic year: "Teaching in the Digital Age: What's Collaboration Got to Do with It?" Professor [Emeritus] Channing Robertson, Chemical Engineering, will speak Thursday, November 3, 2011. His talk is titled, "Why do students call me Yoda?" Please look for additional AWTT lectures to be announced in our Winter and Spring newsletters.    

A great way to meet colleagues from other departments and gain practical teaching tips is to attend one or more sessions in our Teaching Lunch series. CTL provides lunch for these informal gatherings, and the topics are set by the faculty participants themselves.  

Science and Engineering Teaching Lunches   

Mark your calendar for Tuesday, October 20, 2011; Wednesday, November 30, 2011. Time and location and to be announced. For more information contact Robyn Wright Dunbar at  robyn.dunbar@stanford.edu. 

Humanities Teaching Lunches

Mark your calendar for Tuesday, October 18, 2011, 12:15-1:30 p.m. in Sweet Hall, Room 403 or Friday, December 2, 2011, 12:15-1:30 p.m. in Sweet Hall, Room 303.  For more information, contact Mariatte Denman at  mdenman@stanford.edu. 

Social Sciences
Faculty in the Social Sciences are welcome at either of the above or can contact Marcelo Clerici-Arias at marcelo@stanford.edu to start a Social Science series.   

SURPS 

The 10th annual Symposium of Undergraduate Research and Public Service (SURPS) will take place on Thursday, October 20th, 2011 in the Arrillaga Alumni Center from 3:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. More than 100 student presenters will show posters about their research and creative projects. This will be an unparalleled opportunity for students and faculty alike to talk with undergraduate researchers about their independent projects across a wide range of disciplines.   

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the event, a panel of alumni undergraduate researchers will be on hand to talk about the impact their projects have had on their intellectual and professional lives since leaving Stanford. All members of the Stanford community are cordially invited to attend and learn more about the range of original work these students are undertaking, and about where these exciting experiences can lead. Students interested in presenting can learn more at the SURPS website.