STEPMT Meeting Notes 7 / 18 / 05

Next meetings: 8/8 and 8/15 at 1-2 pm in Todd

I.July 29 Poster session – no meeting prior to that event!

  1. RSVPs. Brad reported that 22 people responded. He will send an email to those who did not respond on 7/18/05
  2. Bill will change the background on the poster and use boxes to highlight different sections. Karanthi will print it.
  3. Andri will contact participants about the number of planned posters and communicate this to Tom.
  4. Tom will ask Dianne to order tripods for the posters and large carboard backings to support the posters (at the bookstore).
  5. The plan for the poster session/lunch is to make it informal. As people arrive, the STEP team will greet them, they will look at posters. At some point they will be encouraged to find a table. During desert there will be a few laudatory words… then everyone encouraged to look at posters.

II. Issues for next fall

A. Update on status of course development

  1. Tom and Andri met with Mark Abolins on 7/19 at 3:30 pm about his course revision plan to talk about how it overlaps with the STEP mission. We concluded that he would work on the two projects he mentioned in the email to Ginger (attached). It is likely that he will take extra comp for work over winter break to work on the web-based exercise that will give preliminary results for another try on CCLI, then tackle the tornado study in summer. He will try to involve undergraduates wherever possible and needs an extra $500 for a consultant, and a few $100s for software. He is likely to apply for an instructional technology grant for next summer. It turns out that this may be the best way to reach geology majors because about 50% of them take Mark’s course and the web materials can be introduced in an upper division majors course as well!

Future reference: Refs to geoscience education: J. Geoscience Ed.; J. Geological Ed., georef

2. Andri will continue to bother Mike Sanger . He has not yet met with Earl Pearson. He is working on experiments from both semesters simultaneously.

3. Tom will speak with Saeed Foroudastan

4. Parker - update received, Judith Hankins

5. Zijlstra – Fall 2005

6. Ginger will speak to Bruce Cahoon about who might do another Biology course when she asks him about the T/L seminar.

B. Tom will take care of the STEP Info for New Faculty Orientation

C. Seminars – comments, changes highlighted

Teaching/Learning Seminar

Wed 11:30-12:25 / Title / Person / Confirmed ?
Sept 14 / DBLearning
Chemistry – funded from Office of Research
Biology - Genetics / Amy Phelps
Bruce Cahoon
Oct 12 / Writing about the Scholarship of Teaching / Ginger Rowell
Kim Sadler
Nov 16 / STEP Teams summer research: a multilevel learning environment /

Newsome

Chong

FALL 2005

Wed 12:40-1:35 / Confirmed ?
Sept 14 / Introduction to Research/Research Opportunities at MTSU / Andri
Sept 21 / Research in Different Disciplines / Will Langston
Sept 28 / Writing a Research Proposal (Put prior to URSCA date) / Bill Robertson
Oct 5 / Research Case Study: Geosciences / Warner Cribb
Oct 12 / Student Research Stories (Panel) (STEPmt, URSCA, REU?) / Megan Duffey
Jerry Oxsher
Oct 19 / Applying to Graduate School/ Getting Funding (Panel) / Mary Martin (Math),
Oct 26 / How to write a personal Statement for applications for graduate school, internships, jobs, … / Mimi Thomas
Nov 2 / Scholar’s Day Week / No Presentation
Nov 9 / Making a Research Poster (including instructions for printing) / Sid Sridhara
Nov 16 / Summer Research Internships (Panel) / Andri

For spring: T/L: Abolins, Mary Martin about curriculum

For Student seminar:

D. Laboratory course development

E. Update on STEP-IN

1. Paychecks (&TLSAMP) new paychecks are IN! Also, Sharpe decided to award $1000 to Amponsah

  1. Evaluations

Brad will email the evaluations to the appropriate people

3. Mentors

This is where we stopped.

Next meeting will focus on CBAS URC and Scholars Week. We’ll invite Robert Carlton.

F. Rethink academic year research awards

Look at Bill’s draft

G. Confirm workload plan

1. Ginger 1-3 credits

2. Bill 1 credit

3. Andri 1 credit

H. Scholar’s Week

1. UG scholar’s day

2. Speaker(s)

3. Encouraging participation

III. Analyzing 2004-05 data

A. Results of this year’s student research lunch seminar and implications

B.Graduation/retention data

C.Comparison with other universities?