Gain experience in a multi-section, case-based introductory biology course

Description: A great opportunity to gain experience facilitating discussion sections in a large, case-based course on introductory biology. Options for internship roles include:

  1. Structure, backward-design, and guest teach an existing case study (join the class for four days over two weeks, and attend two prep meetings with TAs), or
  2. work with faculty to align student-centered learning outcomes, and guest teach.

Semester(s): Spring
Institution: UW–Madison
Department(s): Integrative Biology
Intern background needed: Ecology, evolution, and/or plant physiology

Course: Introductory Biology 152, second semester of two-semester sequence
Course info: 220 students taking case and lab sections concurrently. Intern work would focus only on case sections.
Course time/day: Nine 75-minute sections meeting twice per week, some Monday and Wednesday, some Tuesday and Thursday.

Challenges a project might address include: The primary challenge we have faced is articulating and aligning specific learning outcomes for each case study. Primary instructors vary and case development is always ongoing, so standardizing this has been difficult. Helping to formalize this process would be an ideal challenge for an intern project to address.
Potential guest teaching topics/units: Anything involving ecology, evolution, and/or plant physiology.

Teaching strategies of interest: Entirely case-based curriculum, including collaborative learning and a writing-centric approach. Lead instructors use Socratic questioning and brief, just-in-time lecturing to facilitate student research and paper composition.
Teaching strategies currently used:

Please Contact: Julie Collins, jecollins4@wisc.edu