Cross Reach: Resources for Teaching & Learning

TitleCross Reach: Resources for Teaching & Learning
Faculty/College/UnitScience
StatusCompleted
Duration1 Year
Initiation04/01/2002
Completion03/31/2003
Project Summary

Objective: Students and faculty require effective and efficient access to teaching and learning resources to maintain their highly productive research, teaching and learning standards at UBC. This project will build upon the success of TAG to provide students and faculty with access to integrated, assessed resources that focus on the specialized teaching and learning needs of the scientific community.

Skylight - the Science Centre for Learning and Teaching - is a Faculty of Science's initiative that promotes quality teaching and learning. Skylight works co-operatively with TAG, Arts ITIS and the Centre for Instructional Support. The Cross-Reach project complements their activities to develop a vigorous UBC learning and teaching community. The Cross-Reach project will: develop integrated, assessed resources for print and technological sources related to science based teaching and learning for instructors and students; establish a critically reviewed web site and URL repository on teaching and learning sites relevant to the different science disciplines; facilitate faculty development; and provide on-going connections to other teaching and learning centres at UBC and other post-secondary institutions.

Rationale: The quality of science instruction has frequently been cited (Seymour, Green, Humphreys and Freeland, Tobias) as having a major impact on retention of science majors and generally ""turning off' students to science. Student success in university is strongly linked to the teaching and learning environment. Instructors, ranging from undergraduate tutors, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and sessionals to faculty, provide a significant base for this teaching and learning environment. They require high-quality resources and development opportunities, specialized for Science, to supply the richly contextualized learning and teaching environment that students encounter at first-class institutions of higher learning.

Funding Details
Year 1: Project YearYear 1
Year 1: Funding Year2002/2003
Year 1: Project TypeSmall TLEF
Year 1: Principal InvestigatorJoanne Nakonechny
Year 1: Funded Amount44,308
Year 1: Team Members

Joanne Nakonechny, Research Associate, Science Centre for Learning and Teaching (Skylight), Faculty of Science
Ian Cavers, Associate Dean, Faculty of Science
Cyprien Lomas, Skylight, Faculty of Science
Paul Carter, Computer Science, Faculty of Science
Bill Ramey, Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Science
Harinder Brar, Student, Computer Science / Student Coordinator for Roadmap to Computing Project