University of Wisconsin–Madison

Tag: learning

Innovative teaching practices encourage students in STEM

Like many seniors majoring in biology, Christian Hernandez is pursuing the pre-med track. However, he nearly didn’t make it past his freshman year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
As a Latino first-generation college student, Hernandez says he had no role models to help him achieve his career goal: to change the face of medicine in the United States. But then he took Physiology 335.

No joke: Chemistry thesis transmuted into comic book

As thesis writing approached, University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student Veronica Berns faced a conundrum. She knew how hard it was to describe her work to friends and family — indeed, anybody outside the tight clan of structural chemists. And that was particularly true since she concentrated on a category of should-be-impossible structures called “quasicrystals.” However, Berns liked drawing and using “normal, English-language words,” and so about a year before graduation, she opted to accompany her traditional Ph.D. thesis with a comic book version.

UW–Madison offers free Leopold’s land ethic online course and February event

The University of Wisconsin-Madison will offer its next round of six Massive Open Online Courses beginning Jan. 26 with “The Land Ethic Reclaimed: Perceptive Hunting, Aldo Leopold and Conservation.” MOOCs are free online, noncredit learning experiences that allow people from around the globe to participate. Participants watch educational videos, engage in discussion forums, read articles and often take quizzes or complete educational activities. More than 135,000 registrants from approximately 140 countries and all 50 states signed up for UW-Madison’s previous phase one pilot of four courses.

‘Career Kickstart’ kicking off next year at Ogg Residence Hall

Graduation is years away for many students, but it’s never too early to think about what comes next.
Starting fall 2015, Career Kickstart will offer a head start for thinking beyond the diploma. Available to students who have completed their first year, Ogg Residence Hall will provide tools for those eager to work on career development.

‘Active learning’ takes center stage at School of Nursing

The classroom is changing. Massive lecture halls used to mean you could sit quietly in the back, with rows of fellow students perched above a lecturing professor. But you won’t find any lecture halls in the School of Nursing’s Signe Skott Cooper Hall. For students at the new Active Learning Classroom (ALC), the learning is — well, active.

Report, experts analyze surging STEM activity at UW-Madison

A recent report on instructional activity in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) disciplines at the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows significant advances in enrollment and degrees since 2000, which campus experts attribute to a number of factors, including job placement, greater career opportunities and enhanced teaching methods.

WISCIENCE to expand possibilities for science education, outreach

The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Institute for Biology Education is announcing its expansion to become the Wisconsin Institute for Science Education and Community Engagement, or WISCIENCE. The new mission extends across the natural sciences and expands responsibility for facilitating cross-campus collaboration and coordination in the areas of science outreach and support for groups underrepresented in science.

Highlights start early in four-day Wisconsin Science Festival

You name it, and the fourth annual Wisconsin Science Festival has it all — dance, star-gazing, fossils, art, museum and stage shows — spread over four days and venues in 25 Wisconsin cities. While the curious of all ages are immersed in hands-on exploration, and visitors marvel at the research underway and specimens on display around campus and the state, several of the festival’s marquee events may be of interest to faculty and staff on campus. The festival runs from Thursday through Sunday, Oct. 16-19.

Phi Beta Kappa Society recognizes Wisconsin Science Festival

The Phi Beta Kappa Society’s National Arts & Sciences Initiative will recognize the Wisconsin Science Festival with a Key of Excellence Award at a special reception and ceremony Oct. 16. The honor, which comes with a $10,000 cash award, is conferred in recognition of a strong record of interdisciplinary success. “The Key of Excellence showcases …