Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water: How to use lecture effectively and make more space for active learning (face-to-face and online)

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All the focus (and accumulating data) on the value of “active learning” and “student-centered” practices for retention and higher order thinking skills, could leave the majority of educators with a more traditional experience feeling frustrated and confused and at a loss about how to change things up. This frustration might be compounded by the fact… Continue Reading Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water: How to use lecture effectively and make more space for active learning (face-to-face and online)

Four Undergraduate Researchers Share their Work and Illustrate the Indisputable Value of the Experience

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 “My research experience taught me how to organize and complete my own experiment. I was able to follow my curiosity and learn all aspects of experimental design.”  – Daniel Pyrek, Environmental Engineering “The research experience with a great mentor, … was one of the most valuable learning opportunities at Cornell.”- Hyoann Choi, Biological Engineering  … Continue Reading Four Undergraduate Researchers Share their Work and Illustrate the Indisputable Value of the Experience

A Peer Educator Reflects on Personal Decisions, Challenges and the Importance of Inclusivity in the Transition to Online Learning when COVID 19 Changed our Worlds

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Graduating Engineering senior, Camelia Wu, considered her options when it was time to decide where to live after the Cornell Campus was closed due to COVID 19.  She chose to return home to New Jersey.  Though she lived off campus, and could decide to stay in Ithaca, she was without a vehicle, friends were all… Continue Reading A Peer Educator Reflects on Personal Decisions, Challenges and the Importance of Inclusivity in the Transition to Online Learning when COVID 19 Changed our Worlds

CELEBRATING OUR SENIORS: Academic Excellence Workshop (AEW) Facilitators are graduating and moving on! Best wishes and gratitude!

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Each semester we have to say so long to some of our most experienced and cherished AEW facilitators.  This year, at a time when we cannot give the in-person recognition that they deserve, we celebrate eight Cornell Engineering seniors for the dedication, time and expertise that they have shared with peers in core engineering courses.… Continue Reading CELEBRATING OUR SENIORS: Academic Excellence Workshop (AEW) Facilitators are graduating and moving on! Best wishes and gratitude!

Intrepid TA Development Consultants are Certain to be Needed in Uncertain Times

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in·trep·id      /inˈtrepəd/     adjective fearless; adventurous. (Origin:  late 17th century: from French intrépide or Latin intrepidus, from in- ‘not’ + trepidus ‘alarmed’. Source: Online Oxford dictionary) ELI TA Development Consultants are Cornell Engineering’s academic leaders of the future. Always intrepid, they are passionate about the craft of teaching and excited to become leaders and peer educators to improve teaching… Continue Reading Intrepid TA Development Consultants are Certain to be Needed in Uncertain Times

Putting the ‘Jigsaw’ Online: AEW facilitators implement the jigsaw on Zoom, create collaboration, and share ideas for adaptations

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Practitioners of student-centered learning will be familiar with the ‘jigsaw’. Jigsaws combine powerful collaborative strategies to increase retention and encourage construction of processes and concepts through critical thinking: 1) focused group discussion, and 2) teaching others. In the face-to-face environment, groups of 3 to 5 work together to solve a problem, explain a concept, or… Continue Reading Putting the ‘Jigsaw’ Online: AEW facilitators implement the jigsaw on Zoom, create collaboration, and share ideas for adaptations

COLLABORATIVE LEARNING: A SOCIAL ENDEAVOR

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Learning isn’t as simple as being ‘provided’ information and then immediately understanding it in all its depth and complexity, at least not for most people. There are tools and practices that can be used to facilitate various levels of understanding.  Using these tools effectively requires an awareness that learning most often occurs in a social… Continue Reading COLLABORATIVE LEARNING: A SOCIAL ENDEAVOR

Peer Educators Respond to COVID 19: AEWs are Online!

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Behind the BIG screens, the LITTLE screen:  Undergrads supporting undergrads in online Engineering courses We have been thrown into an unprecedented experiment in education. We have embarked on what Hodges et al. (2020) call Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT).  There are differences between intentional online teaching/learning and ERT; they have to do with the time available… Continue Reading Peer Educators Respond to COVID 19: AEWs are Online!

Greetings Cornell Community and World of Teaching and Learning!

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Welcome to Cornell Engineering Learning Initiatives ‘Edublog’.  Interested in active, engaged-learning? Best Practices for facilitating retention and critical thinking? Maybe you want to know about some of  the resources for supporting engineering students in their course work?  Is it possible that you have interest in working as a peer educator in the College of Engineering… Continue Reading Greetings Cornell Community and World of Teaching and Learning!