Workshop Program

Please plan to arrive in Northfield in time for the 5:00pm start time on Sunday, October 26th, 2025.

All workshop activities take place in the Weitz Center for Creativity Larson Meeting Room (236), unless otherwise noted below.

Jump down to: Monday | Tuesday

Sunday, October 26th

Participants arrive and check into their hotel (Fairfield Inn & Suites). Transportation to the workshop location is available for participants who requested walking accommodation.

2:00 – 4:00 PM (Optional) One-on-one Mentoring Sessions with Conveners (Weitz 236)

5:00 – 6:00 PM Welcoming Remarks, Introductions, and Icebreaker (Weitz 236) — Cailin Huyck Orr, Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College

6:00 – 6:30 PM Keynote (Weitz 236) — Lisa Kempler, MathWorks

6:30 – 7:15 PM Dinner

7:15 – 8:00 PM Convener Panel (Weitz 236) — facilitated by Dan Burleson, UT Dallas

  • Dessert and coffee available

8:00 PM Networking

Monday, October 27th

Breakfast at your hotel or in town. Transportation to Weitz is available for participants who requested walking accommodation.

8:30 – 8:45 AM Introduction and Goals for the Day (Weitz 236)

Quick tech check

8:45 – 10:15 AM Invited Talks: Session 1 (Weitz 236) — facilitated by Kelly Roos, Bradley University

Presentations (55 minutes)

During talks, participants are encouraged to record their impressions on: (in personal workspaces)

  • Teaching strategies you've used worth keeping
  • New approaches from the educator talks to consider for your courses
  • Surprises or new learnings
  • Unsolved teaching and learning challenges

Table Discussions (25 minutes)

  • Share briefly learnings from the talks: Approaches that work, new ideas, unsolved challenges
  • Each table crafts a sample computational learning outcome/goal for two course types:
    • Broad intro to engineering computing/programming course
    • Engineering- or Science-focused course with computation serving a supporting role
  • Monday table notes pages

Group Report Out (10 minutes)

  • A representative from multiple tables reports on 1-2 notable learnings from their table, one from each course type

10:15 – 10:30 AM Break

10:30 – 11:45 AM Learning Goals (Weitz 236 and additional spaces) — facilitated by Benjamin Bratton, Vanderbilt University

Presentation on learning goals (10 minutes) — Mitchell Bender-Awalt, Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

  • Learning Goals.pptx (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 132kB Oct27 25)
  • Setting learning goals leads to better alignment between activities and student learning.

Introduction to Affinity Groups (5 minutes) — Lisa Kempler, MathWorks

Affinity working group discussions (40 minutes)

  • Available rooms: Weitz 131 (seats 15), 136 (seats 20)
  • Discuss:
    • Desirable learning outcomes in general vs. computation courses (and which are easier and harder to achieve)
    • Specific learning outcomes for a course you teach

Individual Work (5 minutes)

  • Draft 1-2 learning outcomes for one of your courses or teaching activity in your personal workspace.

Group report out (15 minutes)

  • Return to Weitz 236 at 11:30 to report working group discussion results to the full group. (Consider showcasing 1 participant's learning outcomes).

11:45 AM – 1:00 PM Lunch (LDC Dining Hall)

  • We will walk as a group from Weitz to the LDC. Transportation is available for participants who requested walking accommodation.
  • We will go through the check-in and food lines, then gather to eat in reserved rooms at the back of the main hall.
  • If you want coffee after lunch, please take it with you from the dining hall.

1:00 – 1:45 PM MATLAB Teaching Tools (Weitz 236) — Ram Krishnamurthy and Laura Keen, MathWorks

1:45 – 2:15 PM Practice with Live Scripts, MATLAB Online, and GenAI (Weitz 236)

2:30 – 2:40 PM Break

  • 2:40 PM – Photo in the main workshop room
  • Refreshements and snacks available

2:45 – 3:30 PM Invited Talks: Session 2 (Weitz 236) — facilitated by Michele McColgan, Siena College

Presentations

During talks, participants are encouraged to record their impressions on: (in personal workspaces)

  • Teaching strategies you've used related to GenAI
  • New GenAI approaches from the educator talks to consider for your courses
  • Surprises or new learnings about GenAI in courses
  • Unsolved teaching and learning challenges

3:30 – 4:00 PM Affinity Group Discussions: Assessment of Learning Outcomes (Weitz 236)

  • Groups will discuss techniques, strategies, and challenges for assessment and also identify assessment challenges.
  • Participants are encouraged to use their workspace page to keep notes and work on assessment in their course or activity.
  • Affinity working group discussions
    • What approaches and tools do you use to assess student performance and learning?
      • Are these approaches effective?
    • What challenges do you have assessing student performance relative to your planned learning outcomes?
    • What techniques and tools can you adopt to help?
  • Individual Work
    • Spend the final minutes of the session thinking about an assessment plan for a course or teaching activity. Use your personal workspace page to keep notes.

4:00 – 4:15 PM Effective Teaching Activities, Peer Review, and Curriculum Development at the Workshop (Weitz 236) Dan Burleson, UT Dallas

4:15 – 5:30 PM Working Groups: Teaching Activity Development (Weitz 236 and additional spaces)

  • Make a contract: Spend a few minutes in your working groups sharing your specific plans for your curriculum development
  • Work individually to develop your ideas, working towards creating a plan and a presentable curriculum module/teaching activity on Tuesday morning.
  • Use your personal workspace page for notes and resources.
  • Consider how you will transfer your ideas to a structured format for sharing: Live Script, Teaching Activity, other deliverable
  • Rooms available: Weitz 131 (seats 15), 136 (seats 20), and 231 (seats 24)

5:40 – 6:00 PM Group Reflection and Roadcheck (Weitz 236) — Cailin Huyck Orr and Mitchell Bender-Awalt, Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

  • Information on reimbursement for stipend recipients
  • Tomorrow
    • Tomorrow's program
    • Shuttle for participants who requested a ride will leave the hotel at 8:15 AM.
    • Luggage van will leave hotel at 8:15 AM. We will bring your bags to the Weitz room.
    • Shuttle to the airport will leave at the conclusion of the workshop at 2 PM. This is the only shuttle.
  • Leaving Wednesday? Connect with others if you want to coordinate travel to the airport.
  • Road check
    • Dinner is at 6:30 so you can walk from here or by way of the hotel.

6:30 PM Dinner The Grand Event Center: 316 Washington St, Northfield, MN 55057

Evening Networking

Tuesday, October 28th

Breakfast at your hotel or in town and presumably, hotel check-out. Shuttles will be available for carrying luggage from the hotel to Weitz. Transportation to Weitz is available for participants who requested walking accommodation.

8:30 – 8:45 AM Roadcheck Summary (Weitz 236) — Lisa Kempler, MathWorks and Cailin Huyck Orr, Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

8:45 – 9:00 AM Overview of the Day (Weitz 236) — Dan Burleson, UT Dallas

9:00 –10:15 AM Individual Preparation: Teaching Activity Development and Completion (Weitz 236 and additional spaces)

  • Use this time to complete your teaching activities.
  • Participants should prepare to present their curriculum plans in an easy to follow format -- live script, slide, teaching activity, etc. -- for sharing with your group.
  • Ask for help, get tools questions answered, test your code.
  • Rooms available: Weitz 131 (seats 15), 132 (seats 36), and 136 (seats 20)

10:15 – 10:30 AM Break

10:30 – 11:45 AM Working Groups: Teaching Activity Sharing and Feedback (Weitz 236 and additional spaces) — Lisa Kempler, MathWorks

  • Working group participants will meet to review their curriculum/teaching activities and get feedback and ideas from their peers.
  • A subset of participants will present - 5 minutes to present, 10 minutes of feedback/discussion.
  • Rooms available: Weitz 131 (seats 15), 132 (seats 36), and 136 (seats 20)

11:45 AM – 12:00 PM Working Group Report-Out (Weitz 236) - Dan

12:00 –1:00 PM Lunch + Teaching Activity Wander (Weitz 236)

  • Participants with activities to share will display them at their tables for discussion with fellow participants.
  • Boxed lunch provided.

1:00 – 2:00 PM Workshop Synthesis and Next Steps (Weitz 236) Cailin

  • Thinking about your own experience since Sunday evening:
    • What's one way your teaching has changed or evolved?
    • What is something you've learned?
    • What will you bring back to your department, program or institution?  
  • Notes for this session - Mitchell is the notetaker
  • End of workshop evaluation

2:00 PM Shuttle to Airport (main entrance of Weitz at 3rd Street E and College Street S)