SRVC 4890: STEM Education and Outreach Seminar

SPRING 2017 Wednesday 1-2pm

Instructor: Dr. Donata Henry

Email: droome@tulane.edu Phone: 504-432-6650 (cell)
Office: 431 Boggs Office Hours: M 1-3pm or by appointment

Course Description
This seminar is designed for interns participating in STEM education and outreach programs. The goal of this course is to
offer opportunities for you to discuss your internship experience and reflect on the issues faced by students, educators,
and other professionals in STEM fields. Well consider how outreach events may foster improved opportunities for people
and facilitate individual growth and career development.

Course Goals:
1) Identify concepts of professional identity and develop a level of cross-cultural competency.

2) Process and reflect on the internship experience and demonstrate an understanding of how to communicate
effectively and deal with challenges constructively.
3) Describe the role of experiential learning within the greater context of academic careers.

4) Be able to challenge concepts of gender, race, poverty, social justice, power, and privilege.

5) Be able to examine the private, public, and non-profit sectors answer to social need and how to improve the
opportunities for minority groups in STEM.
6) Develop personal skills to effect social change within and contribute to the communities in which students are
situated.
Course Objectives:
Synthesize your internship experience with other academic experiences in a series of reflective reflection essays.
Contribute to class discussions relative to both your internship and assigned readings.
Address issues of service and social justice in reflection essays and class discussions.
Course Requirements:

1) Class Attendance, Readings, and Participation

The course is structured in a seminar format, so you need to demonstrate active participation in class discussions.
Seminar attendance and participation are mandatory and will be considered as part of the overall internship seminar
grade. Extraneous cell phone and laptop use is distracting and not permitted during seminars.
Note: If you have more than one unexcused absence, your final grade will be negatively affected.

2) Reflections Essays
You are expected to submit reflection papers on your experiences during the course of the internship. Reflection essays
should integrate an academic analysis of the assigned readings with reflections on the internship experience.

There will be prompts for some reflection essays.

You are expected to actively reflect upon the context of your internship, the work you are doing for your partner, critical
experiences that affect your expectations, perceptions about the program and the population/community it supports,
competence youre contributing and skills youre acquiring, and any challenging experiences.

Reflection Essay Requirements

Reflection essays should be no more than 2 pages in length, typed in a standard 11pt font, 1.5 spaced. Essays should
be posted on Canvas.
If a reflection essay is not submitted by the due date, it will be considered late and will receive a 10% grade penalty
PER DAY LATE. Reflection essays are accepted late for up to one week from the due date.
The final reflection essay will take the form of an evaluation of the community partner.

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3) Internship Contribution
You should make a contribution to your partner that extends beyond the service you are engaging in this semester. For
example, Girls in STEM at Tulane (GiST) will benefit tremendously through conscientious contributions towards the
effective organization and implementation of our event. GiST interns are expected to accomplish at least one of the
following as part of their service:
1) Develop a welcome table (that you will run or recruit volunteers to run)
2) Develop a workshop (that you will run or recruit volunteers to run), etc.
3) Create or improve materials for the parent panel, GiST leaders program, etc.
4) Create a training manual for future volunteers

4) Supervisors Final Evaluation

Within the last 2 weeks of classes, your Site Supervisor will receive an email with a web link to the Supervisor Evaluation
Form. The form is to be completed and submitted by the last day of class.

7) Time Sheets
Interns must keep a time sheet of hours worked throughout the program. You must submit a time sheet mid-semester
(see date below).
Final time sheets must be signed by me and are ideally due on the last day of class. At the latest, you MUST complete your
internship hours by the week following the last day of class.

Timesheets should reflect a MINIMUM of 60 hours by the end of the semester (70 hours for PSYC, CELL, and NSCI
students). Our weekly meetings are not included in your service hours.

Note: Failure to complete the minimum number of hours will result in a loss of points on your final grade and an
nd
incomplete for the course. In addition, you will NOT satisfy the 2 tier of your public service graduation requirement. If
you are having problems completing hours, contact me.

8) Students Evaluation Forms

You will fill out an evaluation form at the end of the semester, which will address your overall experience as a public
service intern. This is considered an assignment. Just as supervisors have a chance to evaluate their experience with
Tulane interns and the Internship Program, I want to hear from you. Theres no right or wrong answers and I encourage
you to be honest and straightforward. The online student feedback form is available at
http://tulane.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_9vNxnI21CaV3kaN (see link on Canvas too).

Grading (out of 235 points)

Reflections 80 points
Engagement 50 points
Discussion guide 20 points
Intern Contribution 50 points
Student Evaluation Form 5 points
Site Supervisor Evaluation of Intern 30 points

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Course Schedule (Subject to modification)

Week Date Topic Readings and Reflections

1 Jan 18 Introduction Identifying themes
Syllabus
2 Jan 25 Post proposals for a reading and class discussion on Canvas
development
Fostering a Growth Mindset is Key to Teaching STEM by David Miller
Confidencecan it
Sex Differences in Math Intensive Fields by Ceci and Williams
3 Feb 1 help with scary
Due: Reflection #1. What can these readings teach us about our service
math?
objectives? Can we help foster positive attitudes? BATS is on February 4th
Learning Mindfulness by Solhaug et al. & Benefits of Yoga by Wang &
A mindful path to
4 Feb 8 Hagins (led by Elizabeth Prejean)
success
Due: Reflection #2 prompt posted on Canvas
Retention of Students from First Generation and Low Income Backgrounds
5 Feb 15
Socioeconomic by Paul Thayer (led by Carly Newfield)
and family factors Talking to Children About STEM Fields (led by Anne Nygard)
6 Feb 22
Due: Reflection #3 prompt posted on Canvas
Report on
7 Mar 1 Project proposal due; present to group
personal project
8 Mar 8 Ready, set All hands on board. GiST is on March 11th
African-American Women in Science by Sandra Hanson (led by Tadeo
Ramirez)
9 Mar 15
Math and Science Attitudes and Achievement by Else-Quest et al. (led by
Diversity in STEM Juntao He)
Women Rising; the Unseen Barriers by Ibarra et al. (led by Kristi Abbott)
10 Mar 22 Due: Reflection #4 prompt posted on Canvas
11 Mar 29 Spring Break
Full STEAM Ahead by Michelle Land (led by Kaitlyn Tholen)
Environmental Education (led by Phoebe Mendelson)
12 Apr 5 STEM to STEAM
GiST Get Out is Saturday, April 8th
Due: Reflection #5 prompt posted on Canvas
Science Facultys Gender Biases Favor Male Students by Moss-Racusin et al.
Does gender
13 Apr 12 The Unfairer Sex? (led by Edward Point)
matter?
Due: Reflection #6 prompt posted on Canvas
Afterschool Programs Make a Difference (led by Briana Santo and Weiyao
Wang))
Can we make it
14 Apr 19 Due: Student evaluation and Reflection #7. Are the afterschool/ outreach
better?
programs you are involved in working? Do they have benefits for Tulane
students as well?
Due: Reflection #8. Student evaluation. Brainstorm and record all of your
Group reflect on
challenges, ideas, suggestions, observations, etc. about the program, how it
15 Apr 26 service and final
went, and what could be improved or developed. Submit/ report on
wrap-up
personal project.