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Tricks of the Trade: Navigating Teaching Opportunities in the Research-based Engineering Ph.D.

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Conference

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Columbus, Ohio

Publication Date

June 24, 2017

Start Date

June 24, 2017

End Date

June 28, 2017

Conference Session

Student Division Development of Professional Skills Technical Session

Tagged Division

Student

Page Count

13

DOI

10.18260/1-2--29046

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/29046

Download Count

575

Paper Authors

biography

Ana Cristina Estrada University of Virginia

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Ana Estrada is a PhD Candidate in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia. She earned her undergraduate degree in Bioengineering from Rice University in 2013. She currently works on computational modeling of post-myocardial infarction cardiac growth under the mentorship of Dr. Jeff Holmes.

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biography

Lindsey Taylor Brinton The Ohio State University

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Lindsey Brinton is a Postdoctoral Researcher at The Ohio State University in the laboratory of Dr. John Byrd. She earned her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia in 2016. Her dissertation research under the mentorship of Dr. Kimberly Kelly focused on the development of liposomes targeted to the stromal compartment of pancreatic adenocarcinoma. She has taught Nanomedicine and been a teaching assistant for Calculus I and Physiology II.

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Abstract

Tricks of the Trade: Navigating teaching opportunities in the research-based engineering PhD

Engineering graduate students will ultimately face the decision of whether to stay in academia, work in industry, or pursue a different career path. Of those that elect to remain in academia, most will face balancing substantial research, teaching and service requirements. Yet, a graduate education typically focuses predominately on preparing students to lead research projects, without an emphasis on development of pedagogical skills. Especially in engineering fields, graduate students may not automatically be required to teach, receive pedagogical instruction, or engage in other career development aspects beyond research. The exact reason for this is unclear but may be linked to underestimating the positive impact of teaching by graduate students. Yet, there appear to be concrete benefits for both the graduate students and the students taught by them. In fact, many graduate students are interested in teaching and would like to better prepare for that aspect of their future career. Although perhaps not obvious, there are many opportunities to gain teaching experience throughout graduate school. In this Tricks of the Trade paper, we will discuss our journey preparing for the teaching side of a faculty position. We will, in particular, discuss the role of professor preparatory programs, graduate teaching assistantship, co-instruction, participation in education research and education-based conferences, as well as in-lab mentorship on the development of graduate students as educators.

Estrada, A. C., & Brinton, L. T. (2017, June), Tricks of the Trade: Navigating Teaching Opportunities in the Research-based Engineering Ph.D. Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--29046

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