TLT Symposium reflection: is teaching essentially real life Inception?

Apologies for the bizarre title, but one line from the movie Inception (2010, directed by Christopher Nolan) that impressed me the most, was "You need the simplest version of the idea, one that will grow naturally in the subject's mind."

The keynote talk of the symposium was focusing on how to instill an idea and make it last in someone else's mind, defined as SUCCES, or Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Stories. The part of the talk that impressed me the most, was his demonstration of how to make your papers, ideas, talks, presentations and other communications "stick" with the audience. As a PhD candidate I have too many occasions where I had to give an "elevator speech" when asked what my research focus is, as well as other occasions such as teaching, seminars and writing manuscripts for submission. I have been unconsciously some of the SUCCES idea, but hearing the idea demonstrated in such a easy to understand and relate manner (essentially, the talk itself was a fine example for SUCCES), was beyond inspiring.

After the keynote talk, I went to three seminars focusing on introducing new technologies (VR, shared educational resource, and remote education). Variability, as a characteristic of successful teaching, has been on my mind for a while and I found the idea of implementing new technologies very refreshing, but also challenging, and in some cases limiting.

Reflecting on the experience, I found myself wondering how to incorporate SUCCES into the discipline of plant science. This field of study calls for a lot of hands-on experiences and some form of autonomy to convey and digest the knowledge better. Bite-sized information may be more effective when it comes to more theoretical classes, but taking notes in a lecture in plant science is only half way done. Traditionally the course design in plant science includes lab sessions, and field trips. But after taking some inspirations from the new technology seminars, ideas such as incorporating VR or AR into teaching plant science, such as displaying a time lapse video of plant growth in virtual reality, could be a good variation from conventional lectures, provide a "story" like context, and still convey credible information.

I was very excited to have the chance to learn about ideas and participate in discussions with other educators. The take-away from this experience will provide me with some inspirations, if I get to design a class in the future.

Designing a syllabus focusing on the hands on component

Before getting into this topic, here's a brief background: syllabus is not popular in Chinese universities. The course instructor usually tells the students how the grade will be given between quizzes, midterms and finals, and that was as close as students can get to a syllabus. Course projects are fairly rare in the course design procedure, and therefore not considered a part of performance evaluation. College education in China is very different, but the one aspect that stood out was the lack of autonomy on the students' part.

I experienced a little bit of a cultural shock when I walked into the classroom for the first class I took at Penn State. The teaching assistant handed the students a syllabus, detailing the course schedule, course objective, evaluation standards, contact information of the instructor, and resources students may find useful.

It never crossed my mind that a syllabus would be so helpful in the learning experience of students. When the opportunity of designing a syllabus came up during AEE530, I was very excited, as I could finally put down what would be an ideal syllabus in my opinion.

I chose to create a syllabus for a class I took two years ago (Plant Ecology, HORT450). The class was no longer offered since Dr. David Mortensen retired. But the idea of combining lectures, experiments, field trips, and most importantly, a student-chosen final project has become an ideal system to design a class that inherently involves a lot of hands-on practice.

Keeping the idea of maximizing students' experience as much as possible, I put down the course objective, resources, and evaluations plans emphasizing that students can choose their own final project ideas. Speaking from my own experience, being able to know in advance the topic/activities of a certain lecture is very helpful for me to prepare my study. I incorporated that into a weekly schedule of what the lectures or field trips will be about.

The peer review response I received was mostly positive, with comments like "this is a class I'll be interested in taking, if I have background in plant science". During the deep dive process, Jesse also gave me a similar remark. I was glad to say that I feel like this would be a helpful and tangible class for the students to take.

Student introduction: Xiyu Yang, Ph.D. candidate in Horticulture

Hello everyone!

My name is Xiyu Yang, currently a second year PhD candidate in Plant Science. I work with Dr. Jonathan Lynch, focusing on identifying and probing the ideal crop root phenotypes.

I finished my undergraduate study in Plant Genetics and Breeding at China Agricultural University. I had been focusing on biology and chemistry since high school and the choice of studying biology in the university seemed like a natural choice. I applied for a few research intern and assistant positions during Summer breaks throughout my college years, and the idea of going to grad school started to formulate.

I applied to the master of science program in Plant Science at Penn State in 2015, and finished my master's with Dr. Lynch in 2017. Given the minimal opportunities in the job market as an international student, and driven by the idea of further study and research, I continued into the Ph.D. program.

I love the idea of teaching in college after my PhD, but realized I'm not at all knowledgeable in teaching. Taking this class has been a positive step towards that goal and studying the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) has been incredibly helpful thus far!