Poster Abstracts

University of Wisconsin

Delta Program in Research, Teaching and Learning

The Delta Program in Research, Teaching, and Learning is the implementation of the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) on the University of Wisconsin- Madison campus. The Delta Program is designed by and for graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, faculty, and academic staff in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Delta’s mission is to improve student learning in STEM, to prepare graduate students and postdocs for success in future faculty positions, and to enhance the broader impact of research programs. Delta is founded on three core pillars: Teaching-as-Research, Learning Community, and Learning-through-Diversity. Teaching-as-Research applies to the investigation for student learning and the improvement of teaching. Learning Community builds a collaborative, interdisciplinary, and intergenerational community of teachers and learners. Learning-through-Diversity recognizes the rapidly increase diversity of STEM classes, the resultant advantages for student learning, and the new skills required to realize those advantages.

Delta’s commitment to Learning-through-Diversity, as one of its three pillars, is evident in the inquiry which permeates its courses and programs. Delta participants are taught how to ask questions such as, “Who are my students?” and “How do I know everyone is learning?” through the variety of courses and programs offered. Delta offers five courses: College Classroom, Informal Education, and Effective Teaching with Technology, Instructional Materials Development, and Teaching Biology: Diversity in the College Classroom. Delta offers a variety of programs, including Expeditions in Learning, Creating a Collaborative Environment (CCLE), Roundtable Dinners, Delta Certificate Program, and the Delta Internship Program. Further, Delta offers various workshops, such as the Teaching and Learning Portfolio Workshop Series and Broader Impact Workshops. We highlight four representative stories from Delta’s courses and programs to demonstrate how the Delta offerings enhance and enrich participants’ perspective and understanding of diversity. The four offerings that we explore in this poster are the Internship program, the Roundtable Dinner, the Effective Teaching with Technology course, and the Creating a Collaborative Learning Environment program.

The Internship story tracks one student’s participation in Delta, and shares the diversity statement he developed through his participation in the internship program, which he uses in his Delta Teaching and Learning Portfolio. The Roundtable Dinner story examines how the “Teaching Chemistry: The Intellectual Challenge of Diversity” in April 2004 allowed participants to learn about science in the context of frequently overlooked ethnic diversity. The CCLE story tells explains how a discussion framed around an article on “American Values” gave light to how American Culture plays out in the participants’ lives and in the lives of others who are citizens of the United States. The Effective Teaching with Technology story describes how technology, such as goggles that simulate a visual disability, can provide participants with a more thorough understanding of physical diversity by allowing them to experience it first hand.