Teaching opportunity for first year VU biomedical grad program
Are you interested in gaining teaching experience?
We have an opportunity for postdoctoral trainees and senior graduate students (4th year and above) to act as assistant facilitators in the first-year IGP* curriculum. During the 9-week period when the assistant facilitators will be involved, the coursework will cover weekly themes within the central dogma, genetics, and cell signaling. In small discussion groups, students will discuss scientific papers, work on problem sets, and identify open research questions based on the literature. Assistant facilitators will help run discussion sessions with groups of ~12 students, will facilitate the sharing of peer feedback, and will grade some assignments.
During the first 5 weeks (Aug 25th to Sep 20th), assistant facilitators will help run paper discussions on Tuesday and Thursday mornings (9-11am). During each of these sessions, the facilitators and students will discuss a single scientific paper related to the week’s theme. During the next 4 weeks (Sep 27th to Oct 21st), assistant facilitators will lead discussions on Tuesday and Thursday mornings (9-10am) and Friday mornings (9-11am). On Tuesdays and Thursdays, they will lead the discussion of problem sets based on each week’s content and assigned paper. On Fridays, they will facilitate discussions where students will present their ideas of open research questions based on the literature and provide peer feedback to one another.
Responsibilities include (i) reading the assigned papers/questions and attending a weekly orientation session with the theme leaders; (ii) facilitating 4 hours/week of discussion amongst the student group both in the absence and presence of a faculty facilitator; (iii) grading student answers to questions about the paper (first 5 weeks) or problem sets (last 4 weeks) using a provided answer key/rubric; and (iv) assigning peer feedback groups and monitoring the delivery of peer feedback.
Participation in this opportunity would provide valuable experience in multiple aspects of teaching including material preparation, discussion facilitation and assessment. Training and compensation will be provided for all assistant facilitators.
Interested individuals should obtain permission from their PI and email Madhvi Venkatesh for more information (madhvi.venkatesh@vanderbilt.edu).
*Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences
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