How to Teach STEM: Adelphi Leads Faculty Training

There’s an art to teaching science. That’s the idea behind the Mobile Summer Institute (MoSI) program, a series of workshops helping science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) faculty refine their classroom techniques and adopt approaches that are proven to improve student learning, encourage persistence and boost graduation rates among STEM students, especially those who are the first in their family to attend college or who are members of underrepresented groups.

This August, Adelphi will host its first Mobile Summer Institute—and members of the University’s science faculty are flocking to it. Twenty-three have already signed up, as have nine faculty members from nearby colleges.

“I have been interested in hosting a summer institute for years,” said Eugenia Villa-Cuesta, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology. “I have participated in one, and it was a life-changing event in my teaching career. I jumped at the chance to bring it to Adelphi when it was offered. I want my colleagues to have the same experience I had, and to help establish Adelphi as a leader on Long Island in training STEM teachers.”

Dr. Villa-Cuesta teamed up with two colleagues from the biology department—Lawrence Hobbie, Ph.D., and Jonna Coombs, Ph.D.—to organize the workshops. The three-and-one-half-day program will feature two national experts—Randall Phillis, Ph.D., from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Debra Pires, Ph.D., from UCLA—along with several trained facilitators. Workshops will provide an introduction to scientific teaching, and faculty members will leave with a lesson plan or activity they have developed at the institute. There will also be a half-day session for administrators, designed to provide background on scientific teaching practices and their impact on undergraduate education.

Adelphi is one of a number of prestigious universities that will be hosting MoSI programs, a list which includes Columbia, UCLA, Ohio State and North Carolina.