Weaving Art into STEM: CELT Workshop Highlights Visual Literacy

By Kelly McGowan, Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching 
 

Meteorology students may not expect to spend a class session in an art museum — or that the rolling clouds in a painting would spark a rich discussion about their field of study — but that’s just what happened at Iowa State thanks to some creative thinking and collaboration by a professor and staff in University Museums.  

Dr. Bill Gallus, professor of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences and newly appointed University Museums CELT Faculty Affiliate, has worked with the museums in various ways over nearly two decades. The faculty affiliate role, started in August 2023, aims to integrate visual literacy and learning with the use of University Museums works of art in curriculum. 

The class visit to the Brunnier Art Museum for a 2015 Ellen Wagener exhibit is just one example of how Gallus and University Museums Curator Adrienne Gennett hope instructors across campus can weave art into their courses. 

“What makes art, I think, so useful in the classroom,” Gallus said, “is it just opens up so many questions where you can really test how well the students have understood what they learned in your STEM course.” 

Wagener’s vast natural land and skyscapes were the perfect canvas for Gallus to pose questions about what was happening meteorologically in the art. What did it mean that the clouds did not have a smooth base? Could students guess what time of year was depicted? What things might the students question?

Fall, Cumulus, 2006 by Ellen Wagener (American, b. 1964). Pastel on paper. Purchased by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences with partial funding from Charles Persinger. In the Art on Campus Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. U2012.22
Fall, Cumulus, 2006 by Ellen Wagener (American, b. 1964). Pastel on paper. Purchased by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences with partial funding from Charles Persinger. In the Art on Campus Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. U2012.22

 

Art experiences promote critical thinking 

In deepening his involvement with the museums, Gallus learned about the visual literacy framework of data collection, interpretation, and evaluation. It struck him how closely those three steps mirrored “exactly how we conduct science.”  

That parallel allows for a meaningful connection between art-based activities and classes like his. 

Bringing an art experience into a STEM course can challenge students to think more broadly and critically, Gennett said, and help them understand that different interpretations and answers are valid. It can also help expand ways of thinking and encourage students to consider problems from a different angle. 

It’s valuable to give students a moment to consider multiple ways of thinking, she said, “to not necessarily have the correct answer, but to also understand it takes a lot of evaluation before you can come to an answer.”  

Gallus and Gennett said these lessons apply both in coursework and in life.

 

University Museums are ready to help 

Many students come to Iowa State having never visited an art museum before, Gennett said. This type of art integration can make an impression that lasts a lifetime. 

With 30,000 works of art in the permanent collection and Art on Campus Collection, she said there is bound to be a good fit for any field of study — and her team is ready to help faculty enhance their courses with art. 

“We work really hard to make it as easy as possible,” she said. That can include pulling art out of storage, bringing a work of art to a teaching space, providing tours, discussing art with students, and even helping faculty to create a lesson around works of art.  

Faculty can explore the online museum database for inspiration. Collections in the database group art together for their possible application to the life sciences or physical sciences, for example. 

“We can take a work of art and use it throughout the university,” she said, “in different courses, in different fields of study — and we can teach the valuable basic skills of visual literacy and communication.”

Bill Gallus, professor of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences and University Museums CELT Faculty Affiliate, and University Museums Curator Adrienne Gennett will host a workshop, “Visual Literacy Tools for Curriculum in STEM Fields,” at 10 a.m. on Feb. 21 at 2030 Morrill Hall.

An ‘odyssey’ in quality course design: Professor details experience with CELT resources

By Kelly McGowan, Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

Picture a run of dominoes. Each topples to set off the next in an elaborate and meticulously planned design. Dr. John Monroe, a professor in the Department of History, sees an analogy between that and teaching an online course.  

“It starts, and then it runs steadily to the end along a fixed path,” Monroe said. “Students learn by following a process: engaging with materials, doing activities, and taking assessments in a prescribed sequence, ideally at a prescribed pace.”  

Key for a successful online instructor, he said, is “laying out that domino course from beginning to end with as much care as possible, making sure that each domino is positioned so it tips the next in exactly the right way.”   

This reflection came during what Monroe called a professional development odyssey this summer through CELT-facilitated resources: Course Design Institute, Applying the Quality Matters online workshop, and Improving Your Online Course 3-week asynchronous course.  

CELT provides faculty across campus with engaging professional development programming throughout their careers. These resources help to improve instruction for students and can lead to faculty seeking external certification from Quality Matters, a global organization dedicated to quality assurance in online education.  

A shifting perspective on online instruction 

As teachers and students quickly moved to online formats in 2020, Monroe said he “always felt a bit behind the eight ball, like there were some basic principles I was having trouble seeing clearly because of how I’d been trained in pedagogy — absorbing by example rather than explicitly being taught how to teach.”  

He found guidance through CELT’s resources.   

“What I discovered this summer is that the Quality Matters system not only spells out those basics in a useful way,” he said, “but also provides a detailed framework for the intensive pre-planning that good online course design requires.” 

Monroe started the summer by enrolling in the CELT Course Design Institute, where seasoned instructors explored options for (re)designing their Canvas courses in partnership with CELT instructional designers. That’s where he first learned about Quality Matters. He went on to take a two-day online synchronous workshop on applying the Quality Matters rubric to online courses. Mid-summer, he engaged in a three-week online course called “Improving Your Online Course” taught by Dr. Olga Mesropova, a certified Quality Matters facilitator, Quality Matters Master Reviewer, and CELT Faculty Affiliate. 

The most important takeaway for Monroe was a clear sense of how online pedagogy differs from the face-to-face instruction he has practiced for more than two decades. While in-person classes allow real-time reactions and interactions, online instruction’s different landscape requires a different approach. 

Monroe had support as he put that into practice, and he appreciated the individualized feedback from CELT experts along the way. 

“While it’s possible to get a lot out of reading through the Quality Matters literature and looking at CELT’s online resources, having a chance to engage directly with multiple experts is invaluable,” he said. “Thanks to that feedback, I’ve been able to dig into my course design much more deeply than I’d have been able to if I were working exclusively on my own.”

Four instructors achieved Quality Matters certification for their course over the summer.  

  • Kevin Kasper, STAT 305, Engineering Statistics 

  • Daniel Dobill, AGRON 502, Chemistry, Physics, and Biology of Soils  

  • David Cantor, SCM/MIS 440, Supply Chain Information Systems  

  • Jacqulyn Baughman, ME 270, Introduction to Mechanical Engineering Design  

Ready to engage in these CELT resources for yourself? Sign up for the programming below. 

Five strategies for a successful start for your students (Teaching Tip)

January brings with it the comfortable familiarity of a completed fall semester and the newness and opportunities of a spring semester waiting to begin. Before the first day of the semester, consider these strategies to promote student success.
  • Welcome students. Send a welcoming email or Canvas announcement to your class (see the communication strategies page). Let students know where and when the first class session occurs: in person or online, how to access the Canvas course page, include a copy of the syllabus, and share your student office hours. This welcome sets the stage for prepared students on the first day of class.
  • Do a readiness assessment. On the first day of class, include a short, no-stakes quiz with a mixture of prerequisite knowledge questions and topics students will encounter in the course. This readiness assessment can provide you with diagnostic information about the new class. Further, providing the correct answer to the questions can be an early resource for content review. Get started by using the Quizzes and Exams strategies page.
  • Ask students about their goals. No matter the class size, ask students why they signed up for the class and how it will help them achieve their goals. Students can complete this information in word or sentence format using Qualtrics. Display the Qualtrics word cloud results in real-time or share them during the next class session.
  • Give a syllabus quiz. Instead of a detailed syllabus reading, give a short quiz in the first week of the term (see CELT’s Sample syllabus quiz questions page). This method is an easy first assignment win for students and can lessen potential anxiety about course expectations and grading.
  • Make Connections. Prepare a small follow-up assignment in which students actively engage and make a connection with the course material and their lives. Perhaps this is finding a news article or social media post related to your course content. Maybe it is asking students to identify something within their lives impacted by the course topic. At the next class session, create triads of students to share the information. This strategy is beneficial if you use permanent triads for discussion and project teams throughout the semester and further connections with content and between classmates. Find additional ideas for engagement on the Ideas to create a welcoming, engaging, and inclusive classroom page along with the Engaging Students Online page.
Continue to read the CELT Teaching Tip for the Start of the Semester Checklist, Instructional Tools & Updates, the CELT Teaching Spotlight, and CELT Upcoming Programs. The CELT staff eagerly awaits meeting and working with you in spring 2021!
 
With a joy for teaching,
 
Sara Marcketti, Director

Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching


Full Teaching Tip

View the published CELT Teaching Tip: Five strategies for a successful start for your students (January 14, 2021 – Constant Contact) page.

Prefer a Print version?

To view the Teaching Tip as a printable document with web addresses, download the CELT Teaching Tip for January 14.

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