9 CIRTL-at-Vanderbilt: Teaching-as-Research Fellows and the Fisk-Vanderbilt Masters-to-PhD Bridge Program

CIRTL-at-Vanderbilt includes two high-engagement programs. The Teaching-as-Research Fellows program helps current and future STEM faculty develop their abilities to assess and evaluate student learning. Supported by faculty mentors and CIRTL-affiliated staff, graduate student Fellows conduct teaching-as-research (TAR) projects exploring aspects of undergraduate education. The Fellows gain assessment skills useful in their future faculty work, the undergraduate curriculum benefits from the innovations developed through the Fellows' projects, and the faculty mentors learn more about assessment practices along the way. This poster will highlight the "ingredients" of this program, such as a facilitator with TAR experience, a senior faculty champion, and funding for "topping up" awards, and encourage viewers to identify ingredients that would be most important for similar programs on their campuses.

The Fisk-Vanderbilt Masters-to-PhD Bridge Program is a collaboration between STEM faculty at Vanderbilt and Fisk University, a Historically Black University in Nashville. The Bridge Program is being developed as a model for significantly broadening the participation of women and underrepresented minorities attaining the PhD in the physical sciences through research-based partnerships. Since its inception in 2004, the program has admitted 50 students, 44 of them underrepresented minorities (all US citizens), 55% female, with a retention rate of 94%. Vanderbilt is on pace to become the top research University to award the PhD to underrepresented minorities in the astronomy, physics, and materials science. Already, since 2006, no institution awards more Master’s degrees to African Americans in physics than Fisk, and Fisk has become one of the top 10 producers of Master’s degrees in physics among all US citizens. This poster will describe the structure of the program and share the stories of a few of the Bridge Program students.