WISCIENCE offers a number of workshops by request to any UW–Madison department or unit. Benefitting STEM learners at different career stages, these workshops cover topics in research mentee training, STEM peer leadership, and scientific teaching training. Workshops can be tailored to your group’s needs—for example, multiple topics can be combined into a longer workshop.
Interested in scheduling a workshop? Fill out the Request a Workshop form, and we will contact you to make a plan that best suits your group.
Workshop Disciplines
Research Mentee Training
Maintaining Effective Mentor-Mentee Communication
Audience: First-Year Graduate Students
Time: 75 minutes
Good communication is key to any relationship and a mentoring relationship is no exception. In this workshop, we identify characteristics of effective communication skills and reflect upon your needs and expectations for your mentor-mentee relationship.
Learning Objectives
- Identify preferred communication styles
- Brainstorm strategies to address potential barriers to effective mentor-mentee communication
- Discuss ways to navigate potentially sticky situations with your mentor
Making the Most of Your Rotations
Audience: First-Year Graduate Students
Time: 75 minutes
Your choice of mentor plays a pivotal role in your graduate career. To help you make the most informed choice possible, this workshop will have you thoughtfully evaluate your rotation experiences, taking into consideration your needs and the characteristics of the mentoring relationship you would like to develop.
Learning Objectives
- Define characteristics of effective mentoring relationships
- Identify and prioritize your needs and consider how to have those needs met
- Consider the type of mentor that could help you work effectively
Developing Your Research Independence
Audience: Graduate Students, Postdocs
Time: 75 minutes
Research independence develops over time and is context specific. We will consider the variety of skills needed to develop independence as a graduate student and ways to identify when you have achieved them.
Learning Objectives
- Identify stages of research independence
- Reflect on ways to create benchmarks for stages of research independence
- Strategize on ways to communicate these benchmarks with your mentor
Inclusive Practices Part I:
Fostering Inclusion: Enhancing Academic Belonging
Audience: Graduate Students, Postdocs
Time: 75 minutes
This workshop on inclusive practices will equip graduate students with strategies to alleviate imposter syndrome, stereotype threat, and enhance academic belonging in themselves and others.
Learning Objectives
- Explore sources of imposter syndrome and Identify strategies to alleviate its impact
- Define stereotype threat and identify strategies to alleviate its impact
- Identify strategies to enhance academic belonging
Aligning Expectations
Audience: First-Year Graduate Students
Time: 75 minutes
Building an effective mentee-mentor relationship requires establishing and aligning expectations for both parties. In this workshop, we will identify common mentoring relationship expectations and establish methods for communicating about expectations with your mentor.
Learning Objectives
- Identify common mentoring relationship expectations
- Discuss ways mentee and mentor expectations differ
- Develop strategies to align mentor-mentee expectations
Navigating Conflict with Your Mentor
Audience: Graduate Students, Postdocs
Time: 75 minutes
Over the course of your graduate career, it is normal and natural for situations to arise where expectations are misaligned in your mentor-mentee relationship. In this workshop, we will identify strategies for getting comfortable assessing and problem solving collaboratively with your mentor.
Learning Objectives
- Identify the importance of engaging with difficult situations
- Develop strategies to deal with situations where expectations between mentor and mentee differ
Fostering Research Self-Efficacy
Audience: Graduate Students, Postdocs
Time: 75 minutes
Self-efficacy centers on the belief in one’s ability to achieve a specific goal or task. Strong self-efficacy can result in increased persistence and career success. We will define self-efficacy and reflect on ways to build strong self-efficacy in the research context.
Learning Objectives
- Define self-efficacy and its sources
- Identify ways to support self-efficacy
- Develop strategies to build self-efficacy when it might be faltering in the research context
Inclusive Practices Part II:
Fostering Inclusion: Addressing Implicit Bias and Microaggressions
Audience: Graduate Students, Postdocs
Time: 75 minutes
This workshop on inclusive practices will equip graduate students with strategies to define, identify, and address implicit bias and microaggressions in a graduate school context.
Learning Objectives
- Define implicit bias and microaggression and identify examples of these concepts
- Reflect on our individual biases and how they impact ourselves and others
- Identify strategies to address bias and microaggressions
Questions About Research Mentee Training? Contact:
Nancy Ruggeri
Credentials: Ph.D.
Position title: Director of Research Mentor and Mentee Education
Email:
nruggeri
Phone: (608) 263-0321
STEM Peer Leadership
Introduction to Leading and Supporting Your Peers in STEM
Audience: Undergraduate students with current or future leadership positions
Time: 60 minutes
This workshop serves as an introduction to peer leadership. Participants will consider key concepts from literature on peer leadership, including benefits of peer leadership and identify specific actions they can take as a peer leader to support their STEM peers.
Learning Objectives
REFLECT:
- Identify the benefits of peer leadership for students, peer leaders, and institutions in STEM
- Reflect on how you benefitted from support to be a successful STEM student
LEARN:
- Describe four main areas where peer leaders promote student success
- Connect your personal experiences to at least one of the four areas identified above
ACT:
- Identify specific ways you can support students you lead in each of the main areas
Interpersonal Communication in Peer Leadership
Audience: Undergraduate students with current or future leadership positions
Time: 60 minutes
This workshop equips peer leaders with tools to enhance their interpersonal communication skills and help them navigate difficult conversations. Students will reflect on their own communication styles, be introduced to literature specific to interpersonal communication strategies and practice role playing scenarios they may encounter on campus.
Learning Objectives
REFLECT:
- Reflect on current communication styles, and how to incorporate new interpersonal communication strategies to support your peers
LEARN:
- Learn a framework for interpersonal communication and how to apply it to the four main areas peer leaders promote student success
ACT:
- Apply interpersonal communication strategies both in group settings and in one-on-one discussions
Identify scenarios where peer leaders need to refer students to other resources
Promoting Belonging in STEM
Audience: Undergraduate students with current or future leadership positions
Time: 60 minutes
This workshop guides participants to consider how identity is relevant to peer leadership and how we can promote belonging for students we lead. Participants will reflect on their personal identities and experiences as STEM students, consider how they might be similar to or different from students they are leading, and analyze campus scenarios to determine best ways to support students.
Learning Objectives
REFLECT:
- Reflect on UW Madison’s campus climate survey and identify implications for student experiences and performance
- Reflect on your personal identity and how they relate to your experience as a STEM student or other areas
LEARN:
- Define STEM identity and describe how it relates to belonging and success in STEM
- Relate STEM identity to the four main areas peer leaders promote student success
ACT:
- Analyze campus scenarios to determine what makes them welcoming or unwelcoming to students
- Identify specific actions you can take to make STEM settings welcoming for all students
Questions About STEM Peer Leadership? Contact:
Keegan Buscaino
Credentials: BS
Position title: Program Coordinator, BioCommons Manager
Email:
buscaino
Scientific Teaching Training
Teaching Scientifically: Research, Strategies, Careers
Audience: Graduate students and postdocs
Time: 75 minutes
This session introduces “scientific teaching,” a research-based approach that uses the scientific process to create inclusive, impactful learning environments. We will explore strategies to “teach scientifically” in various contexts, including beyond formal teaching settings, and highlight diverse STEM career paths involving teaching.
Learning Objectives
- Consider a framework for taking a rigorous, research-based approach to teaching
- Identify strategies to teach effectively and inclusively, and consider how to apply them in a variety of settings
- Reflect on careers paths in STEM teaching that align with your values, interests and skills
Inclusive Teaching in STEM: Course Content and Curricula
Audience: Graduate students, postdocs, faculty/staff instructors
Time: 75 minutes
Explore ways to make your STEM course content more engaging and motivating for all students. This workshop provides research-based strategies, real-world examples, and opportunities to reflect on how your course content can foster student belonging and persistence in STEM.
Learning Objectives
- Identify how inclusive content can support student learning and success
- Evaluate research-based strategies to make STEM course content inclusive
- Reflect on ways to apply the strategies to your course
Questions About Scientific Teaching Training? Contact:
Cara Theisen
Credentials: Ph.D.
Position title: Director of Professional Development in Teaching & Learning
Email:
chtheisen