Archives: Instructional Examples

Binyomin Abrams, a professor of chemistry, and Edray Goins, a professor of mathematics and statistics, use Piazza and Overleaf, which in particular, brings STEM-specific collaboration to a centralized digital space. Both professors utilize its LaTeX editor, anonymous posting, and customizable polls to encourage peer collaboration.

Professor Binyomin Abrams started the Abrams Research Group, which provides question-embedded videos for K-12 and college-level science education. Questions on foundational concepts are embedded at key points throughout Abrams Research Group videos for students to informally assess their understanding of the material.

Kimberly Jackson, a professor of biochemistry, uses Aktiv Learning for Chemistry, which provides real-time results from students’ submitted answers and the top three most common mistakes on each problem, allowing instructors to immediately address challenges students are encountering.

Michele Hampton, a professor of economics, uses McGraw Hill Connect’s learning reports for this purpose. She teaches students how to read and interpret the data in the reports to assess their learning and progress. She also models for students how to use these reports by allowing the reports to shape her teaching. When the data reveals that a concept was challenging for many students, she uses that data to adjust in-class instruction time.

Michele Hampton, a professor of economics, uses Kahoot! to recap lectures and award students extra credit points if they make it into the top three of the class. Content can be tailored to student interests, and easily adjusted in real-time. Professor Hampton also incorporates celebratory music videos into her Kahoot! quizzes, adding an element of engagement and belonging to the activity.

Kimberly Jackson, a professor of biochemistry, uses ALEKS in her general chemistry courses, which includes an initial knowledge check for students to complete. Based on how much students know and remember from high school, she can adjust how she covers certain chemistry and mathematics concepts, and ALEKS will use that same data to generate a personalized study path for students.

Neil Garg, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and a group of UCLA students developed the app, Backside Attack, to help students learn the SN2 mechanism, a key concept for organic chemistry. The app mixes both games alongside assessment pieces to ensure that students can translate what they are learning to how they may be assessed in a course.

HollyAnne Lee, a professor of Mathematics and Statistics Education, and Professor Edray Goins use Slack and Discord workspaces to communicate with students. The ability to create separate channels for things like announcements and assignment reminders, alongside social connection channels like sharing life updates or photos of pets, creates a community that can help students better connect with each other and their professor.

One of Professor Neil Garg’s assignments asks students to identify a problem in STEM education to solve through a digital solution. QR Chem, a mobile-device compatible digital molecular model tool, was created through this assignment to provide a free, more accessible alternative to physical molecular model kits, which are required for many chemistry courses.

Kimberly Jackson, a professor of biochemistry, has developed culturally and socially relevant labs that create opportunities for students to share and draw from their cultural identities. She sets the cultural context for their organic chemistry lab, for example by having students read Audre Lorde’s book Journey, about her struggle as a queer black woman dealing with breast cancer, then applies that cultural context to hands-on learning as they try to treat breast cancer cells in the lab. In other examples, labs have centered on whiskey or black women’s hair. These labs can be made more accessible to students through virtual tools such as Labster, a tool Professor Jackson explored during the COVID-19 pandemic.