On February 27th, the School of Biological Sciences was host to the annual Southern California Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) meeting. PKAL is the STEM education branch of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). The meeting hosts, Justin F. Shaffer, Ph.D., and Brian K. Sato, Ph.D., constructed a program around the theme of “Integrating Teaching, Assessment, and Education Research to Enhance Student Learning in STEM” with the goal of attendees leaving the meeting with concrete plans on how to assess their teaching, similar to the work being published by many Teaching Professors in the Biological Sciences School. One hundred attendees from 28 higher education institutions and multiple STEM disciplines attended the conference, which featured a keynote address by Dean Mark Warschauer of UCI’s School of Education, as well as workshops run by faculty from UCI, UCLA, UCSD, and Cal Poly Pomona. The meeting was well received and produced many constructive conversations amongst attendees that will hopefully lead to future education research projects. This is another example of the Biological Sciences School making its mark as a leader in STEM education research.
Biological Sciences School Hosts the annual Southern California PKAL STEM Education Conference
March 14, 2016