I received notice recently that an NSF grant I applied for has been funded. I am PI, working with co-PIs Alfinio Flores in Math and Harry Shipman in Physics. We are creating a first-year experience course that combines big ideas in science, with applied, non-calculus math, with technology and communication activities. Our UD media did a nice story on the project, so look here for more details: NSF TUES Grant Story.
This past week at UD, the President and various academic officers held a retreat to consider innovations in teaching and to set an agenda for the coming years with regard to teaching excellence. I was a member of a faculty panel that explored such issues as flipping the classroom, teaching monster sections, trends in online and hybrid education, project-based learning, and other topics. Attached here is my video presentation–delivered as a video recording, since I am in Santa Fe and not Newark.
My comments on teaching in technology rich classrooms and issues associated with teaching professors at UD who are not on the tenure track.
In early July, 2012, I had the opportunity to attend the hemispheric problem-based learning conference in Cali. About 300 attended, many from Brazil and Columbia, but also from the U.S., the E.U., and from Chile and Peru, where PBL is well established.
There is a lot of interest in active, engaged approaches to learning. It was impressive to hear about efforts at the University of Sao Paulo to train 1,000 public school teachers in a cohort, with discussions of doubling the size. Faculty from Maastricht University in the Netherlands spoke convincingly of the evidence for PBL in terms of learning outcomes, and faculty at Javeriana University in Cali offered terrrific demonstrations of learning centers geared to PBL: a simulated hospital, a simulated supermarket, and a simulated stock exchange.
At UD, we have continuing interest in PBL from faculty on and off campus. We’ll have a workshop in January, 2012, likely focused on STEM problem writing. Our faculty leadership team has been traveling to present workshops on various campuses.
Our Academic Technology group at UD created a video to feature a newly designed classroom in Gore Hall. My teaching assistant, Elizabeth Downs, and I talk about and show off the space:
Bernhardt and Downs from Gore 218 hosted by UD Capture
I’ve talked about teaching in this space in various Bedford Bits posts. The most relevant blog post is at this link.
Welcome to my homepage. I am consolidating content here, including some of my articles, teaching materials, and information on aspects of my consulting and training work. If there is something you’d like to see here–a paper, presentation slides, a syllbus–let me know.
I recently accepted a joint appointment with our College of Health Sciences, directing special initiatives for Dean Kathy Matt. We are planning for a new Heath Sciences Complex, where the College will move over the next few years. We will share the site with a science and technology park on a 280-area site shuttered Chrysler assembly site that is just now being cleared. We are pursuing various business partnerships to build a green, healthy living campus.
I stepped down as chair a couple years ago and resumed life as a contented faculty member. We are in the middle of a national search for a new chair.
