Summer Teaching Institute
Mobile Summer Institute on Scientific Teaching
The 2024 Summer Teaching Institute will take place in person June 3-6, 2024. Apply by May 3.
Each summer, UM offers the Mobile Summer Institute on Scientific Teaching (MoSI), typically during the first week of June.
The MoSI is an intensive 4-day pedagogical workshop focused on evidence-based teaching practices and curricular design strategies intended to improve learning for all students and reduce the disproportionate loss of underrepresented students from higher education. Research shows that use of active learning increases performance, decreases failure, and helps reduce the equity gap.
Scientific teaching (the science of teaching, not just teaching science) is a focus on effective, evidence-based teaching strategies for faculty who understand the importance of evidence-based approaches and want to spend time considering how this might impact their teaching, as well as those without any formal pedagogical training. It is a student-centered learning approach embedded in Backward Design, a curricular approach that places the focus on what students learn rather than what teachers cover.
The workshop covers topics such as Inclusive Teaching and Backwards Design, and also brings participants together to develop an original, peer reviewed course module that incorporates backwards design and learning activities on their chosen topic. They will be named Scientific Teaching Fellows at the end of the workshop.
All disciplines are welcome. If you are interested in participating or nominating a faculty member, graduate student, or postdoc for the institute, please contact Jasmine Laine.
Learn more about the Institute
"It has been a highly valuable workshop for me. I learned so much! and everyone was so kind and positive." - Summer 2020 participant
"I very much found it [the Institute] useful! There were some great ideas on making my classroom more interactive and student focused, and I really got a lot out of thinking about how to reverse engineer my lectures so I am more focused on ensuring my students learn exactly what I want them to." - Summer 2019 participant
"The program is very well-refined and was an efficient way to learn about theory and practice of scientific teaching. The program did an excellent job of pairing learning with doing, and I feel I walked away with some concrete ways to improve my own courses." -Summer 2019 participant
"The seminar was a revelation. It opened my eyes to a wide world of new and innovative ways to engage my students and enhance my teaching." - Summer 2019 participant
"I just wanted to reach out and thank you for the Scientific Teaching course you offered earlier in the summer. I am at the tail end of designing a new class we are piloting this fall...and have incorporated the ideas discussed in that seminar/course throughout the entirety of my curriculum. I am so super excited to see how it all goes, but know that the active learning strategies will help engage this student population in their learning of the material." - Summer 2019 participant
“My experience at a Summer Institute for Scientific Teaching changed the way I think about teaching. Scientists are trained to rely on evidence for research, yet somehow the notion of evidence-based teaching is not widely embraced. I worked with a group to develop a module (teaching tidbit) on the subject of the electrochemical gradient. This is a difficult concept for students, and indeed for some of the instructors in my group, but central for understanding the function of nerve cells, mitochondria, chloroplasts, and other topics in cell biology. Together we developed slides and activities to help students understand the underlying principles of the electrochemical gradient. I’ve used these lectures in my cell biology class for a number of years now, and consider them to be the best lectures I give.” -Mark Grimes, Associate Professor, DBS
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