The MAPS Teaching Interest Network Kicked Off by Showcasing What We Do Well

Despite it being a busy week of preparations for the upcoming term, teaching fellows and academics from the Faculty of Mathematical & Physical Sciences gathered to hear the teaching successes from each department and gain inspiration from each other.

After an introduction to the Network by the chair, Prof. Dilly Fung (UCL Arena) gave an overview of the UCL Connected Curriculum initiative, as well as highlighting the opportunities available from Arena for teaching staff, such as fellowships (accredited by the Higher Education Academy) and funding for pedagogical projects. It was emphasised that, while the Connected Curriculum strands need not necessarily be treated as a definitive checklist, students should be given the opportunity to learn through active thinking, discovery and research throughout their degree programme, and that the curriculum should be inclusive and global. More information on the Connected Curriculum initiative can be found on the website and in Dilly’s book: “A Connected Curriculum for Higher Education” (2017, UCL Press).

Next up was Dr Paul Bartlett from the Department of Physics & Astronomy, who continued the theme of students as researchers. He described how, from year 1, students in the department undertake research roles by creating new undergraduate practicals, building up to completing a research project in the third year with publishable results.

Following on from Paul was a “commercial break”, with Dr Stephen Potts from the Department of Chemistry talked about the department’s adoption of the e-book platform, Bibliotech. After a year’s trial of providing e-texts to chemistry students, the impact on their reading habits was notable as they tended to read more around the subject. The chemistry texts are available to all UCL students and staff via the Bibliotech website.

Bringing the discussion to integrative learning was Dr Ali Mozaffari from the Virtual Department of Natural Sciences. He described the support mechanisms for Natural Science students relating to introductory mathematics and then went on to describe a vertical module in the programme that helped develop scientific research skills (see the Moodle page for more information). Despite being a zero-credit module, the best team is awarded a Dean’s Prize. It was interesting to note how an element of competition could really increase engagement with the activity.

The last (but by no means least) of the departmental talks featured a double-act of Dr Elinor Jones and Dr Matina Rassias from the Department of Statistical Science, who described their strategy for teaching statistics to students from other disciplines. They tried a flipped-classroom method, where students would watch a self-paced video created using Articulate Storyline software (available to UCL staff at a reduced rate) prior to the lecture. The software has substantially more functionality that most standard packages, allowing quizzes to be embedded, for example. The use of videos freed up face-to-face teaching time for workshop-style activities. They will try a more conventional lecturing approach to compare the impact of the flipped classroom method in the coming year.

To round off the session, we had the second of our invited speakers, Prof. Andrea Sella from the Department of Chemistry, who talked about the citizen science project: #UCLChemAirPoll. The project arose from the problem that undergraduates were not getting a proper feeling for research from their practicals because there was a defined “right” answer. This project changed that perspective. The first-years were given the group task of making diffusion tubes that use a reagent to capture the nitrogen dioxide in the air. They were sent to primary schools to talk about air pollution and aske the pupils where they should site the tubes. Four weeks later, the students collected the tubes and measured the NO₂ content of the air using colourimetry and the Beer-Lambert law, exploiting the fact that the captured NO₂ forms a highly-coloured azo dye with certain reagents. The project really opened the students’ eyes to research, teaching and key environmental issues, as their reflective reports demonstrated. Many were keen to continue the project into their second year.

Overall, the event was well received and some useful links were made between departments. The Teaching Interest Network will be holding more events in the future, so keep an eye on the website for details.