I developed the following teaching plan in Delta's "College Classroom: How to Teach Inclusively for Educating a Diverse Nation" course in Spring 2017. The final assignment was to create an inclusive lesson plan and present it as a microteach to the class.
This artifact is a microteaching lesson plan from a Delta course, College Classroom: Teaching A Diverse Nation. The goal of the microteaching was to develop an inclusive lesson plan for a course of your choosing. I developed a short lesson intended for the first day of a general chemistry course. I presented the microteaching to my instructors and peers in the classroom, but have not executed it in an actual general chemistry course. The objectives of the lesson were to introduce concepts of growth-mindset and science identity to the students, though I didn’t have that exact language at the time. The goal was to confront the stereotypes of who makes a good scientist, and combat this stereotype by introducing students to a variety of scientists from different backgrounds. Students were then to prepare short presentations on these scientists that would be shared in future classes. I also provided an example presentation that I would show. It focuses both on the scientist as a person and also shares some of their scientific discoveries.
This microteach was the culmination of the second Delta class that I had taken, in my second year of graduate school. This was still fairly early in my journey of taking coursework and workshops related to teaching. I didn’t have a lot of the vocabulary that I now have to describe the goals of the lesson, nor did I lay out specific learning objectives and assessments related to this activity (it was not backwards designed). However, I really like the idea behind this activity and would like to continue to refine it and eventually use it in my own classroom. Over the past two years, inclusive teaching and learning through diversity have become themes at the forefront of my teaching philosophy. This microteach reflects my interest and dedication to these themes since early on in my journey, and also can be coupled well to new activities and lesson plans I have developed since.
The lesson plan for this exercise lays out clear learning outcomes for the activity, as well as motivation and objectives. I made a point to acknowledge that different people have different learning styles, and make the assignment open to different ways the students could prepare and present their final product. It provides potential scientists to study, and also opens it up for students to choose their own and provides resources on where to find additional scientists. Preparing well thought out, organized and clear lesson plans is another inclusive teaching practice that I show here and will continue to prioritize in the classroom. The project will help contribute to a positive learning community for students through the presentation process. I am hoping that by having all students both participate in the creation of a presentation on one of these scientists, and also hear the presentations from their peers, that students will feel that their identities are supported in my classroom, both by myself and their peers.
I believe I could continue to improve this lesson. In the future I would change the learning outcomes to more specifically correspond to different levels of Blooms taxonomy, as well as define how I would assess those learning outcomes, incorporating a clearer backwards design approach for the activity. I would also consider affective learning outcomes that could apply both to this activity and the class in general, and determine how to assess if those affective learning outcomes are also being met. I could do this by incorporating the activities and assessments that I developed as part of my Teaching-As-Research internship project, which include assessments of how student attitudes about science evolve over the course of the class.
First day of class in a General Chemistry, undergraduate course. Expected class size around 20-30.
The first day of class is an extremely important one for setting a tone of inclusivity and community within the classroom. I would like to practice an introductory exercise meant to highlight the contributions of a diverse group of chemists. This will happen through a demonstration on my part, followed by group presentations.
The 1 hour class would consist of brief intro to the course, go through the syllabus with students and take questions. I then would ask students to draw what they think of when they hear the word “Scientist” or “chemist”, give a presentation of a real chemist, then introduce the project of presenting a chemist, and give students time to work on their presentations in class. Students will be asked ahead of time to bring a laptop or tablet if they have them. I will also provide resources about renting laptops and tablets from the library for those who may not own them. I will point students to the Royal Society of Chemistry’s “175 Faces of Chemistry” webpage, where they can begin their research for their presentations (http://www.rsc.org/diversity/175-faces/)
My microteach will include the exercise of describing a scientist, my short presentation of a chemist, and the project outline that would be given to students. This microteach is based off of the idea that when people think “Scientist”, they often think of a crazy white man with crazy hair in a lab coat. They don’t often see themselves as scientists. This is perpetuated by the lack of attention on the contributions of diverse people to the field of chemistry. To combat this, I will explain this phenomenon and emphasize the importance of diversity in chemistry. To set the tone for a classroom and a subject where all identities are valued and validated, I will present on the contributions of a real scientist, and then assign students groups to prepare presentations for the next class. This exercise meets several purposes: to start to create community and respect for identity in the classroom, to broadly introduce the field of chemistry, and to help students get to know each other. Students will have the option to choose from a variety of presentation styles, not just powerpoint. This will allow students to choose the presentation style that works best for their learning style. I will go through requirements for citations explicitly, so that if there are students who are unfamiliar with citing work, or international students where the expectation is different, everyone will be on the same page, without singling anyone out. I will also encourage students to ask critical questions about the scientists and science presented, even in my own example presentation. I will stress to the class that science isn’t as objective as people think, and the people who do science, even their teachers, are still just people – they may make mistakes, or proceed in a manner different from how others may. This will hopefully both encourage a community where all students are free to engage with each other respectfully, but also one where they are welcome to question the teacher as well. Presentations will be given to the entire class, not just small groups, so that everyone gets to see the contributions of this diverse group of scientists. Presentations can include pictures, quotes, sound clips and video as long as they are properly cited (and we will go through citations in class). Presentations can be powerpoint, skit, video, mock interview, book, song, etc – if presentation style preferred is not listed here, students can ask the teacher if that style is acceptable. Students may also request to do their presentation on a specific chemist if they feel passionately about that person’s identity and contribution to the field.
Needed for microteach:
Inclusive teaching practices:
Learning outcomes:
The presentations should answer the following questions about their given chemist in around 10 minutes:
Potential scientists for the presentations:
Celebrating Diverse Communities & Contributions in Chemistry
Just as chemistry is a diverse field of science, the chemists who have contributed to this vast field are a diverse group. The first assignment of this course will focus on exploring the contributions of a diverse group of chemists, and appreciating how their various backgrounds played a role in who they are and how they ended up in the field.
In groups of two, you will prepare a presentation on a given chemist. The presentation can be in any form of your choosing – Presentations can be powerpoint, skit, video, mock interview, book, song, etc – if presentation style preferred is not listed here, you can ask me if that style is acceptable. You can suggest your own chemist to do your presentation on, choose from the list below, or browse http://www.rsc.org/diversity/175-faces/ to learn more.
The presentations should answer the following questions about their given chemist in around 10 minutes:
Learning outcomes:
Scientists to choose from: