Early Career Geoscience Faculty Workshop Program

Note: the 2010 workshop is over. Find out more about the Early Career Geoscience Faculty workshops, or scroll down for more information about the 2010 workshop, including links to most of the workshop presentations.

Jump down to Monday * Tuesday * Wednesday * Thursday * Friday

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Check in to the hotel (the Williamsburg Hospitality House ) at any time (your room might not be ready until 3:00 pm). Registration for the workshop will be in the William and Mary Parlor of the Hospitality House from 3:00-5:00; workshop registration for later arrivals will be at the Sadler Center during the reception, dinner, or the evening program.

5:30 Informal Reception, Sadler Center, Chesapeake A

6:00-7:00 Dinner, Sadler Center, Chesapeake A

7:00-9:00 Welcome and Introductions, Workshop Goals, Discussion, Logistics, Sadler Center, Chesapeake A


Monday, June 7

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7:00-8:00 Breakfast, Sadler Center Dining Hall

8:15-9:40 Preview schedule, Course Design, Learning Styles, and Teaching Styles (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 1.4MB Jun4 10), McGlothlin-Street Hall (MS) Room 20 - Rachel Beane and Heather Macdonald

9:40-10:00 Break, MS 20 Lobby

10:00-10:50 Interactive Lectures (Acrobat (PDF) 236kB Jun7 10), MS Room 20 - Greg Hancock (Department of Geology, College of William and Mary)

Watch a video clip of Greg's presentation:

11:00-11:50 Teaching Strategies: Concurrent Sessions: Participants will attend one session selected from the list below.

We will discuss the benefits and challenges of using interactive activities in a lecture class. We will demonstrate some short activities that actively engage a diverse and potentially unmotivated student group and that can easily be incorporated into lecture classes. And we will spend some time brainstorming about ways to develop and incorporate similar activities in your own classroom.

Integrating research into the courses we teach can help bridge the gap between our teaching and our research, and offer students a glimpse into what we do as scientists. In this session, we will explore strategies for integrating different components of research into courses. We will also explore how teaching can broaden the impact of our research.

Once you have laid the groundwork for your course for the semester, it's time to think about how to plan each day's class. Research shows that the most successful new faculty members work moderately on teaching, and this session will help you do that.

12:00-1:00 Lunch, Sadler Center Dining Hall

1:30-2:20 Teaching Strategies: Concurrent Sessions, McGlothlin-Street Hall: Participants will attend a session selected from the list below.

This session will focus on examples that build quantitative skills of students in introductory courses (including large ones). We will use a Mauna Loa CO2 example that helps students with tasks such as constructing best fit lines, calculating slope, and making predictions about future values. We will also look at examples that build other quantitative skills, such as testing the reasonableness of quantitative answers, and that help students overcome math phobia.

Often graduate students begin their graduate careers with little understanding of how research is performed from inception to its final products. In this session we will give strategies for quickly preparing graduate students for research, such as proposal writing, using real datasets, scientific collaboration, and peer review, in a classroom setting. These approaches can expedite student progress and streamline graduate student training for the faculty member.

2:20-2:40 Break, MS 20 Lobby

2:40-4:10 Designing Class Activities and Assignments: Concurrent Sessions. Sharing and reviewing teaching activities and assignments is a great way to grow and learn as an educator.

  • Designing Class Activities and Assignments: Reviewing One of Your Assignments. MS 20, Rachel Beane and other leaders. During this session you will share and receive feedback on one of your own class activities or assignments that you will submit prior to the workshop and will review activities or assignments submitted by others.
  • Designing Class Activities and Assignments: Developing and Reviewing Assignments. MS 230, Heather Macdonald and other leaders. During this session you will review two assignments written by others. You will then will brainstorm activities/assignments to teach one of several possible topics and review them based on criteria for effective assignments.

4:20-5:15 Taking Charge of Your Career, Overview of Individual Consultations, and Daily Roadcheck, MS 20, Heather Macdonald

5:30-6:30 Dinner, Sadler Center Dining Hall

7:00-8:00 Informal Session (optional) - Sharing Ideas about Specific Courses - Alumni House (open until 9:00 pm)


Tuesday, June 8

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7:00-8:00 Breakfast, Sadler Center Dining Hall

8:15-8:30 Report from Daily Roadcheck, Your Research/Scholarly Career, Sadler Center, Chesapeake C

8:30-9:40 Working Effectively with Research Students: Different Models, Chesapeake C - Richelle Allen-King

9:40-10:00 Break, Chesapeake B

10:00-10:50 Research Strategies: Concurrent Sessions. Participants will attend one of the sessions listed below:

  • Bringing Earth Sciences to the Community via Outreach Opportunities, Chesapeake B - Ron Metzger and Randy Richardson (also offered in second session)

We will discuss the educational opportunities that exist outside the college setting, ways to reach out to those opportunities, and the benefits of doing so. These opportunities include working with K-12 teachers, lectures for the public, local science workshops, local/state/national park programs, television, newspapers, radio, museums, teaching workshops (local/state/national, etc.), and research programs (where you're not the PI).

Doing research with undergraduates presents rewards and opportunities that sometimes differ from doing research with graduate students. In this session, we pose questions to ask of yourself and your students, summarize various models for designing undergraduate projects, and discuss some specific strategies and considerations.

  • Setting the Scope for M.S. Research Projects, James Room - Richelle Allen-King and Liz Ritchie

Working with M.S. students - taking the needs of your research program and the needs, experience, and abilities of your students into account and considering what is doable in a reasonable time frame.

  • Starting New Research Projects and Collaborations, York Room - Jen Roberts and James Farquhar (also offered in second session)

You have finished your dissertation or post-doctoral projects and you want to use the resources at your current institution to grow in new directions. This session will focus on issues involved with starting and funding new research projects that are in your own field or are broadening the scope of your research. We will discuss the complex nature of strategies for succeeding and establishing new projects (including interdisciplinary projects), and how matters like paying close attention to what we can actually accomplish and recognizing requirements and limits on reinventing ourselves and our research methods can be used to advantage.

11:00-11:50 Research Strategies: Concurrent Sessions. Participants will attend a session from the list below.

  • Bringing Earth Sciences to the Community via Outreach Opportunities, Chesapeake B - Ron Metzger and Randy Richardson

This session will discuss strategies to get your lab producing high quality measurements for your research program and will include obtaining or accessing necessary equipment as a topic. Additional specific topics will follow participant interests.

  • Starting New Research Projects and Collaborations, York Room - Jen Roberts and Liz Ritchie

12:00-1:00 Lunch, Sadler Center Dining Hall (12:15-1:00 - optional interest group discussions)

Lunch Discussion Topics

1:20-2:00 Connections, Extensions, Opportunities: Concurrent Sessions, Alumni House (one session in the Sadler Center). Participants will attend a session selected from the following list:

The logistics for getting the most out of taking introductory geology students into the field: planning, forms, stops, and assignments.

We often hear talk of the pressure to publish. That characterization of this vital aspect of our career does not acknowledge that we are drawn to our work by curiosity about the world and find great satisfaction from completing a research project and seeing the work published. Nevertheless, a laundry list of obstacles, which include a myriad of other 'urgent' obligations, limited time to devote to writing, feelings that our work is inadequate or incomplete, and negative reviewer responses, can add frustration to writing and contribute to the pressure mentioned above. In this session, we will discuss several practical strategies for preparing manuscripts and seeing them through review and into print.

  • K-12 Education and Working with Teachers, Chandler Room - Jim Ebert

In this session, we'll discuss some of the possible ways to get involved in working with earth-science teachers. Beyond service contributions, there are mutual benefits in "broader impacts", recruiting majors, and improving your own teaching.

  • Keeping to the Core Demands and Dealing with Our Own Human Nature, 2nd Floor Conference Room - James Farquhar and Jen Roberts (repeated in second session)

Whether one admits it or not, one's own human nature and the human nature of one's colleagues can become a worst enemy or a best ally. This session will be an open discussion of how issues such as jealousy, opportunity, following through and completing tasks, and follow up afterward can shape our careers and determine how we feel about ourselves and live our lives inside and outside the academic setting, seeking to address questions about how much is enough and when is it too much.

  • Responding Effectively to Student Writing (Acrobat (PDF) 74kB Jun11 08), 3rd Floor Conference Room - Sharon Zuber, Director of the Writing Center, College of William and Mary, (repeated in second session)

Evaluating writing takes time and students often think the process is totally subjective. We will discuss specific ways to give students useful feedback without being overwhelmed with work by sequencing assignments to build on student skills and using a rubric that sets students up for success and minimizes the time it takes to grade. Participants will be given handouts for teaching and evaluating writing.

2:10-2:50 Connections, Extensions, Opportunities: Concurrent Sessions. Participants will attend a session selected from the list below:

Sometimes we wonder if our students are responding to our teaching in the way we hoped. Or we might sense that a course isn't meeting our - or our institution's - expectations, but we aren't sure why. In this session, we will review methods - beyond grades and institutional evaluation forms - for assessing the effectiveness of our teaching, offer strategies for making changes, and discuss common questions.

  • Keeping to the Core Demands and Dealing with Our Own Human Nature, 2nd Floor Conference Room - James Farquhar and Jen Roberts (see description above)
  • Navigating Departmental and Institutional Politics, Chandler Room - Randy Richardson and Jim Ebert

Many colleges and departments, with diverse personalities, complex group dynamics, effective leadership distinct from positional leadership, generation gaps, and communication gaps, seem to be difficult places to navigate. This session will focus on developing your awareness of, and skill set for, citizenship and navigating politics in academic settings. We'll also discuss how to say "No" safely.

3:00-3:40 Tenure: Issues, Questions, and Answers; Daily Roadcheck, Alumni House, Leadership Hall

3:40-4:00 Break, Leadership Hall Lobby

4:00-5:30 Individual consultations, Alumni House (also in the evening, by mutual agreement)

5:30-6:30 Canoe Lake Matoaka, walk through the College Woods, tour the Keck Environmental Lab

6:30 Picnic Dinner at the Keck Environmental Lab

 

Wednesday, June 9

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7:00-8:00 Breakfast, Sadler Center Dining Hall

8:15-8:30 Preview of Day, Alumni House Leadership Hall

8:30-10:00 Developing a Strategic Plan for Research/Scholarly Activity (Acrobat (PDF) 111kB Jun14 09) - Richelle Allen-King

10:00-10:20 Break, Leadership Hall Lobby

10:20-11:30 Writing Proposals and Getting Funded (PowerPoint 268kB Jun9 10); Professional Introductions; Discussion ofNSF Visit

11:30-12:45 Lunch, Alumni House

11:45-12:45 Optional Interest Group Discussions

Lunch discussion topics

1:00-3:00 Moving Your Research/Scholarly Activity Forward: Funding and Other Issues (concurrent sessions) NOTE EARLIER AFTERNOON START TIME

  • Improving Research Proposals Through Review of Your Proposal Summaries, Leadership Hall - Richelle Allen-King and other workshop leaders
  • Improving Research Proposals Through Critique of Successful Proposals, Brainstorming a Proposal Idea, and Getting Feedback on Your Ideas, Pollard Room - Heather Macdonald and other workshop leaders

3:00-3:20 Break, Leadership Hall Lobby

3:20-3:30 Poster Instructions (Microsoft Word 30kB Jun14 09), Daily Roadcheck, Leadership Hall

3:30-5:30 Work on Poster, Individual Consultations, Alumni House

6:00 (or time you choose) Dinner in town (self-organized)

7:00-9:30 Work on Poster, Individual Consultations, Alumni House (open until 10:00 pm)


Thursday, June 10

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7:00-8:00 Breakfast, Sadler Center Dining Hall

All morning: Coffee in the McGlothlin-Street Hall Room 20 Lobby

8:15-11:00 Poster Session, McGlothlin-Street Hall Room 20

Show example posters

11:00-11:30 Poster Follow-up and Reflection

11:30-1:15 Lunch in town (self-organized)

1:15-2:15 Balance and Time Management (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 906kB Jun10 10), Alumni House Leadership Hall - making choices based on priorities, scheduling, and more.

2:15-2:30 Break, Leadership Hall Lobby

2:30-4:00 Strategic Action Planning

4:00-4:45 Next Steps, Recommendations, Concluding Remarks, andWorkshop Evaluation

What We Learned and How We Can Support Each Other

7:00 Dinner, Nawab Indian Restaurant, 204 Monticello


Friday, June 11

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Optional Visit to the National Science Foundation (NSF Visit detailed schedule)

6:45 am Bus departs from Hospitality House

10:15-10:50 Welcome and Introduction to NSF

11:00-12:00 Small Group Meetings with Program Directors

12:00-1:30 Lunch

1:00-4:30 Individual Meetings with Program Directors and Concurrent Small Group Sessions

4:30-5:00 Debriefing Session

5:15-6:45 Dinner

6:45 pm Bus departs from restaurant for Williamsburg