Plenary Sessions

Dr. Barabino brings her deep insights on the STEM higher education landscape. Here, we will discuss the many pressing issues, situations, and circumstances that are either advancing or derailing our efforts to reform undergraduate STEM education – especially as we look forward to a new, peri-COVID era of teaching, research, and leadership.

In this plenary presentation, Dr. Zakrajsek will focus our attention on implementing innovative and effective active learning strategies. In addition, this session will also bring forth some of the myths about active learning that Dr. Zakrajsek has debunked through his research; and present us with alternative ways of thinking about active learning, particularly as it relates to understanding how active learning strategies can disproportionately impact (positively or negatively) our STEM students from marginalized communities.

Our closing keynote address will feature Dr. Christina Maslach who will share insights from her research on burnout. Dr. Maslach’s decades-long work in this area will not only shed light on burnout but also offer us a fresh understanding of its root causes and move us toward better matches between what STEM faculty do and the institutional contexts where their work is done.