So excited to be co-facilitating a learning community called Equitable pedagogy: Removing barriers to learning. We will meet once a month throughout the academic year, and hopefully bring in a diverse group of faculty and staff to discuss inclusive classroom practices. For fall semester, we will be reading Kevin Gannon’s “Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto”
I am excited to share that I have taken on the role of Digital Accessibility Coordinator in the College of Natural Science. My responsibilities will include managing academic accessibility needs for NatSci courses, providing guidance on digital methods for teaching, providing professional development to faculty and staff, and networking with IT and other accessibility folks on campus. I look forward to promoting equitable and inclusive pedagogy practices in our STEM classes.
I wrote a Tweet about an exam, which lead to being featured in MSU Today!
It is disappointing to share that we need to again cancel the Brain Bee at MSU. At this point, there are still restrictions for minors attending campus functions, and the pandemic is still rolling. We need to prioritize the health and safety of our students and community. We hope to be back for 2023!
It’s official!
My Foundations of Neuroscience, Open Edition is published by MSU Libraries and Pressbooks. I am so excited that this work can now be shared and used freely in the neuroscience community.
Foundations of Neuroscience is aimed at undergraduate students new to the field of neuroscience. The first edition specifically targets students enrolled in Neurobiology at Michigan State University and primarily contains topics covered in that course. For example, only three sensory systems are discussed in this version of the text. Future editions will continue to expand the number of topics and concepts presented (see below for a list of planned topics).
Following the principles of Universal Design for Learning, multiple means of representation will be provided for students to engage with the content. Clear, accessible text will be divided into short, easily digestible chapters that focus on one concept. Numerous images and animations will be paired with the text, and a captioned video version of the text is shared for each chapter. The text is written with the undergraduate student that is new to neuroscience in mind. Neuroscience terminology will be introduced in an easy-to-understand manner, and supporting content will be clear and concise to minimize cognitive load not associated with understanding new material.
Each chapter will end with an interactive quiz for student self-evaluation of the content. All quiz answers (i.e. both correct and incorrect) will provide feedback, so students can self-check their understanding at the end of each concept and receive immediate feedback about their learning.