Excellence Everywhere - National University of Ireland, Galway

a relaxed format for talking about scienceStart a monthly film club. Invite your laboratory group to watch and discuss a science-related movie.Though there are many wonderful educational films, this works even better with an entertainingcinematic movie. The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has run a “Science in the Cinema” activityfor those who live near its Bethesda, Maryland campus since 1994, and has a long list of movies—mostly box office hits—and resource materials that will add to a lively discussion. The list can befound at http://science.education.nih.gov/cinema.More advice on creating a culture of teaching in your lab can be found in chapter 10, “Expanding YourInfluence: Training the Next Generation of Scientists.”Creating a LearningEnvironment in Your LabIn a very real sense, your laboratory is also a classroom—onein which the scientific process oftenresults in something new, exciting, or unexpected.In the lab, as in the classroom, you will often wantto avoid lecturing and giving trainees answerstoo quickly, and will instead prefer to emphasizequestions and encourage reflection. You can createa culture of learning in your lab for all trainees byusing some of the teaching strategies describedabove, and by encouraging members of your labgroup to learn from each other.Start a Journal Club. Journal clubs are a greatway to examine current literature and to let thosejust starting in the lab know that there are manyquestions left to be answered. Ask a member ofthe lab to select an original peer-reviewed journalarticle, distribute it in advance to the group,prepare an introduction to the paper, and provideany relevant or background information. If youhave a large group, lab members can break up intosmaller groups to discuss research-related issues(How good is the data? Should more experimentshave been done?), then reconvene and sharetheir thoughts with the group as a whole. Whileyour students are learning about experimentaldesign and other research issues, they will alsobe learning to collaborate and communicate.Ideally, journal club should be held on a weeklybasis, but if that is not possible, one good way tokeep everyone up on current literature is to askeach member of the group to present briefly theabstract of at least one paper at the beginning ofweekly lab meetings. (See chapter 4, page 58.)Time ManagementWhen Balancing Teachingand ResearchThe amount of time you devote to developingor teaching a course will depend in part on thepriority your institution places on teaching. If yourinstitution considers research its top priority, keepin mind that although you will want to be the bestteacher you can in the time allowed, you shouldnot permit your teaching obligations to undercutyour commitment to research. Volunteer to teachthe courses your department or institute particularlyneeds but are not as difficult to teach—thatway you can legitimately say, “Sorry, I am alreadycommitted” when you are asked to teach acourse that would be more time-consuming todevelop or teach.Even if you cannot reduce the number of hours,perhaps you could stack your teaching load sothat you teach all of your classes in one semesterand arrange to have a term with no teaching. Youmight also ask to teach multiple sections of thesame course to reduce your preparation time, andrequest graduate assistants to help you gradeexams. At the very least, you should try to clarifyyour teaching load. How many classes will youhave each term? What are typical enrollments ineach class? How much time will you be expectedto spend advising students or supervising thesesor dissertations? Does supervising undergraduateresearch count as teaching? How much creditdo you receive for teaching the lab sections of acourse? Armed with such knowledge, you mightbe able to make trade-offs that help you manageyour teaching load more effectively.118 excellence everywhere